Why are feminists like me being labelled ‘far right’? Joanna Williams in the Spectator

[IwantToRetire]

Freedom of Information requests have shown that, unusually, the booking for my lecture was directed to the very top: library boss Michael Ciccone. In an email to colleagues, Ciccone declared, ‘She’s definitely controversial and would draw protests and attention. She considered (sic) a Terf and leans far-right without totally going there.’ Quite what it means to ‘lean far-right’ but ‘without totally going there’ is anyone’s guess. But it certainly sounds like something that would horrify my revolutionary communist younger-self.

Clearly unsure as to whether he could simply ban me from speaking, Ciccone sought advice. He emailed other library heads to ask, ‘Has anyone else received this request for a room booking?’ before stating: ‘The author appears to be of the Megan Murphy (sic) ilk.’ Meghan Murphy, as <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/d8MFR/thespectator.com/author/meghan-murphy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spectator readers will know, is the exiled-Canadian founder of Feminist Current who was banned from Twitter after she tweeted that ‘men aren’t women’. Back in 2019, Murphy spoke at the Toronto Public Library against a backdrop of hundreds of protesters and, since then, she has been stopped from speaking at venues across North America. If there is a Meghan Murphy ‘ilk’, then I am proud to be a member.

The emails continued. One staff member argued it was ‘Tricky to see how we can say no,’ to the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, ‘especially when we hosted them in 2019.’ She suggested I be allowed to speak but was ‘made aware of the code of conduct/ no hate speech.’ Later, having ruled out the possibility of refusing the booking on a technicality, correspondents returned to the theme of hate speech once more: ‘Looking at her work though, it’s hard not to imagine that it could test the bounds of hate speech.’ And with that damning indictment of nothing I had actually said, the ‘trickiness’ of saying ‘no’ vanished.

It seems that in Canada today, if you are of the ‘Meghan Murphy ilk’ and think that men are not women, and are prepared to argue in defence of women’s sex-based rights, you can expect to be labelled ‘far-right’ and accused of ‘hate speech’.

Part of a longer article at https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-are-feminists-like-me-being-labelled-far-right/

Can be read via https://archive.php by pasting in link above into the box provided.

I can’t read the full article, but my answer to the question is that it’s because they want us to be far-right, rather than anything we actually are. They then don’t need to come up with any actual reason to disagree with us or hate us. Straight into the ‘evil’ bucket.

Oh, and I do thinks it’s brilliant that FOI requests means they have to admit to everything they’ve written.

I can’t read the full article

As said in the OP and on many other threads on FWR, if an article is behind paywall go to https://archive.php and paste in the article link in the OP into the box provided.

I think it comes down to lazy thinkers classifying anything they don't like as "far right". Or consciously using the label to demonise a group of people they disagree with. Ironically, calling everyone one doesn't like a "fascist" is a pretty good indicator of authoritarian thinking of the kind that facilitated the rise of fascism.

I do think feminism tends towards collectivist thinking insofar as it focusses on the rights of a group. Of course this could be left wing or right wing. TRAs on the other hand, tend to focus on the primacy of individual rights.

Magdalen Bern' mother , Deborah Lavin , was a founder of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The same thing happens on this forum, poster here smear people they don’t agree with as far right. Now they complain when the same slurs and smears are thrown at people they do like?

The line between right wing and far right used to be a very clear one that everyone understood, far right was any group that supported ethno-nationalism so the BNP for example were far right but UKIP weren’t.

Now the term has been thrown about so much most people don’t even know what it means other than that it is very bad. Poster here have definitely done this.

This 100%

I think it's incredibly sad that these days some people can't just disagree in a mature adult way, someone always has to be demonized and in the case of trans rights and women's right far-right is the new 'she's a witch'

It's obvious, to me at any rate, that it's simply an attempt to smear political opponents. There is no rational argument in favour of pretending that men can be women and allowing men to use women's spaces and services, so the easiest thing to do is to pretend that people who don't agree with it are right-wing. Some people are so cowed at the idea that others will think them right-wing will simply go along with it out of fear.

Two components are necessary for this to work - a fundamental dishonesty and spite on the part of the people initiating the claim, and stupidity/cowardice on the part of those going along with it.

It’s why Billy Bragg and Owen Jones cleave so tightly to misogyny/TWAW - they are left-wing, gender identity is a left-wing thing, ergo they are TRSOH and we must be right-wing.

These are the people who rail against binaries.

Who gets a platform at a public library shouldn't be up to library staff imo.

Rather, you should have published rules and maybe a system of appeal.

This mislabeling of anyone who stands up for women's rights as being right wing has come up on a number of threads here on FWR.

And the main function of this mislabeling is to divert attention from the fact that the left is either silent or misogynistic towards the issue.

So it is whataboutry.

The left can say, look this is just the right wing media saying.

To cover up the fact that the left has not only totally failed to even acknowledge it is an issue, but that they actively censor coverage.

It has nothing to do with anyone being right wing.

It is that the "left" has been totally captured and thinks by saying this they are covering up their political and moral failure.

I do think feminism tends towards collectivist thinking insofar as it focusses on the rights of a group. Of course this could be left wing or right wing. TRAs on the other hand, tend to focus on the primacy of individual rights

TRAs are known to focus on the primacy of their own individual rights. They are not so keen on other people having rights though are they?

It's not just a phenomena around GI though. You see it a lot now.

I have seen Boris Johnson described as far-right, or alt-right, quite a few times, which is crazy. He's quite centrist really, in policy and social issues. He tends to a sort of populist approach, but not more so than say, Tony Blair.

But with any of the current progressive causes now, it seems anyone who has a different viewpoint, even if they have the same basic values in many ways, is not only right, but far right.

Does anyone writing in the Spectator need to truly ask the question why they are being labelled far right? It is rather obvious from them writing in the Spectator!

What is your definition of far right?

If they are pro women and getting this back it’s just a male tactic to dismiss

What is your definition of far right?

A silly one, by the sound of it.

Does anyone writing in the Spectator need to truly ask the question why they are being labelled far right? It is rather obvious from them writing in the Spectator!

This is the exact example of how the left tries to cover up their failure to give women a platform.

The fact that most women's sex based rights articles appear in right wing papers, is because the left is silencing women.

But thanks again for illustrated what a busted flush the TRA arguements are.

So everyone knows that any article about women's sex based rights in a right wing paper is because they have been no platformed by the left.

So the more there are they more we know that the left are betraying women.

Just as I respected Conservative politicians who campaigned against Brexit, I can respect right-wingers who are against gender ideology and/or for women’s rights to safe single-sex spaces. It isn’t (yet) the US, where if you’re left-leaning you have to agree with everything “the left” say or do, and vice versa.

And if enough left-wingers were on this, I wouldn’t need to read anything in Spiked or the Spectator.