The Women’s Equality Party has suddenly closed down one of its sex-based rights groups, without warning. A woman had tweeted that the group was applying to become an official caucus.
From an email sent this morning:
Within ... an alarmingly short time frame- just two hours- the South West WEP WhatsApp group was terminated. Shut down.
A forum, built over a number of years, for an established network of feminist women to chat, share WEP information and organise was gone in moments. No time to swap numbers, no right to reply, no debate, just gone.
The first response [to the tweet] is staggering. referring to us as a 'so called sex-based rights caucus' is outlandish. It dismisses well founded and well evidenced concerns. It dismisses women who want to talk about our sex. Before the end of the first sentence we are a 'misogynistic neo-fascist grouping'.
So there we have it. Gulp.
Straight off the bat, all discussion shut down. Not 'hmmmm, I'm not sure about this group', or, 'I feel my sex is not relevant', or 'alternatively', or, 'I beg to differ'.....No, straight into claims of misogyny and neo-fascism, betraying either a complete misunderstanding of our group, or a complete misunderstanding of both misogyny and fascism.
I knew the ironically named WEP opposed women’s single-sex rights. But this move, destroying a whole network of contacts, is a loud antifeminist statement.
I hope the group can find each other on Mumsnet.