Mary Harrington on KJK

[NotHavingIt]

https://unherd.com/2023/03/what-posie-parker-learnt-from-brexit/

Mary Harrington writing about KJK in Unherd. Interesting points and analogies, as usual.

The article is a load of twaddle.

And patronising. Presumes that KJK is only imitating some male elitist who wanted (like Boris) to re-establish an England that never really existed for anyone but a few privileged men.

KJK organising is (and I know she rejects the lable feminist) far closer to grass roots organising as done by 70s Women's Liberationists.

And even though I reject the false accusations that KJK is some sort of right wing entryist into women's organising, I think that stitching together some flimsy link of the Let Women Speak events to Farage being given a free platform on msm, is not only implausible but playing into the hands of those who campaign against her.

We really need to stop listening to this writers who think their pontification on issues is so vastly important they have to have their own blog ie far too important to for instance join in discussion here, plus the chronically clusmy fabrication of because I wanted Brexit everyting else I like must be linked to that.

Please, and I say this as someone who isn't the biggest fan of KJK, value her for what she has and is doing, and compare and contrast to other women's activism.

(Don ever forget as well, that the media promoted Farage as they thought he was an object of fun, little realising that in giving him a platform they made him acceptable. How totally different to the msm media's response to KJK and other women.)

Am loving the mention of the reversal of gender neutral toilets thanks to a local newspaper campaign....
Excellent work.

Like@CryptoFascistMadameCholet
am more likely to attend a LWS event.
Agree to a patchwork approach, rather than either/or.
Everyone can help, with the will and a little time to contribute.
I am done with feminist in fighting.
We want to see results here.

But seriously, who other than Posie is gonna get the base rising and attending in numbers? She is absolutely the lightning rod, the brave one at the head of the queue, the rouser.

Yes definitely when it comes to events. I know feminist lectures and conferences are just not on the radar for lots of women.

If we're talking getting the word out and make huge numbers of women question gender ideology then the gender critical journalists are the ones spreading the word far and wide. Hadley Freeman, Victoria Smith, Janice Turner, Jo Bartosch, Julie, Bindel, Kathleen Stock, Jean Hatchett. They have written for all the mainstream newspapers.

And obviously the books too. Helen Joyce, Abigail Shrier, Hannah Barnes, Karen Ingala Smith.

KJK is quite niche and I don't think many will have heard of her until last weekend. Obviously lots more have heard of her now!

What strikes me is that Harrington seems to think that really, political change is no longer really down to liberal democratic processes. What's happining is something else.

I suspect she's right and I find that a bit scary.

This stuck out to me:

And it’s no use wringing our hands and lamenting the loss of civility in politics. We stopped forming liberal democratic citizens a generation ago, as we began to transition from a print-first to a digital-first culture.

Which means the options are limited in terms of being effective at a campaign.

I have similar feelings Iwanttoretire. There was a definite undertone putting KJK down in that piece.

KJK is quite niche and I don't think many will have heard of her until last weekend. Obviously lots more have heard of her now!

She’s been on loads of daytime telly, talk radio and podcasts tho. I reckon she has more mainstream name recognition than everyone on your list except perhaps Julie Bindel, especially amongst the working class, not-explicitly-feminist sector (a massive group). Posie has been on loads of podcasts and YouTube channels with majority male audiences too, Spiked, Triggernometry, Lotus Eaters etc (c’mon Joe Rogan! You next!)

Like I said before, Posie is now mostly talking to different audience.

Such a shame that all those brilliant female writers have been cast adrift by the vast majority of mainstream left and centre left publications. Almost all are now regularly published in the Times, Telegraph, Spectator, Daily Mail etc - not something we would’ve predicted ten years ago!

Such a shame that all those brilliant female writers have been cast adrift by the vast majority of mainstream left and centre left publications. Almost all are now regularly published in the Times, Telegraph, Spectator, Daily Mail etc - not something we would’ve predicted ten years ago!

Totally. It's positive that left wing women are given a voice in the right and centre right press.

Hadley Freeman revealed that she was blocked by the Guardian when she wanted to cover the Tavistock scandal.

But if all the left wing women are writing for the right wing press who is going to reach the socialist, gender critical left? Women who despise the Daily Mail and won't even touch Times or the Torygraph.

These women need Filia, WPUK, the Radical notion. They won't be reached otherwise.

As an aside I wonder if the left wing press are gutted that their brilliant female writers have jumped ship and they are stuck with the likes of Owen Jones.

The Morning Star used to be brilliant for platforming left wing terfy women but seems to have completely lost it’s bottle.

The so called left (which no longer seems to have any left wing fiscal, health or educational policies) is a just a useless rump, attacking it’s own over pointless American IDPOL.
The number of women that WPUK are speaking to must be dwindling by the day.

It’s a travesty.
Can’t stick around for the funeral though, too much to do!

KJK is quite niche and I don't think many will have heard of her until last weekend.
I'm not so sure.
She was the first one I heard of, aside from being slightly aware of Julie Bindel. It was the Adult Human Female poster on the news that first alerted me to her. I was already enraged by the Guardian's non-coverage of the Cologne attacks, and that really set me rolling.

I think she was DD's gateway drug to all of this. DD disagrees with her more than I do, but she's now reading widely.

So no, not as niche as all that.

Refreshing to find someone who admits to being a Brexiteer and why. The unfettered movement of low skilled labour is a problem and wanting to have this free movement I would characterize as Right Wing, because it keeps wages down. Never understand why left-wingers supported 'free movement'. Agree heartily that Farage (who I dislike and is a health business free marketeer) and KJK are using similar tactics. Good for beating gender ideology, I hope.

Chris Rufo in US, Ron DeSantis Florida Governor culture war attack dog, has made this precise point.
His bone to chew is Critical Race Theory, and associated IKendi "anti racism" ethos replacing colour blindness, and the rise and rise of DEI (diversity equity inclusion) in universities and other institutions of govt/corporations.
For him he's been happy to have the intellectualising on the subject on Quillette, UnHerd, various Substacks from previous Leftists/liberals who've fallen from the current Democratic Party consensus that America is racist to the bone, and only a root and branch leftist excision via embedded DEI infrastructure will reverse centuries old white on black racism.
But for him, mere talk now is pointless. Now the right in America need to strike and take back the narrative from the left who say all is systemic poison from whites.
I see the equivalent of Rufo in Posie. She's saying that the intellectual left GCs have done invaluable work, but what's needed above all right now is guerilla tactics, maximum visibility, and taking the fight upfront in society so the Conservatives, and especially the Labour Party cannot ignore the broad and deep outrage from the 51% (minus 5% transmaidens) re wholesale erosion and eliminating of their rights.
All are welcome, but Posie and other GC guerillas will more and more break the cloak of invisibility that MSM and institutions have somehow until now successfully managed to cloak this subject in.
2023 is a long way from 2018 when Posie first came to prominence with the Femal = Adult Human Female campaign. Hell, it's a long way from 2022.

KJK is quite niche and I don't think many will have heard of her until last weekend. Obviously lots more have heard of her now!

Which begs the question as to why you @SapphosRock and others in your circle and those you feel are doing it right and of of the required political purity spend so much time amplifying what KJK says and does, spend so much time and energy dismissing her and those women who attend SFW events.

But if all the left wing women are writing for the right wing press who is going to reach the socialist, gender critical left?

Why do they need reaching if they are already gender critical? It is notable that these pure gender critical left have not poured vitriol on those left wing women writing for these hated publications and accused them of being right wing.

Also notable that for all their we are the only ones who can speak to the left wing political power base they have achieved the square root of fuck all as detailed by a previous poster, they are not changing hearts and minds within the Labour Party, they are not influencing policy.

The number of women that WPUK are speaking to must be dwindling by the day.

Indeed @CryptoFascistMadameCholet they are a lost cause as far as I am concerned and that is down to their attitude, actions and inactions.

Spiked was very pro Brexit from a mostly working class, left libertarian standpoint.

I agree re: borders. Carefully controlled immigration WAS a left wing policy until middle class and posh students started identifying as political representation for the working classes and importing American IDPOL and EDI.

Great swathes of the supposed British left now despise the working classes. They can’t stand white man van and his St George’s flags, the working classes are just dehumanised as chavs, gammons and karens and anyone who isn’t white but doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace Labour as their lord and masters are decried as Uncle Toms or coconuts.

It’s all perfectly summed up by the Queer Theory activist bellowing ‘Nazi’ through a loudhailer at a dancing Jamaican chap because he had the temerity to object to men in frocks twerking at minors.

Great swathes of the supposed British left now despise the working classes. They can’t stand white man van and his St George’s flags, the working classes are just dehumanised as chavs, gammons and karens and anyone who isn’t white but doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace Labour as their lord and masters are decried as Uncle Toms or coconuts.

It’s all perfectly summed up by the Queer Theory activist bellowing ‘Nazi’ through a loudhailer at a dancing Jamaican chap because he had the temerity to object to men in frocks twerking at minors.

This a million times @CryptoFascistMadameCholet well bloody said.

And that attitude is rife in WPUK and the AGCL isn't it @SapphosRock ?

But if all the left wing women are writing for the right wing press who is going to reach the socialist, gender critical left? Women who despise the Daily Mail and won't even touch Times or the Torygraph.

I doubt they despise the publications, more likely its the people who read them. If they won't read from a range of news sources then they don't want to be reached, that's their choice.

Great swathes of the supposed British left now despise the working classes. They can’t stand white man van and his St George’s flags, the working classes are just dehumanised as chavs, gammons and karens and anyone who isn’t white but doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace Labour as their lord and masters are decried as Uncle Toms or coconuts.

I'm posting this link for the second time today because this interview, between Brendon O'Neill and Matthew Goodwin, covers so much of the ground being discussed here. Matt Goodwin has recently published another book called 'Value,Voice and Virtue' so he is doing the podcast interview rounds. He did another one with the SDP, it's on there YouTube channel, which covers much the same ground but is useful for hearing the SDP take on the same issues.

Their FFS autocorrect changes it every time I hit the space bar after the word.

I introduced someone to KJK today via her you tube stuff. This is someone who isn't going to read a book or an article. She's never going to join a political party or go to a conference. But she will watch videos. She will forward the links onto her friends who will watch them.

KJK can reach a swathe of women who are never going to read books or articles, attend conferences or even sodding vote usually, but are currently so angry at what is happening.

If she can reach these women who are time and cash poor and persuade them that they matter, that their voices matter, that their votes matter then I'll take 1 of her over 100 of the ones who denounce her.

If it hadn't been for certain left wing women I'd probably just remember Posie Parker as someone who used to post on here, and I wouldn't even know who KJK was. So they've done a grand job.

I can predict people who have monstered her deleting those half cropped screenshots that they used for years and pretending they supported her all along.

But if all the left wing women are writing for the right wing press who is going to reach the socialist, gender critical left?

Why do they need reaching if they are already gender critical? It is notable that these pure gender critical left have not poured vitriol on those left wing women writing for these hated publications and accused them of being right wing.

Ah, good catch @GailBlancheViola!

If all the left wing gender critical feminist writers are now working for right wing publications who IS pure enough for the Actual Gender Critical Left? Julie Bindel regular appears in the Daily Mail and you don’t get much more populist than that (possibly The Sun?). I think it’s a good thing, no point in writing for obscure blogs and pretentious fanzines, not if you want things to change anyway.

If Actual Gender Critical Left want to speak solely to an audience of already gender critical leftwing women, surely they are just talking to each other? Nothing is going to get better for women if you only ever preach to your own, carefully pre-vetted choir.

It’s like that meme with two spidermen pointing at each other.

As Ken said on the Brendan O'Neill podcast, she wants to reach her scaffolder neighbour. The actual gender critical left would never.

I realise this clip has already had it’s own thread but it’s worth giving it another airing.

JHB interviews Ellie Reeves, the Shadow Minister for Prisons and Probation.

Doesn’t exactly fill one with enthusiasm at the thought of a Labour Government, does it?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EvedPT3f7zc

Other than sharing a certain apparent, in-your-face "authenticity against the elite" style I don't see much similarity between KJK and Farage or Palin. Posie is blunt beyond the point of rudeness, which F and P carefully avoid, only going so far. I haven't seen her say anything which is explicitly dishonest. She comes across as conservative and traditional without being particularly right wing, and she doesn't try to present or position herself within a particular political environment. She's not a Tory. She is not obviously on the make, unlike both F and P.

But time will tell.

@FOJN absolutely!

I’ve been listening to Matthew Goodwin on
populism and the monstering of the working classes since 2016 Trump/Brexit and while he has mentioned Women’s rights and the GenderBorg before it’s always been a fairly brief mention in passing kinda like a hot potato he wanted to drop asap (he does work at a university, so who can blame him!)

it’s interesting how his most recent interviews have become decidedly more forthright on the issue, to the point that I find myself wondering if he’s had a personal peakening via his kids’ schools or something (I don’t even know if he has any kids btw!)

I’ve also appreciated Paul Embery’s podcast appearances for discussion of these topics (trade unionist and ‘Blue Labour’)