Mridul Wadhwa

[PostingForTheFirstTime]

thecritic.co.uk/unclean/

"Feminist women were, therefore, keen to hear what would be said at this latest talk before women’s sector professionals working with victims and survivors of sexual and domestic abuse.

I hadn’t expected the content to be so blatantly aggressive towards the decades of work of feminist women in the field of male violence against women. After a wandering preamble about intersectionality, Wadhwa announced that Rape Crisis history was unclean."

Being really radical in our inclusion of those who are marginalised does not discriminate against those who have relative privilege in our society.

There is a breath-taking cruelty in the framing of women who have been raped as “privileged” and, as Wadhwa went on to stress, that some (meaning trans identified men) are “more marginalised”. The blithe dismissal of women who have been raped or abused was a recurring theme of the talk. What was also sensationally revealed is that women in Scotland are self-excluding from Rape Crisis from fear of encountering male people who identify as trans. As Wadhwa explained:

You have large groups of survivors, some are not using our services because they see us as trans inclusive and feeling that they may be exposed to… er… to an issue that they are not prepared to deal with.

Holy. Shit.

This person seems like a massive narccist and their whole career seems to be one big ego trip.
Plus they get to shit on women when they are at their most vulnerable. I wonder if that makes them feel better about themself?

Male power tripping....

was ever thus.

I mean this is shockingly blatant TR activism. How it's being allowed to destroy a fucking rape crisis service is shameful.

Wadwha is a total waste of space.

@Fariha31

This person seems like a massive narccist and their whole career seems to be one big ego trip. Plus they get to shit on women when they are at their most vulnerable. I wonder if that makes them feel better about themself?

Absolutely.

How MW was able to attain the position that they have and spout their misogyny unhindered is an absolute disgrace.

Things seem so bad right now for Scottish women and girls.

Wadhwa elsewhere reveals the sense of power derived from pretending to be a British woman when working for a call centre. A background in telesales is obviously helpful if you want to blag your way into a cushy number 😉

I just wonder what the health professionals who have to listen to this person actually think. The ones, that is, who are good-faith actors who want to provide a service for women in crisis.

Are they nodding along, going along with it, thinking this is what the future looks like now, we've got to progress. Or are they sitting there silently crying inside at the wrongness and the unfairness of it all?

Are there any health professionals reading this who can help me understand what they are thinking when they hear Wadwha's pronouncements, and who?

@PostingForTheFirstTime

I just wonder what the health professionals who have to listen to this person actually think. The ones, that is, who are good-faith actors who want to provide a service for women in crisis.

Are they nodding along, going along with it, thinking this is what the future looks like now, we've got to progress. Or are they sitting there silently crying inside at the wrongness and the unfairness of it all?

Are there any health professionals reading this who can help me understand what they are thinking when they hear Wadwha's pronouncements, and who?

why, not who.

God I am so angry reading that article and I can feel Jean Hatchet's fury. It's unbelievable this is happening.

The term 'unclean' brings to mind women and girls who are cast out of the community during menstruation because their bodies and bodily functions are 'unclean'.

There was a very distressing article by a rape survivor explaining how traumatic she found the whole 'service is unclean/these women need cleansing' phrasing. It's insensitive and tone deaf in the extreme when you are talking about women who had to sit in police suites, with the smell and filth of their attacker all over them for hours, unable to wash, unable to rinse their mouths, unable to change their clothes while evidence was taken.

This individual has shown a really appalling lack of regard, sensitivity or even basic awareness of what their basic job involves and to the females they are supposed to be serving.

Retraumatising female people in the name of a political agenda has no place in women's services. None.

Can't help seeing the religious dimension to all this talk of cleaning and purifying, particularly in a Hindu context.

So what’s the story with their husband and contracts?

@PostingForTheFirstTime

I just wonder what the health professionals who have to listen to this person actually think. The ones, that is, who are good-faith actors who want to provide a service for women in crisis.

Are they nodding along, going along with it, thinking this is what the future looks like now, we've got to progress. Or are they sitting there silently crying inside at the wrongness and the unfairness of it all?

Are there any health professionals reading this who can help me understand what they are thinking when they hear Wadwha's pronouncements, and who?

I wonder this too. Having spent a lot of time with TRAs all I can say is that lots of people truly, honestly and absolutely believe that trans women are women. They don't have the patience or capacity to entertain the idea that not everybody feels the same way.

Makes me sick that these males use all of their very male privilege and entitlement to tell us that our bodies, that they have been using forever to oppress us, are now a 'privilege' that we are using to oppress them!

The whole narrative is vile.

@Jaysmith71

Can't help seeing the religious dimension to all this talk of cleaning and purifying, particularly in a Hindu context.

Its all deeply and very depressingly reminiscent to me of the Magdalen Laundries.

We saw there what zealots believed in for impure women who'd lost their rights.

I swear, if I had the money, I would start an ‘exclusive’ rape crisis centre in Scotland.

Women should never be in the position of needing to self exclude from support. The appropriate support (male free) should be available without question.

@Ozanj

Wadwha is a total waste of space.

This doesn’t cut it. A waste of space is useless- Mridul is actively causing harm.

@SapphosRock Yet none of these true believers seem to be able to explain how a man is a woman?

Yes indeed Fariha31

The problem with rape crisis services offering female only spaces to all 'self-identified' women is that people appear to have very different ideas about what being a woman is.

On the plus side, Mridul is doing a very good job of illustrating how people who are born male cannot understand or empathise with women's experiences of males: particularly women who have been assaulted by males.

I can't think of a clearer example of why some jobs need to be reserved for female born and lived people than what Mridul has said in this interview.

You have large groups of survivors, some are not using our services because they see us as trans inclusive and feeling that they may be exposed to… er… to an issue that they are not prepared to deal with

And look at the blaming and attacking language Mridul is using here.
Rape victims are not prepared to deal with. M. does not see that they are too traumatised to want to live with males, that they are too fearful, but that they are not willing to put in the work they would need to do ' deal' with this. It is clear M. is really contemptuous and angry with female rape victims. They are a blockage to M's utopia.

Can someone tweet this to Deborah Frances White? It probably won’t change her mind though sadly.