JCJ hadn't been at the coal face for so long but is a successful academic. She's spent hours and hours advocating for feminism on Twitter, edits a feminist journal, has written books etc. She also has a large following because she's good at what she does.
Academic feminism and twitter bullying of other women, calling them names, telling them LARPers have a greater place in their movement than an actual woman - none of this reaches ordinary women. She may be good at what she does, but what she does is not interesting to the vast majority of the people who will bring about the necessary changes through grass roots activism.
Both them and WPUK are clear that they feel deeply let down by the left but that right-wing, racist, nationalist politics have no place in their feminism. That's why they criticise KJK. And following the events in Brighton, there is now video footage in circulation of feminists being the same side of a police line as populist right-wing actors like Hearts of Oak, Michael Chave, 'Matt the Hat', One Man Reports, which makes it harder for feminists like them to counteract accusations that 'we work with the right'.
How many more times. KJK's activism has nothing to do with feminism, so she cannot be bringing feminism into disrepute. She's not with them. They've made that clear, she's made that clear. She has no control over being filmed by anyone turning up to an open public space. Anyone has the right to film anything happening in public. Being right wing is not actually a crime. Many of the best, brightest and most effective gender critical commentators and activists are on the right. If those feminists don't work with the right, then they need to stop using publications like the Spectator and the Daily Mail. Otherwise they look like gross hypocrites.
Interesting that you see KJK as someone who doesn't want to be a leader. I had a quick browse through her online shop yesterday (last looked when it was all AHF) and was struck by how much merch there is with her image on it. No problem with that if that's what she wants, but I can't see how that sits with someone who doesn't want to be a leader. Ditto her 'I. Never. Lose.' mantra.
None of her merchandise has her image on it. There are only 3 things vaguely depicting a human being. A mug and jumper with a Marilyn Monroe-esq face (meant to depict real women), a sticker with a female toilet insignia figure, and a sticker with a drag queen. Are you talking about her shop insignia (cartoon blonde with an umbrella)? That's not merchandise, that's packaging, e.g., the cardboard backing for a badge/pin. You don't wear the packaging. How does "I never lose" denote leadership?
The 'Make Women Female Again' baseball cap was a bit of a shocker tbh
Why? It's a pastiche on a political slogan. Red is the colour of the left in this country. It's a hat, not a hand grenade. What is so shocking?
It remains intriguing to me how someone very clearly middle class (again, have no problem with that) is so keen to tell her followers that 'they' don't understand working class women when there are plenty of working class women whose feminism is rooted in class based politics.
Whatever you are trying to say here makes very little sense. Whether or not "they" believe they understand working class women, and whether or not they have any actual experience of being working class, what "they" don't do is connect with ordinary women who look at what is happening with gender politics and feel fucking terrified. Reading some article on feminist theory is not going to help you sleep better at night or feel any less powerless and helpless. When you don't have the words, and won't be heard at any feminist meeting because you are not a feminist academic/lawyer/author/thinker, who is going to hear you? Do you know how powerful it feels to do something as simple but as bold as putting on a t-shirt? Doing something for your own self - finding the courage to wear something that might connect with other women seeing you walk by - is a huge deal for ordinary women.
The Speaker's Corner meeting encourage these ordinary voices and gives them power. Do you hear who speaks at these meetings and on Posie's channel? Not academic feminists with their impenetrable language and academic in jokes. Ordinary people are given a voice. A female ex prisoner, who had the coil fitted - first time using hormonal contraception - before she served her sentence because she feared sexual assault. Ordinary mothers who are terrified for their children being transitioned by schools. Gay men and women pushed out of their communities, and who have found renewed strength through the example set by Posie to be your own activist. Have a listen to Posie's call in programme last night. Those are the people she connects with and who are grateful she keeps on going, despite all the hate spewed at her from all sides.