Why I am not applying for the Fawcett Society CEO job - Maya Forstater

[stumbledin]

When they first advertised for this job in October 2020 I applied, in order to make clear to the Fawcett Society Trustees the choice they had. Would they go ALL-IN with gender ideology, would they be BRAVE and hire someone willing to stand up for women’s rights or would they try to be CAUTIOUS and hire another fence sitter?

mforstater.medium.com/courage-calls-to-courage-why-i-am-not-applying-for-the-fawcett-society-ceo-job-52f96de21e05

(For whatever reason Fawcett appointed an interim CEO last year.)

There are loads of threads about Fawcett but this was a recent one www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4234244-Fawcett-Society concering interim CEO

And Maya attends Fawcett AGM (to be read with added perspective!) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4091698-Maya-attends-the-Fawcett-Society-AGM

About previous CEO leaving www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4072069-Sam-Smethers-CE-Leaving-Fawcett-Society

Ayesha Hazarika has always struck me as one of those people who knows how to get on in life by saying the right things. She would never challenge an orthodoxy and is a poor excuse for a feminist. She just seems like such a trivial person. In the week of Maya and Sonia and Chimamanda, she's going all giggly over accessories. It's a cringeworthy form of pandering.

Loads of blokes accessorise like mad though.

In my old suited and booted job. Fancy watches. Shirt and tie carefully coordinated. Pocket square sometimes. Fancy shoes. Cufflinks. Expensive bags.

Is the idea that men don't accessorise?

Or aren't they accessories if a man type man has them?

@AnneLovesGilbert

AH is rightly getting an extremely hard time. Someone asked why a transwoman would join a menopause group and the answers are stunning. David Aaronovitch was very good.

mobile.twitter.com/ayeshahazarika/status/1405193997828698113

AH writes an article referencing maya, but gets snarky when maya responds.

I am assuming that anything to do with women is now going to become a Rau Paul extravaganza. That's great isn't it, we no longer need to worry ourselves about women's subordination or FGM or DV, we just need to get out the lippy and a nice pair of earrings and we'll be sorted. Who'd a thought it could be that simple

I haven’t even said anything on the topic. Why would I?

Because you are on the board of a feminist charity meant to advance the rights of women and girls (human females). That's fucking why. You should be able to define the terms women and girls, and you should support Maya, who has taken on the misogynists and won.

The next sentence is just factually incorrect. She is an idiot.

Resign, the lot of you, and turn your funding over to Sex Matters if you are too scared to do your job.

Oh my goodness, the amount of wilful ignorance going on in this post is excruciating.

Here's a little hint for you. Maybe, just maybe, the menopause project is talking about transmen rather than transwomen. Ie, those transmen who experience menopause.

@YellWat have you read the article? It’s clear she’s talking about transwomen, and how much better at woman if they are than plain old women.

That comment about accessorising tells me everything I need to know about the author. Pathetic.

Ooooh so nice to see her getting her arse handed to her. My rage is back.

So many things in this sphere have made me angry. Indigenous women losing a place at the Olympics to a male, lesbians being told to accept lady dick, women raped in prison by men masquerading as women. But for some reason this really set me off.

This is a woman who is on the board of THE society with the sole purpose of defending women's rights. And in one piece of fluff article she shows just how unfit she is to discharge that duty. Her response on twitter is beyond pathetic. If she had a scrap of decency she would resign.

yell that would make sense. It’s not what she said, though.

“I’m part of a wonderful Facebook group of older women celebrating confidence in our “hot girl years”, AKA the menopause. Trans women are not only welcome, they are cherished — we have all learned from their stories and world class ability to accessorise.”

Always a good idea to read things properly before accusing others of wilful ignorance.

I'm trying to imagine how it must feel to be on the board of a society named after the woman who coined the phrase 'Courage calls to courage everywhere'. Maybe in your dreams you and Dame Millicent stand together shoulder to shoulder, maybe you fantasise sometimes about all the brave things you would have done yourself if only you'd been around then, maybe you even feel a twinge of regret at being born at the wrong time.

And then one day you wake up and realise that the struggle of the century has been going on all the time, right under your nose, and that a 40-something former tax researcher is kicking your sorry arse all over Twitter.

This is a woman who is on the board of THE society with the sole purpose of defending women's rights. And in one piece of fluff article she shows just how unfit she is to discharge that duty. Her response on twitter is beyond pathetic. If she had a scrap of decency she would resign.

Every single effing "left-wing"-ish organisation seems to think they exist to conform to the party line. Rather than to fight for the specific thing they were founded to do.

Same problem as the ACLU in America. If you don't want to be fighting for women's rights, or for civil liberties, or whatever, go off and join another organisation and don't block this one.

@Floisme

I'm trying to imagine how it must feel to be on the board of a society named after the woman who coined the phrase 'Courage calls to courage everywhere'. Maybe in your dreams you and Dame Millicent stand together shoulder to shoulder, maybe you fantasise sometimes about all the brave things you would have done yourself if only you'd been around then, maybe you even feel a twinge of regret at being born at the wrong time.

And then one day you wake up and realise that the struggle of the century has been going on all the time, right under your nose, and that a 40-something former tax researcher is kicking your sorry arse all over Twitter.

Yes it's exactly this.

Have a in lieu of a clap emoji

A woman who is part of a menopause support group with Ayesha has expressed confusion about Ayesha's description of the group's make-up. She says there are no transwomen in it.

I'm sure it's all a big misunderstanding.

twitter.com/StanFastic/status/1405299321688498186?s=19

Floisme Excellent.

Sums up the whole sorry episode.

If that Twitter comment is accurate, that takes craven to a new level in the interview. Imaginary, cherished, well accessoried transwomen...

Does she realise that Millicent Fawcett wasn’t in it for the sash and the brooch?

More on the misunderstanding

Ahhhhhhhh. Making up TW to demonstrate just how fantastic you are. I am RAGING.

So, in effect, slandering transwomen by suggesting they would such invade women's spaces?

That's allyship!

She has accessorised herself with a fictional transwoman, shitting on the other women in the group and also not doing TW any favours. There is no difference between a TW in a group on menopause than one in a group for pregnant women.

This seems to have tapped into a seam of pure anger in me.

I’m offering up a reluctant defence - it’s not impossible she’s in more than one group.

I'm also irritated by Ayesha's repeated claim that she was involved in drafting the Equality Act - she was a special advisor, not a parliamentary draughts(wo)man. Yes she will have seen and advised on the draft content of the EA, but it's not the same as actually writing it.

Boom