Statement on the gender critical movement and the far right

[hellotowel]

https://x.com/GCAntiFarRight/status/1823790909462602205

"We, the undersigned, are deeply disturbed that populist messages particularly targeting Muslims have gained traction among significant numbers of social media accounts associated with the gender critical movement."
Read and sign our statement below.
https://gcantifarright.wordpress.com/2024/08/13/statement-on-gc-movement-and-the-far-right/

but clearly there is a point of disagreement about what is racist and what isn’t. You might strongly believe something isn’t racist, but the person you’re talking to thinks it is racist.

We’re back again to the original point I made. The belief that people are making up accusations for the sake of it, or to be mean, or due to jealousy. Rather than accepting that they genuinely believe there is a racism issue.

We’re back again to the original point I made. The belief that people are making up accusations for the sake of it, or to be mean, or due to jealousy. Rather than accepting that they genuinely believe there is a racism issue.

This exact tactic has been used successfully by TRAs for years to silence women, de-platform and close down debate. It actually works very well.

If you're going to make accusations you need to be able to back them up.

The talk of "head girls" rather makes me think that those who are calling others that, view themselves as the edgey, cool girls. All somewhat childish, and not appropriate for adult women wanting to be taken seriously in political (with a small p) discourse.

I totally agree @Dumbo12 , the head girls/cool girls thing is extremely embarrassing and inappropriate

Whose mouth are you trying to put these words into?

Personally, I think they think of themselves as the head girls, as the rightful leaders of GC feminism. And they don't like other women, non academic women, women without their lefty credentials, getting attention or being viewed as important. Because they think this is their turf and other women they don't approve of are encroaching on it.

So we've had:

• someone added me by mistake but I won't be doing anything about it
• It was a psyop like I'm in charge
• I thought it was about TR who wasn't named but I didn't query it

Any more for any more?

You are talking about the Two tier policing protest. That was not anti-Muslim. Please stop conflating different things.

Did I say it was?

I know and like quite a few academic feminists. Some of them have done work that I very much admire. Some have influenced my thinking.

But I don't think there's any doubt that they don't react well to people without credentials encroaching on what they think of as their territory.

I don't think KJK will ever lose her ability to make me say "fuck sake, what were you thinking?" But go on X and look at who her audience is. It's ordinary women with small accounts, who don't have academic credentials or media platforms or get to hang out with MPs. They might not see themselves as feminists, and if they've even heard of the Big Credentialed Feminists they don't see themselves represented by them.

The Big Credentialed Feminists not only don't reach that audience, it wouldn't occur to most of them to try. And what her audience does know about KJK is that she doesn't talk down to them. She encourages them to speak for themselves.

And to be fair to KJK, if she's got a beef with you she'll say so. Sometimes I wish she wouldn't be so fast to say so. But she doesn't go around getting people to sign open letters Voldemorting the person they're obviously aimed at.

And then Joanna Cherry has the fucking brass neck to talk about silly schoolgirls. There are people here who look teenage, but they aren't who Joanna thinks.

Well. I tell you what. Why don’t you find out about him and then consider why people may have an issue with some high profile GC accounts defending him, because if you genuinely ‘know literally nothing about him’ that might help you understand their position.

Can you provide a link to any high profile GC account defending him please?

Both Birdy Rose and Henrietta Freeman have said that he isn’t far right. If people believe that then fine. That would explain why they don’t see apologism for the far right. However those that do see him as far right would have a different view. TBH I find it breathtaking that anyone would get involved in this discussion while knowing nothing about TR. it seems kind of key.

No no. You said high profile GC accounts were defending him.

I asked you to provide a link. Please provide a link.

Well we're back to definitions of far right aren't we? It's a bit like that dress which caused a stir; gold or blue wasn't it.
What really bugs me is people's inability to actually LISTEN to people who disagree with them. Try to understand their perspective and experiences. Use empathy instead of a sledgehammer. Jump on every word they utter with a gotcha instead of just shutting up and letting them speak.

I think you have declined to define far right several times.

My understanding of far right-
restricting people’s freedoms
believing some people should have fewer rights than other people (people of colour, homosexual, disabled…)
wanting to hurt the above people
wanting to remove people of colour from this country.

Does Tommy Robinson do the above?

More to the point, do the people that turn up to listen to him do the above, or are they there because of what they think he may stand for- British values, as they understand them?

I wonder whether people are so embedded in their own silos that they assume everyone else knows what they know and so is being wilfully obnoxious.

No. Just provide a link to back up your accusations. I've listened to what you've said and now I want you to provide some proof.

You're making very serious allegations. Please back them up. Or shut up.

Well they’re certainly defending from accusations of being far right. You know. Like if someone said ‘Owen Jones isn’t a misogynist’, that would be defending him.

So is it “TR isn’t far right” or “we should engage with TR because we should be trying to reach the far right”. Because it’s getting hard to keep up

This bit from the letter is very interesting..

We also mean those who have jumped on the previous misuse of the ‘far-right’ label by over-zealous sections of the liberal left to now question, minimise or even deny altogether the existence of the far right and the grave and very real threat it poses to the safety and well-being of communities across the UK.

Translation - We've been flinging around and misusing the slur 'far-right' for years and now you want us to define terms?? How very dare you, you RACIST!

Said the little boy who cried wolf.

At the moment, everything Starmer disagrees with is 'far right'. It is being used to jail people who turn up to protests and who did virtually nothing. So yes if everything apart from things you don't like is 'far right' then I'm going to query what made all the other people get called 'far right'.

So that's a resounding no then.

Thanks for clarifying.

Slow hand clap for those idiots who wrote that letter and all who have signed it. You've done more to divide this ( already tiny and beleaguered ) movement than any TRA could have done.

I hope you're bloody proud of yourselves...

You don't think they're defending him from the accusation of being far right. Interesting take