Does political activism work?

[PurpleGreenandWhiteAreTheNewPrimaryColours]

I'm interested in how gender critical views can be heard. In a world where it seems women's views on this subject are minimised, how can activism be effective? Or are we flogging a dead horse?

never doubt that a dozen good people with passion and a good argument can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.

I have faith that our arguments are just and reasonable. Sunlight and debate are a huge help our side. 66% of people haven't been following what's going on at all.

Ideas deserve thorough consideration, these ideas:

1. that everyone has a gender identity
2. that is innate (i.e. from birth)
3. that it is fixed and immutable

just don't stand up to scrutiny. And if those things aren't true it can't possibly hold up that

1. gender identity matters more than sex in all situations
2. people's bodies should be altered to match their gender identity

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The position that sex is real and remains socially significant in a range of area is a pretty mundane claim.

You only have to look at sport to see what can be achieved. It is slow sometimes, but that means that sometimes that brings greater confidence (through more information collected) to the final changes.

It was only when female athletes could use recent and current examples AND had enough voices behind them that were not at risk of losing sponsorship or right to compete that they were heard. Before that, it was considered hypothetical because some opposing activists started including philosophical theory to make their case ambiguous and harder to fight. Ie. It should never have reached the point where ‘men were considered women’ in the first place as it clouded the huge accumulated knowledge that male people had physical advantage. The introduction of ‘reduction’ of testosterone was never going to remove permanent advantages, it was always a false premise. However, what sold it in to sport was ‘inclusion’ and the ridiculous notion that ‘men can be women’ while playing on the usage of language that they were ‘women’s events’.

So, yes. Activism works. What on earth do you think the extreme trans activists have been using for decades now to get their demands through to the point they have? It is all just activism.

I’m fairly sure that if the women of Mumsnet (and others) hadn’t organized a mass letter/e-mail campaign to MPs, we’d have self-ID in the UK by now.

And of course, as Helle said, the whole campaign to push the false idea that some men are women has been down to political activism, albeit that most of it was deliberately kept under the radar so the public knew nothing about it. That idea hasn’t spread organically, it’s been top down all the way.

Totally it can work. If you ever doubt it look at our opponents. A relatively small number of activists managed to get huge political change in regards to legal and academic ideas about gender. They were well on the way to erasing the existence of women legally if they hadn't been stopped and they are still trying.

Activist leaders on our side are fighting back and have had some victories. The big question is what next? We are getting legal wins. but that is clearly not enough. We have mumsnet and twitter... but people are still worried and concerned and don't know what to do. I think we need way more IRL action

I think activism works, but I find it's sometimes hard to visualise because often it's about lots of tiny acts rather than the big sweeping statement ones (which are obviously very helpful too).

I definitely feel that things I've contributed as an individual have made a tiny difference in the right direction. Sure, we might be in a similar situation now if I personally hadn't been involved as I'm only one person, but each person's contribution helps.

It's similar to the question "will my one vote really make a difference to the election outcome?".

In addition to the collective power individuals can contribute to a larger campaign, those tiny bits of activism we all probably do on a regular basis also help to change things for the better.

You might not regard all those times you've voiced your concerns to a friend, boycotted a brand, made a complaint, challenged someone's ideological language, etc as activism, but that is what it is, and if it makes even one person consider things from a different perspective, it all helps in the long run.

One of the things I like to think about when considering how best to use my time on this stuff is to consider my existing skills and interests and capitalising on the areas where I feel my efforts can make the most impact while not being totally draining.

So for me, I'm not going to be getting up on a podium or organising a rally any time soon as that's just not my thing and other people are much better at that stuff, but there is plenty I can do behind the scenes (research, drafting, etc) that some of the more outgoing people would find incredibly tedious and would hate to spend their time on. So it all balances out.

When Kellie-Jay forms her political party; join.
Women are 51% of the population and have huge political clout if we would exercise it.

Before we started back around 2016, very few people knew or cared about any of this. And now look.

That’s an achievement.

Its really difficult to predict what will be effective; try not to worry too much about it. Just remind yourself you are fighting for things that are considered basic human rights (like single sex prisons), and for safeguarding, and stick to your moral principles.