The Feminist Library Has Fallen

[WootMoggie]

...apparently you are not welcome if you believe that trans people present even a mere ‘complication’ to women’s rights.

Oh - and you’re not allowed to discuss this either.

feministlibrary.co.uk/statement-on-transphobia-and-accountability/

The vegan thing is particularly apt as for years, vegetarians have been struggling with people who vocally call themselves vegetarian but also eat fish, which impacts on vegetarians who don't want to be served fish!

It's the dizziness accompanied by thinking "which side is UP?”

It’s mainly a very strong sensation that I can only be asleep, because what I am witnessing cannot possibly be true.

I am concerned about how there is definitely official adoption of some of the insanity. I look back at posts I made two years ago that looked very reasonable at the time and realise that in today’s world I’d get banned from social media for saying such things.

I would be classed as “unkind”

Weird too how Kate Scottow was convicted specifically on the back of being “unkind” and it took a pair of judges on appeal to point out that this was not, in itself, illegal.

the point is only to own them

Quite.

I think there may have been a naiive belief that if all women's orgs and groups were captured, owned, refocused and run to enforce the political lobby view, then the only women's voices and agendas would be ones properly focused on the right kind of thing.

Instead of which the lesbian groups wanting to stay female only have gone under ground, so have many other groups, and a whole lot of grass root groups have appeared, and this kind of tactic gets pointed out daily on public forums, as is happening here.

Poe's law strikes again.

Being discussed on another thread too, but you do sometimes get the idea that the main problem with womanhood is all the bloody females in it.

rape trigger warning for my comment below

This from their statement made me curious:

"At the Feminist Library, we believe that feminism is a political framework that we can use to end all gendered violence and transform the world for everyone"

I'm not trying to be provocative; I'm genuinely curious about the phrase "gendered violence". If a man rapes a transman, is that still "gendered" violence? It seems to me it would be sex-based violence. It couldnt be gendered violence as both would be of the same gender; he's raping the transman because they are a different sex.

I’d be tempted to go there incognito and just not tell them I’m a secret free-thinker. I like to access information before someone else has decided its forbidden.

Carefulvulvadriver

I'll try to answer! It's difficult because these people speak another language, but in my understanding, "gender violence" is basically a new team for sexual violence, including rape, sex assault, sex trafficking etc.

So, gender ideologists mean sexual violence when they say "gendered violence" and it is not particularly dependent on the gender identity of those involved.

@OhGodWhatTheHellNow

This is precious - "...We understand gender and sex as constructed categories with meanings that have changed over time and are dependent on time periods, geographical location, culture, amongst a range of other factors..."

OK. Sod'em. Can't fix stupid. Lets hope their new friends are happy to pay all the bills.

You would have thought reading all those books would have given them some insight into which type of people actually gets denied all the rights, and how strangely consistent and easy to identify that group is over all of the times, locations and cultures, and how completely co-incidentally it corresponds with the type of people that have babies...

Sex as a constructed category? Makes you want to start throwing things. I can't think of one single example of how the meaning of sex has changed at all over time/culture/etc etc - obviously what people expect of each sex has changed but are there any cultures who don't or previously haven't recognised that men are the ones with a penis, women are the ones with a uterus etc? That's one of the very few things all time periods and cultures have in common 😡

The single, universal origin point of all women's oppression across the globe is their sex

Which is the only thing every woman and girl has in common.

Is there anywhere we can deposit our archives safely these days?

They weren't leaned on. There was a very nasty period of time when queer activists infiltrated the organising collective, and after sucessfully hounding out women who had put hours of their life into it, just turned into something about them.

Yes, that sums up what happened. I distinctly remember it as it was what opened my eyes to the TRA agenda and its overlap with an MRA one.

@Whatsnewpussyhat

The single, universal origin point of all women's oppression across the globe is their sex

Which is the only thing every woman and girl has in common.

People who find this threatening are creepy misogynists, and far, far too many of them are posing as 'concerned about trans rights'.

It’s incredibly demoralising. See also my post about the new Hachette “feminist” book subscription: twitter.com/thebookseller/status/1354738489582002188?s=21

They want to be “truly inclusive” for ‘women and all underrepresented genders’. Not quite shitting on the work of women in the same was as the feminist library, but given the history of the Virago list, it’s close. Feminist library, feminist publishing, all run by people who don’t understand feminism.

This will only stop when gay men realise it is happening to them too. It's taking longer to cuckoo them, because disempowering women is the priority. But gay organisations (which, let's face it, usually means gay men's organisations) are also being infiltrated by heterosexual people calling themselves queer, and by TRAs.

Once gay men finally wake up, there will be push back. But it will still take decades to unpick.

we believe that there is not a singular, universal origin point for all women’s oppression across the globe nor should we attempt to find one

WTF?

Well the whole point of co opting the group and making statements like that is to try and decouple feminist/women from female humans, because otherwise male humans aren't front, centre and everything it's all about. Making an apparently value based decision not to look for one excuses everyone from having to notice the biological elephant thundering up and down.

'Feminist' and 'women's oppression' has become linguistically rather like the word 'kind'. Doesn't mean what you think it means or what it used to mean; it's utilised as a tool to achieve a political aim. What the utilisers don't seem to process is that this only works at first, when people still trust that the word means what they originally thought it meant. Trust= now gone. Cynicism = on high. And being driven higher daily.

So true, Michelle. 'Feminist' has become a buzzword for managerial elites. Anybody who's vaguely switched on is very cynical.

Had a random conversation with some book shop workers before lockdown about how all the 'feminist' book covers were pink, and it was all a big con and sell-out. So interesting to sense the pent-up rage that they have to sell this crap. (Sadly, this will also have a negative impact on important feminist work that has managed to stay in the mainstream.)

Can't wait for the forbidden females to rise up in revolt ...

'Feminist' and 'women's oppression' has become linguistically rather like the word 'kind'. Doesn't mean what you think it means or what it used to mean

"Feminists" have to "be kind", because that's a feminine thing to do, right?

Hence Kellie Jay starting her "#femalism" campaign. Doesn't seem to have got much traction yet, but she's got a point. Maybe it is time to explicitly start a new movement with a much blunter name.

The exasperating thing is that as females abandon feminism and create something new that is female centric and addresses the inequalities and issues specific to females....

That will immediately become the new target for take over.

.

@MichelleofzeResistance

The exasperating thing is that as females abandon feminism and create something new that is female centric and addresses the inequalities and issues specific to females....

That will immediately become the new target for take over.

I'd like to see them try that with Kellie Jay!

Saw this on Twitter. Seemed apt for this thread, and of course every other 'feminist', women's, lesbian, healthcare organisation who now do the opposite of their intended purpose.

@jellyfrizz

we believe that there is not a singular, universal origin point for all women’s oppression across the globe nor should we attempt to find one

WTF?

Ok I'm fully convinced now: these people are anti feminists masquerading as feminists.

I would just like to offer a small chip of possible comfort! I was a libfem to the nth degree before the GRA issue brought me to not just gc feminism but a far greater understanding of radical feminism.

It's been hugely educational. Once one notices a bit of the madness and starts to ask questions and seek out that 'education', there's a whole world of logic and reason and reality waiting. I was amazed to find the answers to questions that liberal feminism had managed to somehow obfuscate. I'm not sure I'd call myself a radfem, now, but I tell you, it's been so great to stumble on a world of nuanced, thoughtful and courageous feminism. Really is a breath of fresh air.

I credit Mumsnet with this, it really has been a portal to a far greater, wider and deeper understanding. Thanks, all!

The interesting thing also about that graphic Whatsnewpussyhat is that it also shows what women do. They find a new space and regroup.
The 'biological elephant' isn't going away.