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?

Yes, let’s not conflate the situation in the UK with the US. I am centre-right, a Remainer and didn’t vote Tory at the last election. Also GC.

Let’s not divide on political leaning.

Me. Former Labour Party member, politically active for a while, Corbynite.
Voted hard left (in effect a spoilt ballot) because I can’t bring myself to vote Labour this time.

Unsure whether I’ll be back in the fold by the time of the parliamentary elections, and live in a marginal seat.

Be honest, what proportion of left wingers you know, including feminists, are in any way GC? The reason I ask is because while most on these boards are GC the very large majority of those itrw that I know, aren't. In fact I would go further and say that people I know who were mildly left wing but in no way politically active will take up the cudgels on this subject as soon as its mentioned where as they wont on poverty or social division.
What % of the left are GC.?

Did you miss my response above?

wingsoverscotland.com/voting-for-people-who-hate-you/

While the right seem to be more aligned with what you are calling 'GC', (4:1) the left are still overwhelmingly supportive of views that align with what you call 'GC', (2:1) as shown very clearly in this recent poll.

Don't forget 'preference falsification'. Most people are afraid to say anything on the subject.

Most people, when spoken to in person, and feeling safe, will admit concerns and ultimately, agree with what are called 'GC' views but are in fact very simple and straightforward acknowledgement of basic reality - humans are sexually dichotomous mammals; it's not possible to change sex; females need, want and deserve spaces away from males in some instances; women are entitled to privacy and dignity under the Equality Act.

It's really quite basic.

Not RTFT (will later) but yes, I absolutely am. It's pisses me off no end when people suggest that if you are GC you're also a hard right, religious fanatic!

Not RTFT (will later) but yes, I absolutely am. It pisses me off no end when people suggest that if you are GC you're also a hard right, religious fanatic!

I don't care if people think I'm hard right because I am GC, same as I didn't care people thought I was hard left because I supported some of Corbyn's social policies. I know who I am and so do my friends and family which is all that matters to me.

I don't talk to friends about it but I'm getting the impression most of them are also GC. In fact I've only ever met anyone one person IRL who believes TWAW.

I must say that reading this thread, I really do get the sense that trying to persuade people that "GC" doesn't simply mean "anti-TWAW" is a lost cause...

That seems to be a clear shift over the last two years. Two years ago, people using the term "GC" did generally know what it meant, but there are now enough people on-board the "anti-TWAW" train who've picked it up that the meaning's been somewhat lost.

Yes, I fully agree with KenDodd's opening post, plus the one by YetAnotherSpartacus at 9:10 today.

But I have been to the counts of the last two GE's and the intervening District Councils, and knowing what a woman was didn't seem to feature in the spoilt ballots. There were a lot of 'they are all wankers', and such like. The TWAW movement seems to have become much more prominent in the last three years. Why?

For me, as second wave feminist of the early seventies, I have only recently become fully appraised of the issue. I used to think that all Transwomen were of the James/Jan Morris type i.e. men who had undergone surgery. I really only began to take notice when I saw people who had completed in sport as men, (because that is what they are), suddenly deciding that they'd have a go as women.

Now reading MN I have found that all the left and leftish political parties have been captured by the TWAW brigade, and organisations like Girl Guides have got themselves into a complete mess over this issue.

This to me is another manifestation of the feminist battle that we have to fight. In the seventies it was equal opportunities and pay, now --well I am not sure - but there needs to be a strong position that there are only two sexes, that women still need to fight for their rights. Forget the bekind nonsense, it didn't get us anywhere last time.

I am annoyed by the political parties stance on this, but won't ever vote Tory - look at their policies before thinking that they support women.

YetAnotherSpartacus expressed pretty much exactly how I feel upthread.

I am a lifelong lefty rad fem, voted Labour (despite their long tradition of sexism and misogyny), was a party member (no longer) and voting is very important to me.

No party of the left stands up for women, but I could never bring myself to vote Tory because of my views on class and disadvantage in particular. It makes me both sad and angry that I feel I have no choice but to spoil my ballot (I've already postal voted). I resent that I am politically homeless.

I am left leaning and GC. I'm also surprised to hear that you think most of the GC voices on FWR are not left leaning OP. I read threads saying that women are politically homeless (as am I).

I agree with ChopinBoard's diagram above. I certainly see myself in that position now.

I have never voted anything other than labour in general elections. I see the threat to vote Tory as more of a protest vote than an actual agreement with Tory policies.

Solidarity. I'm exactly the same. Strange times!

I’d rather not vote Tory, locally or nationally (particularly as my otherwise apparently sensible local Tory MP happens to be full on TWAW), but I have daughters.

Rights are hard won - look at how long it took to open the vote to women, or to decriminalise homosexuality - and once lost they’ll be even harder to reinstate. I’m rarely a single issue voter, but blocking Self ID and any further degradation of womens rights is so important that it, for me, overrides almost anything else.

I agree that rights are hard won and easily lost. To give just one example, our right to peaceful protest has just been restricted, with barely a murmur from the media.

I’ve always voted Lib Dem or Green in general elections, but if there was one tomorrow, I’d have to spoil a paper. Labour won’t stand up for women’s rights and our Tory MP is awful even by Tory standards.

I think this is a very balanced and wise post. I get really angry that this seems to be an issue which is driving many to vote Tory.
Each to their own, but I can't understand the logic of thinking Tories are in any way good on this issue when the last 12 years have happened on their watch.

At base my view is I'd rather have eg Refuges which permit males via self-id than have no Refuges at all, and at heart that is the difference between Labour and Tory to me.

I don't think we even have mainstream left or right wing parties in the UK. We have a Centre Left and a Centre Right party dominating the scene. Our European neighbours have much stronger full-on rightwing parties, winning seats and applying pressure (remember Farage has failed to become an MP multiple times).

Marine Le Pen is described as right wing because of her social politics in terms of nationalism; her economic policies in the recent election were more lefty than anything Corbyn dared suggest (something like no income tax for those under 30, early retirement for those who started work at 16).

I'm not even sure the labels right/left mean much anymore. Tomorrow I'll be voting Communist/SDP if there's an option, or spoiling my ballot. I wish the greens would grow the fuck up so I could vote for them again.

I was surprised at the number of feminist 'life long' labour voters who were voting conservative at the next GE because 'a message needed to be sent to the labour party'. I was pretty incredulous to be honest. Every post about forthcoming GEs had feminists falling over themselves to tell us how they were voting tory for the first time in their lives because 'Boris knows what a woman is.'

Maybe women who have supported the Labour Party feel incredibly betrayed by them throwing women under the bus?

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.

100%. While the Tories cut the kinds of resources and services so necessary for 'our daughters' they quite happily speak nicely to GC feminists but do not put their money where their mouths are.

Where is gender criticality and protecting women's integrity as women, dignity and spaces in their manifesto/policy statements and what have they pledged to do about this?

Completely left wing in every other way. I feel like the grouping of GC feminists with conservatives is a kind of gaslighting, not reflected in the women I see speaking up at all, and in fact the so-called progressives who bleat about 'transmisogyny' and other thought crimes are the most rigid of all when it comes to gender roles, internalised misogyny, ageism and so on.

I also notice a common message is that that older women should shut up. Even though the young woman who are so dismissive will one day, if they're lucky, be old themselves. And a definite sense that motherhood is something to be dismissed as boring and conventional, and if you do it you should feel slightly ashamed of your 'cis-hetero- normativeness.'

The whole thing fucks me off no end.

For those of us who live in safe Labour seats it's the only way we can send a message. My hope is that Labour will see their vote dip (or probably not, if all the people so angry about party gate vote Labour) and start to realise that women aren't happy.

I'm over that Labour = good, Tories = evil scum (or vice versa) tribalism. It's that blind tribalism that has got us (and the US) into the state we're in.

I'm uninterested in retrospective finger-pointing. The only thing that matters is that we are in this mess and have to find a way out of it. Pointing to the Tories and saying 'they did it' isn't useful. They are the only party that is clear that sex is immutable and have taken steps to ensure that some of the institutional capture has been tackled.

For reference, I have been a Labour Party member and have canvassed for Labour for the last three general elections. I won't be voting Labour later today.

Wish I'd written that!

I get really angry that this seems to be an issue which is driving many to vote Tory.
Each to their own, but I can't understand the logic of thinking Tories are in any way good on this issue when the last 12 years have happened on their watch.

I do agree that so much of this has happened on their watch. They have made awful mistakes on this. But it's what happens next that I'm concerned with. Comments from BJ, RS and SJ are encouraging. I want them to follow through and take real action now. There is a chance they will, whereas Labour don't care about GC views, women's sport, safe spaces or safeguarding children. I would rather take a chance and vote Tory based on this issue and what they will do going forward than vote Labour, knowing exactly what they will do.

@Pluvia well put, I agree with everything you've said.

I'm really sick of all the tories=evil labour=good stuff that gets spouted. I'm not convinced I would be much better off under a Labour government anyway. But the foremost political issue for me is women's rights and bizarrely, Tories are better with regards to this right now.