Gender Critical Disputes - Radical Notion special edition free to read online

[IwantToRetire]

Cant say I have heard of Radical Notion. They say:

THE RADICAL NOTION was founded in 2020 to create a space for the resurgent wave of feminist thinking and activism. This not-for-profit magazine is run by an all-women collective of radical and socialist feminists. We are committed to the materialist analysis of sex-based oppression, and to challenging the material and symbolic structures of male dominance. This moment is a historic opportunity to deepen and widen the analysis of all aspects of women’s political condition, and its foundational role in all systems of extraction and domination.

We welcome words and images from women of all nationalities, classes, ethnicities and backgrounds to illuminate the meaning of feminist politics in their lives, and to create a global picture of this political moment. Our current battle, and the social, political and environmental unravellings we see all around us are, at their root, crises of patriarchy. We want to seize this moment to speak that truth.

theradicalnotion.org/gender-critical-disputes/

It seems quite expensive to subscribe but they have made this issue free to read online. A lot of it seems to be the ongoing antagonism (meaning the issues are real but seem to be motivated as much by personal fallouts) between radical feminist and socialist feminist gender critical women.

Some may remember this thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4662757-womens-place-uk-filia-event-the-elephant-ignored-yet-again and the revelation that WPUK seems to now be linked to the group Actual Gender Critical Left, who endlessly snipe about Karin Dansky and KJK.

Anyhow posting in case anyone wants to have a read.

Still not sure why some women think in the day of virtual opportunites to talk directly to other women, they need to go down the routed of "publishing" as though their ideas are somehow special and shouldn't be submitted to the rough and tumble on online forums like this one!

Because the Radical Notion also contains some outstanding artwork by feminists.

They are short run magazines but you can also have an online subscription.

Yes it was started by a small group led by Jane Clare Jones. It doesn’t make it unworthy of reading though. Jane has some brilliant insights .

Thank you for the link. Not sure I personally can be bothered to read about their take on the differences as I suspect we have seen the premises already in various mediums.

But the contributions from a wide range of women are worth the effort of reading.

Thank you for the link. Not sure I personally can be bothered to read about their take on the differences as I suspect we have seen the premises already in various mediums.

But the contributions from a wide range of women are worth the effort of reading.

Maybe so, but I don't feel inclined to read further than the first highly divisive, deeply patronising one.

Have you read it eresh? I am really in two minds. I have to confess I am the reader who never bothers reading the foreword in most printed things, and I don’t believe I have ever read every article in any magazine.

I've read Rose Rickford's piece, and a bit of JCJ's. Not particularly impressed.

I won't bother reading it. I'm so bored of all these self important takedowns of other women.

Thanks eresh.

That first essay is the opposite of convincing. The quotes it includes from KJK are so appealingly clear and straightforward compared to the essay itself.

and it doesn’t answer the question of who died and made you feminism police? (I know KJK doesn’t identify as a feminist but that’s largely because of the feminism police afaik.) TRAs try and make us all collectively responsible for the actions and opinions of every person who knows men aren’t women; it seems foolish to play into that in this fashion. I don’t get why they can’t disagree with her and her tactics, say so and move on.

You have those that sit in drawing rooms pontificating and those who are on the front line getting their hands dirty.

It hasn't gone unnoticed that this is published just as Posie walks out into the public space in what could be the largest Let Women Speak event. The police helicopters are actually going to be out today and they have to take another swipe.

I scanned the Rosie Pickford piece, is the whole issue dedicated to hating KJK? Can't be arsed with that.

Why do Real Feminists™ expend so much energy telling us who we shouldn't listen to because they don't have the right motives?

JCJ has made many brilliant contributions to this debate but it's all becoming a bit pathetically, "what about me" now.

Thanks for the link.

I see what you mean eresh.

So this is a special edition.

I just looked via my phone. I simply can’t read it on my phone (the format is impossible to read on it and it is very glitchy - however i don’t believe it was ever designed to be read on small screen so that is not a criticism) but flicked through to see what else they had this edition.

No alternative contributions.

I’m bored of these Head Girls who appear to think they own “proper” feminism.

”You’re not a real feminist, you have no understanding of academic feminist analysis”

“OK then, I’ll call myself a femalist so your reputations won’t be sullied by any association with me and my activism”

”Oh no, she’s getting attention in the USA and being interviewed on the telly and she’s not even an authentic feminist”.

Sod the lot of them! Their jealousy and their class-analysis, rather that putting it all to practical use in the real world is why I am no longer interested in what JCJ, WPUK or Jean Hatchet have to say about anything now.

I managed to read a little of the piece about femalism on my phone. It's absolutely ridiculous.

It's arguing that Keen uses the word woman in a "gender identity" way, trying to keep it pure. They have kept the argument in material reality by using female people who are oppressed by male people however they identify.

This is Alice in wonderland level of crazy. They obviously never understood the "pronouns are rohypnol" piece, they will definitely have read it.

They presumably genuinely think they can give up the word woman but keep female. That's not possible, even Eddie Izzard has been described as female. Have they not noticed this?

Keen uses woman to mean female person and only that. We need a word for us female people. It's entirely based in material reality.

Strangely enough, i'm not reading any further as these few paragraphs were such rubbish I'm not going to waste my time.

Thanks for the link. I will definitely take a proper look though if they're all as long winded as the editorial I'm not sure I'll get very far.

I think it's really well written - reminds me very much of the second wave in terms of its political analysis. It won't go down well here though!

I'm going to subscribe.

Yeah it has a very second wave feel to it. Unfortunately I was made to feel very unwelcome by that movement, which I guess I should have got over by now but there you go.

I had a subscription to the Radical Notion last year.

Loved the premise, loved some of the pieces, but did find I had to work very hard at it (and I've just finished a postgrad so not unused to academic literature).

Was considering resubscribing when the current row blew up, and now glad I didn't. I refuse to take sides and I CBA with Head Girlism.

Feel exactly the same way!

Subscribed right from the first issue, but cancelled when things started getting rather unpleasant about KJK

They presumably genuinely think they can give up the word woman but keep female.

Some of these women presumed to negotiate it on all "our" behalf and were surprised when they got pushback.

The really annoying bit is that I bought JCJ's TERF wars book, for £20 (now half that on Amazon) and it's sitting unread on my bedside table. Just keep eyeing it and thinking mmm, maybe after the next book...

Snap!

I subscribed to the Radical Notion for a year because I liked the premise but didn't renew my subscription because it was very expensive and I found it hard going rather than an interesting and enjoyable read.

Thanks for the link. I read the terrible hit piece on KJK and won't bother with the rest.

So many things about it annoyed me. One that hasn't been mentioned yet was the misunderstanding of her objection to womanface.

It doesn't mean that she objects to men wearing makeup (I'm sure she'd have no objection to the way men like Glam Rock singers of the 70s experimented with make up) or that she is reducing women to people who wear makeup.

Womanface means opposition to Drag Queens and their grotesque caricature of womanhood which includes OTT makeup.

Each time that hit piece included a quote from KJK, it just made me love her and her hard-line, outspoken common sense more.

^teawamutu
The really annoying bit is that I bought JCJ's TERF wars book, for £20 (now half that on Amazon) and it's sitting unread on my bedside table. Just keep eyeing it and thinking mmm, maybe after the next book...^

Another snap here!

Yeah, wasnt the best of articles to start with. 'How to get your audiences back up' would have been an apt title for her piece.

Just a few points: