Anyone else left wing and gender critical?

[Kendodd]

I'm to the left politically.
Support BLM and was at anti apartheid demos even back in the 80s
Fully support gay rights and again, have marched in the street for them from back in the 80s.
Strong feminist, attend feminist meetings.
Support refugees.
Very anti Brexit.
Feel ashamed of the levels of poverty in the UK.

I'm also gender critical and although I do support trans rights, in that, wear what you want, TWANW and have different needs and don't belong in women's sports, prisons etc. When I look around and see who I'm standing with on this though, I feel really uncomfortable.

When it comes to voting, no way would I vote for someone with Farage like views just because they were anti self ID.
Anyone else with similar views?

[corlan]

If you go to a Woman's Place meeting, you will be in the company of hundreds of gender critical women who are from the political left. Like others, I'm politically homeless and honestly don't think I'll vote on Thursday - for the first time in 40 years

[Random789]

This is a confusing thread. Almost every gender critical person I follow on Twitter, and the tone of almost every Mumsnet gender critical thread that I read, is squarely left wing.

I'm aware that there are right wing people who have broadly similar views, but i think of gender critical beliefs as being part of a feminist analysis and therefore primarily of the left.

And yet this thread, or at any rate the OP, seems to present gender critical beliefs as primarily coming from the right. I feel that I am through the looking glass a bit.

[WhiteFire]

I am very pleased that I do not have to vote on Thursday.

[CompleteGinasaur]

Sorry about that - got interrupted, and most of what I posted has been better stated before i got back to stick that up! Wasn't a post at all when I started. Oops..

[tilder]

@MarshaBradyo

I find the idea that GC are very right wing so off base I’m wondering why it’s come about

It's come about because of right wing transphobia and homophobia. Because right wing believes men and women are different (and arguably unequal). Because GC views chime with the strand of right wing that says you cannot change sex (even though it is a view with a different foundation and direction). Because right wing media has given GC a voice when left wing media has not.

It has linked the 2. When politically they are poles apart.

[dontshootthepianist]

Resolutely left wing after decades of being active in campaigns from womens rights on abortion to the poll tax rebellion. I havnt met any right wing GC feminists though I`m sure there are some. But many many of us, would walk through fire rather then vote Tory.

[SpindleInTheWind]

My adult son and I are both left-wing and both despise the Gender Woo. We are also both pro-abortion, pro-contraception and 'religion critical'.

The thought of being compared to ring-wing nutters in America is risible.

The UK is nothing like North America, England especially so.

[Cattenberg]

I’ve been left-wing for as long as I can remember. I used to be a member of the Green Party and I still support most of their aims. I could never vote Tory - I despise most of what they stand for.

I’m also an atheist/agnostic and I struggle with the dualist belief that you can be born in the wrong body, or a male can be born in a female body (for example). I’m a non-believer in gender ideology.

That said, I know that gender dysphoria is real and can be very painful. And I believe that people should be treated in accordance with their gender identity in the vast majority of situations. I just wish that “be kind” wasn’t a one-way street.

[ohfook]

Me - I'm the person my family roll their eyes at for being an airy fairy liberal and I am very left wing liberal to be fair.

I honestly try not to get too much into it though because I think trans women and women fighting over access to women's spaces is akin to fighting over the crumbs while someone else is eating the cake.

The main issue is male pattern violence. Trans women want access to female only spaces to avoid male violence. Women don't want to open up our spaces because we fear male violence. I think it suits a lot of people to have women and trans women fighting over what a women in because then no one is addressing the real issues.

I also don't understand why the whole thing is so complicated. To me it's so obvious that for most things (your name, your career, your clothes, your hobbies) biology doesn't matter one bit. For some things however (medical care, sports, rape crisis centres) biology trumps gender identity. I just truly don't understand why this is contentious.

[Clymene]

Most GC women - actually all the ones I know personally - are left wing.

I'm not sure where you're getting your right wing bias from unless it's from Twitter and MRAs.

[Kitten2]

Most people I have spoken to about this feel the same. Are LW and GC. But keep it to ourselves.

[StillWeRise]

its contentious because for some TW validation is everything
therefore, admission and acceptance in the most womanly women-only places is some kind of badge for them- hence sex with a lesbian would be the ultimate validation
this is my generous, kind, interpretation
(I have others)

[RaininginDarling]

@WhiteFire

I am left of centre and also politically unstuck.

I don't think seeing fault with XR or the BLM Movement makes one right wing though.

Exactly this. It's a delightful import from the US to scream "far right" at anything that doesn't align with current dogma. It's deeply disingenuous and a distraction from discussing the issues at hand. I've no time for it.

[CompleteGinasaur]

And it's not just on here, I'm also a member of a ReSisters group and there's not a Tory in the bunch. I do find this odd and also kind of sad, the idea that this particular TRA misrepresentation of GC women has taken hold to this extent. Dividing us like this only advantages this pernicious ideology.

[tilder]

Plus threads like this

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4542143-alex-massie-sturgeon-is-all-wrong-about-womens-rights-times-link
Left wing feminists considering voting Tory because of self id.

This isn't meant as a criticism. But the linking of left wing GC views to right wing politics is uncomfortable.

I have no idea how to vote anymore.

[nocoolnamesleft]

Left wing and GC here. My voting pattern over the years has been LibDem or Labour. Basically whoever had the best chance against the fucking Tories. But deeply depressed that the left is shitting on women.

[DomesticatedZombie]

Third generation leftwinger.

Considering voting Tories on Thursday, as they're the only party who will acknowledge what a woman is and that we need single sex spaces. Amazing.

[Babdoc]

If you are actually “left wing” you have no problem- the British Communist Party is staunchly gender critical. It’s just the centre left - Labour, Lib Dem, etc, who have swallowed the gender woo.
But I suspect by left wing you really just mean “moderately left” ex Labour supporter?
My daughter is a Communist party member and I’m a Tory. We are both rad fems and both gender critical.

[Lynnthesearesexnotgenderpeople]

@Kendodd

Except, Rosie Duffield, a Labour MP is the most outspoken on this.

The GC posters on here all seem very right wing, slagging off the 'woke' by which I mean TRA but also BLM and XR etc. I don't feel I fit with the GC posters on here. Maybe I'm just on all the wrong threads.

This XR?

Yeah....probably gonna slag them off.

Certain people have created a narrative that anyone who doesn't align with a very narrow set of beliefs is 'far right'. These beliefs include the belief that one can change sex, and that its absolutely fine to inject kids with powerful drugs that could have lifelong consequences, for no medical reason.

Far right my arse.

[Floisme]

I actually find it quite amazing that you haven't noticed that an awful lot of women on this board share roughly your stated political alignment/evolution!

I'm very surprised too because I've seen your user name fairly regularly. 

Maybe what you've picked up on is that a lot of us probably seem much more angry with the left than we are with the right, but that's because we trusted the left and now feel totally and utterly shafted by them. 

[Clymene]

@Floisme

I actually find it quite amazing that you haven't noticed that an awful lot of women on this board share roughly your stated political alignment/evolution!

I'm very surprised too because I've seen your user name fairly regularly. 

Maybe what you've picked up on is that a lot of us probably seem much more angry with the left than we are with the right, but that's because we trusted the left and now feel totally and utterly shafted by them. 

Yes me too. I am very surprised.

I feel quite offended actually.

[Gynaesaur]

I am. The impression I get is that the majority of GC feminists are squarely left wing. GC feminists do not, however, encompass all people who say that sex is immutable, important, and that recognition of it shouldn't be overridden by self id. While it would be highly remiss of me to say that there is no one on the political right who cares about women's rights, there are a significant number of politicians/commentators/etc for whom transgender issues are just another excuse for something to froth about over breakfast. Learning to say "save single sex spaces" to attract another demographic to your party/newspaper/radio shows isn't difficult.

Self ID and much of the other ideology espoused by TRAs is only left wing in as much as it has been adopted by traditionally left wing parties. There is a constant conflation of what is left wing and what is liberal because, in Western countries at least, economically left wing parties tend to adopt more socially liberal policies. That doesn't mean that all liberal (and in this case, I'd argue that libertarian was a more suitable term) policies are conducive to left wing economic policies. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're anathema to it. I'm not convinced that a movement which prioritises the feelings of (often privileged) individuals over the safety and dignity of a more vulnerable group is left wing in any sense.

[tilder]

@Babdoc

If you are actually “left wing” you have no problem- the British Communist Party is staunchly gender critical. It’s just the centre left - Labour, Lib Dem, etc, who have swallowed the gender woo.
But I suspect by left wing you really just mean “moderately left” ex Labour supporter?
My daughter is a Communist party member and I’m a Tory. We are both rad fems and both gender critical.

Apologies, you're right. When I think left, I don't think communist. I think labour. With a side of liberal. Communist would be a bit much for me.

[Slothtoes]

Left wing, GC and politically homeless here. I think there’s been some clutching at straws going on on these boards sometimes. The Tories are not safe on this issue and haven’t actually done or changed anything legally to protect women.

They’re happy to give GC soundbites (which is a start obviously) but they have made no actual changes despite their massive House of Commons majority since 2019. The Tories have been in power since 2010 (including for a short time with the Lib Dems) so they’ve had 12 years to sort something out.

I couldn’t give a fuck if Boris johnson dsays he ‘knows what a woman is’, he’s not prepared to do something about it legally, so his views aren’t helping us.
I don’t think I can forgive Labour for being so unrelentingly sexist on this issue, it’s really alienated me from the current crop.

[IamAporcupine]

Me. I have always been very left wing. I come from a highly politicised country - used to be in the streets protesting since I was a teenager. Helped in slums and worked for a human rights ONG. Support BLM, voted Remain etc etc. Now politically homeless both in the UK and 'at home'.

"The GC posters on here all seem very right wing, slagging off the 'woke' by which I mean TRA but also BLM and XR etc. I don't feel I fit with the GC posters on here. Maybe I'm just on all the wrong threads."

I haven't seen any right wing posts. But I have to say that I do slag off the 'woke' now, as I have come to realise their lack of critical thinking and self-reflection is shocking.