What's the problem with FiLiA?

[RhymesWithOrange]

On another thread a few posters referred to "the FiLiA debacle". Without wanting to poke at the wounds in the current feminist movement, can someone tell me what's gone on?

Link to Mermaids thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4732781-mermaids-getting-eaten-from-the-inside-out

I’m interested in what you’re saying here: what’s the tipping point where ‘being fully inclusive’ and the huge complexity around it creates emotional upheaval that takes focus from a charity’s core purpose? Having lived through one such episode I am much less sure about it all these days.

That was nearly 5 years ago! Not recent at all, and was when FiLiA was still broad church and fence-sitting on 'trans' stuff.

I don’t know yet, but I am extremely interested in locating it!

There are lots of rumours of this happening in small orgs and charities but it’s all under the radar and the orgs are so small it’s unlikely to reach the news.

It’s going to be easier to prevent in single issue orgs but hard with something like Filia where the aim is to platform a wide spectrum of female experience. A genuine desire for fairness and social justice can very easily become bogged down in an intersectional power struggle.

I wasn’t there (too young) but I have a sinking feeling that something similar might’ve happened within second wave feminism? The terms used to describe it are very new (and kind of annoying, I accept!) but perhaps the behaviours are not so new, and are an inevitable part of human existence.

I’m still in the figuring things out phase!

Yeah, Claire's missive on her appointment to FiLiA has the EDI vampire vibes. I'm white but due to my specific background (which for privacy I won't go into here) I dont recognise assumptions being made about me and my experience/politics/perspectives in the way Claire seems to. (I'm sure I'll be told that my feelings of resentment are nothing compared to those of black women's experiences and I'm sure they're not). Generally I'm not a fan of critical race theory and it's applicability to the foundations and expression of racism in the UK.

But yeah, blocking Belstaffie, who is phenomenal, makes me ask questions. And the hiding replies is a questionable tactic.

I agree re: Belstaffie.

If a feminist org no longer considers Belstaffie to be worthy of their association, then the whole thing is braindead already.

The EDI Vampire will feast while the artificial life support is still plugged in but will fuck off when the funding streams dry up and the leccy gets switched off.

Might not even make it to 18 months.

Generally I'm not a fan of critical race theory and it's applicability to the foundations and expression of racism in the UK.

Me neither. We can’t fix the UK’s race issues using a manual written for the USA.

and to be fair, following that particular manual doesn’t seem to work very well for the US!

@NicolaSturgeonsSOGIbottom

There are lots of rumours of this happening in small orgs and charities but it’s all under the radar and the orgs are so small it’s unlikely to reach the news.

Do you mind me asking what kind of thing? Staff/trustees/volunteers/projects/language?

There was an upheaval at a national organisation for voluntary organisations a couple of years back, which I took at face value. But I might revisit it and see what I think now.

If anything, I think charities are more likely to attract press attention than private sector organisations because there is the donation/fundraising angle and also because charities often involve the ‘great and the good’.

😔 between this and the Radical Notion's ticking off of those Doing Feminism Wrong, this state of affairs is disheartening.

I think I'll just remember the good times, and carry on writing to my MP, and donating to crowdfunders and other organisations like KPSS and Sex Matters.

Honestly this is meaningless. Where they blocked for being abusive or rude to FILIA? That is the usual reason to block.

And critical race theory simply means recognising that racism and institutional racism exists.
There is a lot of racism on this board so I am not surprised some do not agree with it. But I would expect any feminist organisation to recognise racism and institutional racism.

@AllOutofEverything I would be extremely surprised if that was the case, knowing the people involved.

And it doesn't seem to be the only reason why there is unhappiness with FiLiA.

It's all very perplexing.

Have a look at the Mermaids thread in the link - it’s what’s happened over there (only they have the double threat of an internal EDI Vampire and an external safeguarding investigation happening at the same time. We’d all assumed it was the massive, egregious safeguarding fails that pushed Susie Green out of the CEO role but it now looks like it was actually the EDI Vampire that killed her transing kiddies career).

The thread starts with Mermaids (it’s a fascinating case study) but goes into some other examples too.

Obvs I don’t give a shiny shit if Mermaids are hoisted by their own intersectional petard (in fact, it seems like a fitting end for them) but it would be upsetting to witness similar taking hold at Filia.

Usually, when someone complains about Filia on here it’s only because we are lazily shortcutting and we are really referring to that specific WPUK session at Filia that was like a Red Guard Struggle Session with Kara Dansky forced to wear the pointy hat. Not something women were expecting to witness in Wales!

The whole sorry saga is thrashed out on the link someone else posted up thread.

The WPUK session also gave us gems such as (paraphrasing!) ‘Only right wing women have the money to support crowdfunders’.

Which as you can imagine, pissed off scores of disabled women, single mothers, women on stat mat pay, women in low waged professions such as caring & older women on state pensions who have helped one £5 or £10 donation at a time. The very women that WPUK claims to care about!

(Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with being a conservative or right leaning centrist anyway so using ‘right wing’ as a pejorative pissed off those women too!)

Up until now though, here on MN we’d been categorising that particular debacle as a WPUK thing, not a Filia thing… but it looks like it may have spread?

I think what people are unhappy about was that one workshop took place at the last conference. All because some people disagree with the speakers on the panel. And the appointment of Claire because she speaks out about racism including the racism of popular women in feminism.
There are some women that are seen as forbidden to criticise. So the fact Claire criticises their racism makes her a target.
I also can't believe some women arguing against inclusivity. Which women do you think should not be included at FILIA conferences?

"The WPUK session also gave us gems such as (paraphrasing!) ‘Only right wing women have the money to support crowdfunders’."

Except that is not what was said. That was a woman from the floor who works in a low paid job and is a feminist activist. She said she struggles to raise money for her left wing feminist activism and events, but whenever middle class gender critical women do activism they have no problem raising lots of money. She was talking about her own experience and was someone attending, not a speaker on the panel.

It’s all on the other thread.

@NicolaSturgeonsSOGIbottom I do not care. What was said is not true.

I made it clear I was paraphrasing and directed readers towards the discussion that took place directly after the event.

But your paraphrasing was totally wrong. You gave a totally inaccurate account of what the woman attending the workshop said.

I was very surprised by the appointment of Claire as a trustee.
I blocked her on twitter years ago because I found her extremely toxic, rude and dismissive of many women I admire. I've been to their conference and enjoyed it but was taken aback by this appt. Claire famously said she'd rather stand by a steaming pile of dog shit than Posie Parker.
The twitter thread is worth looking at including the hidden replies. It's certainly a very controversial appt for me, she might do great work in real life, but her twitter feed was toxic.
It's made me suspicious of Filia.

twitter.com/FiLiA_charity/status/1619002802260385793

I believe that all organisations should actively work to combat racism and combat other forms of disadvantage, including the disadvantages experienced by women as a sex-based group.

But I know that people come from all kinds of perspectives and it is often hugely counterproductive to shame people who may be supportive of a particular goal and broadly on the same page but aren’t quite expressing it in the ‘right’ way. Or their own ‘lived’ experiences are leading them to express slightly differing views.

Once again, the Monty Python lot say it rather well:

‘The only people I hate more than the Romans are the [inset name of disfavoured internal group]’

Yeah, if you didn’t hate them you would have a bigger and more powerful group.

I think this is the best policy. Lone wolves, unaffiliated. No groups. I met Claire Heuchan at an event at Filia and she was very pleasant. Then someone suggested I take a look at her Twitter account(s)...

She said she struggles to raise money for her left wing feminist activism and events, but whenever middle class gender critical women do activism they have no problem raising lots of money

Was that intended as a dig at Maya's latest round of fundraising?

No, she said it last October, long before Maya had to raise money.