'How Holyrood failed Scottish women'

[ArabellaScott]

Following on the news about the cervical smear error, journalist Stephen Daisley asks 'Why is a parliament that is supposedly so progressive so poor at serving the women of Scotland?'

A really interesting article. I liked this bit in particular:

'When feminism becomes a matter of self-identification, rather than demonstrable efforts on issues of importance to women, it loses its power and consequently becomes more appealing to more politicians. They can get all the credit without taking any of the risks. There are many ways to define feminism (some more credible than others) but what it is not is status-seeking virtue-signalling — activism without the action.

‘Feminism’ is one of those red-flag words that makes some people, many of them women, uncomfortable. They may not be against it in principle but they associate it with stereotypes and excesses real and invented. But feminism isn’t solely a matter of protests and polemics; those are tactics for raising awareness and getting debates started. Feminism can involve a mountain of lofty theory but in the end it’s simply about women’s lives and how they are unjustly hindered on account of being women — and about how to go about making those hindrances a thing of the past.'

It was a very good article.

Here's the link to it -
stephendaisley.substack.com/p/how-holyrood-failed-scottish-women

Oh, for god's sake! Thanks, Nonny.

Absent minded? Moi?

Great article.

So, despite being defined as a "cervix haver" they can't look after my cervix?

FFS

Well, they don't care abour your cervix, really. Just when its useful as an identifier.

Good article.

There has been a lot of confusion over whether women who have had hysterectomies need cervical smears, and the answer to that depends on the type of hysterectomy. Some remove the cervix and some don’t.

This lack of clarity urgently needs addressed. On the whole I prefer that I’ve been badgered relentlessly in several different medical systems to have a smear on my non existent cervix, than the other way round.

The premise that many parties and people are more interested in “being feminists” than in “doing feminism” by addressing matters that affect women- everyday matters pertaining to the female body and the female experience- really is an important one.

Yes, one could get the feeling that women's actual bodily processes and lived experiences are just boring, somewhat grubby inconveniences, far less exciting than the rainbow of fascinating identities open to the more enlightened.