British Library exhibition: Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

The British Library exhibition Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights has:

a section given over to menstruation - and "people who menstruate (women, girls, non-binary and transmen)". I wasn't aware that all non-binary are (presumed) AFAB - when did that happen?

Shon Faye's GRC. For those unfamiliar with Shon 'enjoy your erasure' Faye, put these words into your search engine for a flavour:
shon faye enjoy your erasure

Reasonable start here: grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/its-the-war-on-women-christmas-quiz

an historical report of Augustine Hall which was interesting. However, I learned from the BL summary that "Today, Hull might identify as intersex or transgender". I had no idea one might identify as intersex rather than it being a (somewhat) outdated term for DSD (differences/disorders in sexual development). I wonder what the motivation is for BL to conflate the two and who or which organisation influenced that?

videos from academics in gender studies who explain that biology is a process and sex classes meaningless (I paraphrase).

www.bl.uk/events/unfinished-business

If anyone else has visited it, I'd be interested to know more about the remainder of the exhibition that I didn't get to see.

Shon faye’s GRC? Identify as intersex??? FFS!!!!

Honestly I agree with whomever it was who said I’m amazed women have burned down the world with anger

Ffs. There’s no excuse for this; anyone sufficiently immersed in genderwoo to authorise this stuff, must also be sufficiently aware of the issues and debate around it. Therefore they are maliciously choosing to prioritise men and erase women. It’s no longer a #bekind accident

I keep seeing the advert for it on Facebook with the "Drag King" Adam All who says in response to the question "how would you make the world a fairer place for women?" with "Disregard gender completely until it becomes irrelevant" . So we should all dress up as men to make gender irrelevant? It immediately triggered my suspicion that they would go for the gender woo. How bloody disappointing. We should tell them what the answer actually is, return to the definition that woman means adult human female so we can even understand who we are referring to.

I'm on a slow burn with this because I've only just realised that the cabinet that had a section in about the Suffragettes - was actually a broadsheet from May 25 1914 that had a gallery of photographs of Suffragettes.

The story was mocking the Suffragettes as a new genus for their ugliness (catching them mid-action, "dishevelled from the fight," part way through speaking etc.).

“a new genus for their ugliness”
And it’s only taken 100 years to come full circle back to the current ‘old lady feminism’ dismissal.
Well, we’ve had a good innings…

I would liked the BL to have covered the assault on the meaning of the word 'woman' (of course, I didn't see that whole exhibition so I don't actually know that it didn't - but given the tenor of the first few sections, I doubt it).

If we had to learn about Shon Faye and the GRA 2004 and GRCs - maybe some flavour of the HoL debate and how many of the apprehensions have been realised. The following is an archive of vulvamort's famous thread of quotations from the debate:

archive.is/6Oj7G

Perhaps the make-up of the infamous Yogakarta Principles with a recantation from Prof. Wintermute who now regrets that they didn't consult women or women's organisations.

Lots of good comments on Alex Massie's piece about JK Rowling and the right side of history in the Times .

archive version of article (may not have comment below): archive.is/BiEth

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4305459-Alex-Massie-on-JKR-and-Death-Threats

One comment jumped out at me because the 'ugliness' trope mirrored the 'informed commentary' from both men and women against the Suffragettes.

Times comment July 25 2021:

For Women Scotland are gathering at The Mound in Edinburgh at 2pm on 2nd August, the site of the historic speakers' corner, to share their stories about the threat to women in Scotland today.

Those attending a recent gathering on the day of the original date for Marion Millar's hearing were widely criticised by some young women on social media. One comment suggested they were a bunch of ugly old women! The next time they're tempted to do this, they might like to consider where the freedoms they enjoy today came from. It was the civil action taken by these very same "ugly old women" that resulted in the right to birth control outwith marriage, the right to be defended against rape within marriage, the right to abortion, the right to an equal share of wealth when a relationship breaks down, the right to equal pay, and many more. Let's see what these social media posters think the day they waken up in Scotland and the concept of woman has been erased entirely.

What a pity, OP. This sounded like a great exhibition on reading the title. I suppose the contentious issue of whether to expand feminism to include males is an important part of current discourse, so it should be represented, but one would hope with perspective and an acknowledgement of differing views on that issue.

I see from the discussion in the comments that somebody else attended the exhibition and had a similar response to some items (edited slightly to allow for ** use that I've replaced with italics):

How dare the opening panel of white text on a red background ask 'What is a woman?'

Let alone then follow it up with the hideous INCORRECT assumption that all women 'spend years reflecting on their gender identity Excuse me? You are a prestigious famous LIBRARY. How dare you exhibit such dangerous and leading rubbish? Surely you have dictionaries yes? Then go and look up what a woman is. Women are ADULT HUMAN FEMALES! Women are not a socially constructed 'gender identity'! Women are not men and men cannot be women.

I am utterly disgusted that the British Library has allowed itself to be captured by transgender ideology and have changed the very WORDS and MEANINGS the ENGLISH language use and then displayed them all over an exhibition that has been seen by thousands of people young and old. Without those words being legally changed or supported by ALL women!

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/how-to-challenge-institutional-buffoonery/comments