Labour being shoddy on FGM, and leftwing misogyny and racism

[PurgatoryOfPotholes]

I was reading an article about Rosie Duffield by Nimco Ali, who is a survivor of FGM, a campaigner against FGM and has established a foundation to end FGM, when a couple of paragraphs just jumped out at me.

extract

^Duffield, who is also chair of the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party, is not the first female Labour MP to fear her own side. Ruth Smeeth and Luciana Bergerboth took bodyguards to the Labour conferenceduring Jeremy Corbyn‘s leadership.

As depressing as all this is it’s also not surprising. I know what it is like to fall foul of the progressive Left and the abuse you get when you do. My crimes were twofold.

First, I started acampaign against FGMwhich was deemed culturally insensitive to the Somali community, of which I am a member. This was enough for me to be blocked by my local Labour MP on Twitter and feel so unsafe and unwelcome that I left Bristol for London.^

But as horrific as it was, the experience was nothing compared to the trolling I got for having the audacity to stand for a Women’s Party in a seat held by Labour. There was of course no chance that I would win, but I was not prepared for the abuse I experienced at hustings and online, abuse that led to death threats and being obliged to employ security.

Continues: www.standard.co.uk/comment/rosie-duffield-disagree-labour-mp-party-fear-safety-transphobia-b956507.html

I'd say I'm shocked, but I'm actually quite familiar with this bigotry of low expectations and the underlying racism of cultural relativism.

Some things are relative. Like the way people describe the visible (to humans) light spectrum. The physical nature of colours themselves, though, don't change. 490nm light doesn't care wherher you think it is green, blue or turquoise, its natures is unaltered. Physics exists independently of human arguing whether paint is more green or more blue.

And so does the number and distribution of pain receptors in the human body. Little girls are hurt by FGM. If it would be torture of a white child, it is torture of a black child or a brown child.

This is so awful.

I get trapped in going around and around: This is 2021. Why are we still dealing with this shit?

I think I first learnt about FGM when I was a teenager. I was horrified, but I sort of trusted that the "grown-ups" in parliaments, charities and the UN were dealing with it.

I don't have that trust now.

Labour have been hideous to Green candidates too, they seem to think that they have some sort of right to the votes that people make for Greens and try to make it their fault that Labour loses, even though when you analyse results there are very few Parliamentary seats that the Green vote made any material difference to.

There's so much lip service paid to being anti-racist, but this doesn't actually seem to carry through to the issues that really matter. It's easier to get rid of statues and then feel good about yourself than to tackle FGM.

Thank you for sharing this Purgatory. The repeated targeting of Black women, the continued prioritising of the demands of an ideology led by predominantly white males and openly demanding that women and girls subject to FGM keep quiet or find ways of prioritising men completely ignoring of the needs of these women is depressing.
The fact that so many of these people have found a home in the Labour party is depressing and frightening in equal measures.

That is a puzzle as health social care professionals and teachers have a legal duty to report FGM: <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.gov.uk/government/publications/mandatory-reporting-of-female-genital-mutilation-procedural-information&ved=2ahUKEwipqJnov5fzAhVPPcAKHS4AAlEQFnoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw11je841Z5LYZzlkjSSbZbl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.gov.uk/government/publications/mandatory-reporting-of-female-genital-mutilation-procedural-information&ved=2ahUKEwipqJnov5fzAhVPPcAKHS4AAlEQFnoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw11je841Z5LYZzlkjSSbZbl
So when did it become acceptable?

Labour hate the people they want to vote for them, and they don't try to hide it.

It isn't acceptable Pudmyboy - it's been a crime for decades. Sadly it's been caught up in the rampant misogyny abounding on the left and elsewhere that means anything related to women, girls and safeguarding is fair game if the language references biology, facts and safety of women and girls.

@Tibtom

Labour hate the people they want to vote for them, and they don't try to hide it.

It feels like they have contempt for the people who traditionally voted for them. They must be looking to breaking through with the generations who share the same immersive fiction and no regard for critical thinking.

It’s hard to accept they’ve moved so far from Nimco on this.

anything related to women, girls and safeguarding is fair game if the language references biology, facts and safety of women and girls

I think in this case, it was more 'anything is fair game if it can be assumed to be cultural' and anyone against it therefore a racist.

Nimco Ali is such an inspiration. Isn't it funny how the cultural sensitivities we're supposed to accept always end up harming women and children?

I am not sure this is something that only happens on the left. I've seen some of the newer more right wing or nationalist type parties have some horrible stuff thrown at them. Most of these groups don't reflect my political stance very closely at all, and some of the policies they recommend IMO could have poor outcomes. But they are not advocating the things they are often accused of, nor do they deserve death threats more than anyone else.

Some kind of self control people used to have in social interactions seems to have been lifted.

That being said, the way the progressives attack other parts of the left is often worse than the way they attack those farther from them. I suppose they see them as more of a threat, "stealing" votes that should be theirs.

@MoltenLasagne

Nimco Ali is such an inspiration. Isn't it funny how the cultural sensitivities we're supposed to accept always end up harming women and children?

This...

and when will the Labour Party start detoxifying the brand??

It seems Angela Rayner has blocked Nimco Ali, too. twitter.com/NimkoAli/status/1442028043040698370?s=19

Well yes.

Objecting to fgm is racist. Culturally insensitive.

Also.

It's misandry to focus on that and ignore 'MGM'.

hth.

(Fucking bastards).

There is a well known post from years ago that was circulated for years.

The real problem with fgm is that the term is exclusionary.

Bumping because I mentioned this on another thread.

This is the second time today I thought I was reading something current only to discover I've been reading a zombie thread.

Why not refer to this thread and post a link to it on the thread where you mention it?

Because that thread is nearly full and it seemed a waste of a post.