BookThatMatter exclude "terfs"

[LonelyFlans]

BooksThatMatter are a book subscription service that focus on books by female writers. They went on dragons den and ended up refusing funding as they didn't want to compromise this. All good.

They've always been lib fem but you could choose to ignore that if you still wanted to support a female-focused business.

However they've just rebranded as AphraBookClub and in the introductory Instagram post they've clearly stated "no terfs". When some women pointed out that this is offensive, they've stated that "terfs are swiftly being blocked".

How very disappointing.

Oh dear, I notice an earnest young fan has asked on IG if they will be including trans- men’s books such as Elliott Page’s? How very transphobic.

It’s a shame as I’m sure I like many other women would otherwise love to subscribe to a genuinely feminist woman only book subscription service rather than this embarrassing mess of handmaidenry, misogyny and dick pandering.

Existance? ODFOD.

Juvenile af

Do they not see the blatant hypocrisy stating in the same line both that they are inclusive but "no terfs" allowed.

Same sort of language in the statement banning Graham Lineham from Edinburgh-something like we are an inclusive venue so we won't let them speak here.

What a ridiculous state of the world!

So presumably that means its not a womans bookclub after all! How ridiculous.

I've got the below image in my head of them at a staff meeting putting all the baddy TERFs in their pink, cute, girly burn book!

Wow the Trustpilot reviews!

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.booksthatmatter.co.uk

A rare example of 'go broke, go woke'?

Oh dear. Men’s rights activists AND incompetent grifters. You’d think they’d be trying to shore up as much business as they could in the face of the appalling reputation they’ve earned themselves, but no. On to Instagram they clatter to trumpet their rebrand and insult the women they’re trying to sell to.

Oh dear, it seems they're just not providing the service the woman hostile reader would like.

How are they claiming to be feminists and exclude us 'terfs'? The 2 completely oppose each other 🤦‍♀️

I am a woman, I love women, and I find myself gravitating towards female-only enterprises such as book clubs. So this isn’t me shitting on the idea of a female-only book club. Hurrah for that. BUT…. Female authors aren’t underrepresented at all. There are more books published by female authors than male authors. And on average, books by female authors sell more copies. So I do wonder if these people are just throwing around “inclusivity” and “equality” drama for the sake of it. Outrage for the sake of outrage.

Companies House filing history here
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11389084/filing-history

Don't have time to go through their docs now but in case anyone does...

Love the way the CEO graciously offers to refund pissed-off Trustpilot customers 'as a gesture of goodwill' - for books they paid for and never got.

Oh no! But I need my feminism packaged as cutely AFing possible! What will I do?

(wink wink)

I’m looking at my copy of The Female Eunuch- it is not cutely packaged AFing all!!!!!

You may find the VIDA count interesting.

Yes, women are well represented in publishing, but in certain areas. Some fields are less open to them, and they tend to get fewer reviews. Some of the most prestigious journals don't reflect the numbers of women in publishing. NYRB and the LRB, for example.

https://www.vidaweb.org/the-count/

Well, apparently they're "queer owned" so that tells us everything we needed to know.

" Stanning" women is something gay men do - not women.

Odd blip in there of positive reviews all done on 16th June with look incredibly suspect in amongst all the awful reviews!

Perhaps they think it’s just terfs’ impossibly high standards, you know, expecting the things you’ve paid for to be delivered, or thinking a company should be easily contactable if things go wrong. Ban the complainy old hags, problem solved! Rainbow people are always so happy and forgiving, after all.

Based in Brighton … might explain the obsession with ‘terfs’?

The accounts do make for interesting reading, not much of a profit and the owner/director is indeed just about to turn 27. I don’t want to be gleeful about a young entrepreneur in trouble but ripping off your customers and then pointing fingers at nefarious forces smacks of desperation. Not sure this culture war stuff is actually good for business.

I’m picturing book club meets being

Reading the comments on some of their other Insta posts - you’d have to be mad to subscribe to this scam after reading the experiences of their customers! Comment after comment of people not receiving their boxes and sending four or five emails only to be ignored. Appalling!

Uhh... why would they use this book? As we all know, Elliot Page has mens feels 🤷🏼‍♀️