Anti-FGM campaigner Hibo Wardere comes under attack

[JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown]

Again. I know Hibo has put out more than one video clarifying that her focus is on women and girls and on stopping FGM, but she did another one last night after being piled on and called a hater for not being 'inclusive' in her language.
mobile.twitter.com/HiboWardere/status/1362100744216866825
I am bloody angry about it this morning.
Hibo Wardere is a personal hero of mine for the amazing work she's done.
Attacking her for not focusing on other issues is the lowest of the low. The misogyny is rank.
(Also, if anyone hasn't got her book 'Cut' on their feminist book shelf, I really do recommend it. It's not an easy read but I found her journey incredibly inspiring).

I am British, based in the UK I am a parent and I’m
middle aged. I repeat:

I don’t think transgender people should target Hibo Wardere.
I have not interacted with her in any way other than buying her book.
I think she does good work.
I donate to charities which educate and advocate for changes in the law in African countries affected by FGM.
I think that mocking chestfeeding is not connected to FGM activism.

But you think you have some valuable advice about how she should carry out her work.

So that's a no from DadJoke on the idea that if he really wants to help trans (LGBT+) people in general in Somalia then the fact they can get put to death for it seems pretty serious and supporting those trying to help would be really positive.

Also to claim that he's not policing her language even though he's said variously IIRC that she should refer to these children as 'people with vaginas' and also say something around TMAM or whatever and this is so important to him he'll give her £500.

Can you even hear yourself.

Leave her alone- and fyi criticising her on a public forum is not 'leaving her alone- and give your cash to a charity working for the LGBT+ people in these countries/ or support a grass roots local one.

I find it really, um, interesting that complaining that an FGM campaigner is using the wrong words gets loads of posts from DadJoke but the fact that gay men and lesbians are literally killed in some of the countries that practice FGM just doesn't seem to provoke much interest.

@DadJoke

I am British, based in the UK I am a parent and I’m middle aged. I repeat:

I don’t think transgender people should target Hibo Wardere.
I have not interacted with her in any way other than buying her book.
I think she does good work.
I donate to charities which educate and advocate for changes in the law in African countries affected by FGM.
I think that mocking chestfeeding is not connected to FGM activism.

You called Hibo transphobic

" She's clearly slightly transphobic, yes...... it's trans exclusionary the very definition of transphobic "

Would you like to retract these comments criticising her for being transphobic?

And yet you’re here, lecturing feminists on how a woman conducts her work preventing the mutilation of the genitals of girls, because...?

Because you don’t think it’s quite right that women can go about our business without saying the right words of appeasement towards an ideology we don’t agree with.

It’s heretical.

I have also not found any reports of one single trans man who has been subjected to FGM. All this seems to be in aid of something that hasn’t actually ever happened.

@persistentwoman she is clearly slightly transphobic, so why would I retract this remark?

This is a public message board.

Of course posting on here that she is using the wrong language is policing her language. Did you think this was a private conversation.

Not interested is not the same as transphobic.

And although DadJoke keeps talking about trans men, it's worth noting that on the Twitter post, the vast vast majority of criticism is to do with her 'excluding' TW.

This is a perfect illustration of how nothing which goes against the ideology can be allowed to pass. Hibo's activism makes an uncomfortable point which undermines what transactivists are pushing and advocating for, ie that women are not a sex class and do not need words and political activism which pertain to that sex class, so it must not be allowed to pass.

Or not considering their feelings when she says stuff.

Stuff about fgm, and refers to women and girls.

The whole thing is grim.

Another point. Has the idea that the term FGM is transphobic been dropped now? Too unpopular? Strange silence on that in the Twitter responses.

The idea that I've seen from some TRAs and their allies that sex reassignment surgery on males is a form of FGM is incredibly offensive.

she is clearly slightly transphobic

Just out of interest, what level would you rate your misogyny? Do you think you're managing to stay below "slightly misogynistic"?

[quote DadJoke]@persistentwoman she is clearly slightly transphobic, so why would I retract this remark?[/quote]
How is she transphobic though?

She just said to someone who is quite obviously not in need of her time and emotional energy that she wasn’t interested in their attempt to police her language around her extremely important work.

She didn’t owe them her energy or an explanation as you seemed to suggest earlier, she wasn’t rude so how could you possibly translate that into being transphobic?

Oh I agree--I just meant that those outside the US may not realise how much currents of thought in the US (including the trans debate) may be influenced by US puritanism/religious feeling/Biblical fear of homosexuality. Trying to transplant the US ideas wholesale into the UK or other places, without understanding the context, leads to trouble

Certainly!

@DadJoke

I am British, based in the UK I am a parent and I’m middle aged. I repeat:

I don’t think transgender people should target Hibo Wardere.
I have not interacted with her in any way other than buying her book.
I think she does good work.
I donate to charities which educate and advocate for changes in the law in African countries affected by FGM.
I think that mocking chestfeeding is not connected to FGM activism.

You appear to be rewriting history as it happens. Unless you're backtracking?

You do understand, don't you, that girls are targeted, because they are girls. And their biology is mutilated, because they are girls.

Do you understand that if a relative of one of those girls claimed they were not a girl, they would still be targeted?

It's not because they have a clitoris. Or are a 'cervix owner'. It's because they are girls.

It's female oppression wholly based on their sex. It takes many different forms, and FGM is one of them

But you expect an activist to embrace an ideology which claims the opposite.

That somehow saying you're not a girl, will stop you being targeted. Because sex is determined by the way you think or what you say.

Do you have idea what it feels like to women activists, when you try and separate female oppression out?

Into people who menstruate for period poverty, or those who have a cervix for gynaecological health failures, or humans who get pregnant for maternity rights, or people who have a clitoris for FGM, or those who are trafficked...etc.

You are obscuring the basis, which is that they are women. Lesser than. Second class. To be controlled.

If you can't define what a woman is, you'll never connect the dots.

And you wonder, all wide-eyed, why women a) can instantly out argue you, and b) aren't having it.

When you work in this field - as I have - you ensure that the voices of the women and girls involved are respected and centred. Training materials should be respectful of community issues while ensuring that the practice is challenged. Teaching about FGM in schools must be done so that community tensions / racism are not unintentionally inflamed. Girls who have been subject to FGM must not be traumatised by well intentioned lessons that describe their suffering and allow discussion with no thought for their feelings. It's complex and that's why women like Hibo are so important as the voices of these women are too often overlooked.
Posters who choose her as a target for baseless slurs contribute to a racist and sexist agenda that acts only to undermine her views and her role. And that is shameful behaviour.

have also not found any reports of one single trans man who has been subjected to FGM. All this seems to be in aid of something that hasn’t actually ever happened.

It seems to happen to children before they're old enough to wrestle with havng a gender identity. One case I read about from one campaigner was inflicted on a newborn.

I cannot speak for Hibo, but I have a feeling that if she knew a survivor who identified as a man, she would be kind and respectful to them.

But that's quite a different thing from adopting "individual with a cervix" as her terminology going forward, at the request of a random anime-fan because the anime fan says they feel "alienated" by her campaign .

@DadJoke

This was not a thread about Wardere’s activism. It was about “attacks” on her by a handful of trans men who asked her to use more inclusive language. I have been

Er.

You brought up a screencap from 2020. This thread was about the incident in February 2021, involving various German women, one of whom outright implied that FGM didn't happen to transboys! Have you still not read this thread?

If you are interested, I actually found one of the instigators from a few days before them which was the Canadian transwoman Meghan McKie.

@datun I am surprised that you can’t acknowledge the reality that trans men have vulvas and vaginas.

[quote DadJoke]@datun I am surprised that you can’t acknowledge the reality that trans men have vulvas and vaginas.[/quote]
Strewth this is like wading through treacle.

That's not why they're targeted. That's how they're targeted.

They're targeted because they're female.

[quote DadJoke]@datun I am surprised that you can’t acknowledge the reality that trans men have vulvas and vaginas.[/quote]
I believe it was Nora Imlau who had the problem with that, actually.

It’s shameful behaviour.

Really shameful

I can’t tell you how much I hate this behaviour from the privileged

Taking over behaviour because of course they know so much better

@datun I am surprised that you can’t acknowledge the reality that trans men have vulvas and vaginas

Of course they do, because they are female. Female genital mutilation is all the inclusivity that is required.