“It is our role as feminists to always be there, and to make sure that people know that we accept them for who they are.” So says the Executive Director of UN Women...

[AngeloMysterioso]

Posted to their Facebook page last night (not Twitter though as far as I can tell)

www.facebook.com/unwomen/photos/a.10150211048801905/10157633781351905/?type=3

^“This was one of our Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's answers to questions from young people from all around the world. Watch their empowering talk here: unwo.men/ZyIz50C3PWp”^

So far the comments do not agree...

A terrible attempt to rewrite the definition of feminism. Part of the sustained attack on women through language.

That's true, but luckily this one is so gob-smackingly blatant it has (I hope) defeated its purpose.

@Clymene

Her wiki page is interesting. She's a South African career politician and her appointment process is interesting.

www.iol.co.za/news/politics/phumzile-to-lose-all-perks-1564003

She was accused of taking her family on a tax payer funded holiday to Dubai when she was in office in SA and I also found this:

'UN women has spent more than $1,255,550 on travel for the director since Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was hired in September 2013. Some of her flights have cost as much as $37,057! Also the UN Women ED traveled for 170 days in 2018. That's over 65% of the time not including annual holidays or public holidays of the United Nations! She also had strangely four visits to her home country of South Africa paid by UN Women.'

Clearly likes a holiday!

This really depresses me. I mean, more than usual.

The UN was such a wonderful idea. I hate to see it soured and riddled with corruption.

It is really depressing I agree. It's a bloated corrupt gravy train which is no longer fit for purpose.

[trying hard to not to freak out about the state of the world]

UN women has spent more than $1,255,550 on travel for the director since Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was hired in September 2013... She also had strangely four visits to her home country of South Africa paid by UN Women.

There really are very few institutions left with real integrity, if they ever had any. It's so disappointing.

@WoooImAGhost

I think she got feminists and surrendered wives mixed up

I wish we had a like button.

Please someone who does FB comment that.

I do quite like however when someone decrees "Women! This shall be your reality because I say so! Go forth and live it my way!"

And women post in the hundreds, giving variously polite responses that boil down to "No."

@MichelleofzeResistance

I do quite like however when someone decrees "Women! This shall be your reality because I say so! Go forth and live it my way!"

And women post in the hundreds, giving variously polite responses that boil down to "No."

I've been reading through the comments again, they really are making my day.

Why is it all about acceptance, these days?

People have always been free to be whatever they God damned well pleased; but this new malarkey of screaming it from the rooftops and the rest of us being forced to not only accept it (most of us couldn't give a shit what you think you are, however special you think it makes you) - but publicly acknowledge it as being valid... 🙄
Bore off.

Women have spent years trying to get people to treat us based on our merits, always proving how good or capable we are, having to insist on blind auditions and job applications just so we can be judged on merit. A sort of Don't take us at our word, see the evidence for yourself approach

And now, we have people who want us to take them at their word . Hum. Because men's words are more readily believed than women's , you can see where this leads

Seems exceptionally odd to say this is the role of feminists when feminists have been blamed at some point for most of modern society's ills. Scapegoat or saviour eh, depending on the day?

I'm finding it difficult to articulate exactly why this has angered me quite as much as it has. Probably because it was given as an answer to a young person's question so it represents the messages being given to young feminists. Why on Earth should it fall upon feminists to provide the support to everyone who wishes to identify in a particular way?? I cannot think of any possible reason that doesn't include the perception of women as caregivers/the nurturing sex/some other similar stereotype. Nothing in this statement shows young people they should value and stand up for their own rights, rather that they should simply exist to ensure others feel accepted and valued.

You see, I dont even agree that we should accept people for who they (say) they are.

I identify as a Brain surgeon.

I SAY I’m a brain surgeon. Surely even the hardest of thinking must see that there might be a tiny problem there?

Not accepting people for who they say they are is surely one of the core tenets of safeguarding? It's why we have DBS checks for starters!

@KnightsofColumbusThatHurt

Not accepting people for who they say they are is surely one of the core tenets of safeguarding? It's why we have DBS checks for starters!

Hence my edited version - replace 'accept' by 'see'.

The UN Women should focus on the main task which is to get rid of sex-based oppression in this world. Drifting away from that and actually into the reverse trend is terrible and truly not what they are paid for.

There was that tweet from last spring about how 'women' are formless and anyone can be a woman if they wish hard enough and so on. And at the same time biological women are treated like shit in so many places.

Or compare numbers. I often think of how 'inclusiveness' means changing 'women' into 'people' in reproductive health discussions so that the four or five trans men who have abortions each year can feel completely linguistically included and have their gender identities validated. But I suspect that the majority of women have gender 'identities' inextricably linked with their biological sex, so someone writing 'pregnant people' invalidates all of those because now the female sex is gender neutral.

But nobody cares about the fact that something insults 98% of the people they are meant to serve if those are women who didn't even bother to transition into a higher caste. I stole the last words from someone here and like them because this really is about ranking people in importance.

I think the accept people thing has become a sort of platitude. It's taught in schools from the beginning as almost the core moral requirement, it's considered a core part of tolerance. Tolerance and diversity are the core virtues this way of thinking.

People like this just repeat them without any real thought any time a virtue seems to be called for.

If you think for even a few seconds about what accepting people as who they say they are, it's obviously nonsense.

Why do police officers have numbers on their shoulders? Why do meter readers carry ID cards? Why do people working with children have to have DBRS checks?

People can - and do - say anything, but it doesn't make the rest of us wrong if we don't take everything at face value. 🙄