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/

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. From those who put them forward

Yes, I was disappointed to see women I had previously respected linking up with TR. But to use that to tie the mass of GC women to the Far Right is just ridiculous.

Someone upthread mentioned nuance... And on that theme, it is entirely logical to say that, on the one hand, one of the reasons one wants to preserve female-only spaces is to maintain the liberties of religious Muslim women and, on the other hand, to want the bloody book thrown at those tossers who drove around north London threatening to rape Jewish women, and to wonder why the hell that didn't happen... Let that sort of thing carry on unpunished, and you will embolden the violent at the political extremes. And to say that you can understand why the Far Right have been throwing bricks for funsies and that you can see the point of some of what they are saying, is NOT to support them. It's to start to work out how to change their minds.

By, for example, making arrests the next time different hooligans on are on the streets threatening a different minority. Because if you just arrest the Far Right loons, they can wallow in a cosy little persecution mania.

Sorry, that went far off topic, but I am so bloody frustrated about all of this. I despise our politicians for bringing our country into this situation.

I suppose it's the feminist version of the Will-You-Condemn-A-Thon.

http://decentpedia.blogspot.com/2007/08/will-you-condemn-thon.html

The thing about the "links and ties" school of argument is that it's very easy to turn around against those who use it.

For instance, I've no doubt many of the signatories will recently have been to rallies organised by Stand Up To Racism. They may even have grabbed one of the many placards on offer.

In principle, there's nothing wrong with this. Almost everyone who goes to a SUTR rally is motivated by wanting to oppose racism, and they might have a vague idea that it's a union backed campaign. They probably won't know that SUTR is run by the Socialist Workers Party, with its long history of covering up rapes in its own organisation.

Now I could adopt the WPUK style of argument and passive aggressively wonder why so many feminists are willing to stand alongside the rape-defending SWP. But that doesn't get us very far, does it?

Unless you see this stuff as a raw assertion of power by people who say* "we will associate how we please, but you* had better watch your backs or we'll call you nazis - because we have status in the movement and you don't."

Since I'm not on X I have very little idea what this was all about. And had to google Yaxley-Lennon to find out who that was - why not just say it's Tommy Robinson, even if you put it in brackets, so that those of those who dont hang on his every word know what you are on about.

OP does, of course, realise that there are many women who can not sign political statements because of their employment and that TRAs will make others fearful of openly declaring they are gender critical. So not signing this document will be for a variety of reasons.

Personally I dont normally sign virtue signalling documents of any type. If I think something is wrong I'll take what action I can to stop it. So if you say there are Muslims in my local community who are at risk I'll go and woman a barricade if necessary. Of course that would put me at risk of being in the vicinity of, and therefore deemed to be associating with, people who dislike Muslims. I'd still go, actions not words.

TRAs dont want women, including Muslim women, to have any right to privacy or any single sex spaces. That's Islamophobic, misogynistic, and they are homophobes as they hate same sex attraction.

I'm personally really grateful for these endless "I'm gc......but isn't it awful how many gc people are far right these days?" threads. If it weren't for the regular sanctimonious reminders, I'd have chucked a brick at my local mosque on the way to returning a library book the other day.

I find this call to authority really odd.

There isn't a sacred caste of gentry left feminists that all women on FWR are obliged to defer to.

I (and the other women here) are just as well informed and intelligent as they are, and quite capable of forming our own opinions, which carry equal weight.

Performative shunning is a feature of left wing politics. We get browbeaten to do it on here, all the time and this is just more of the same.

It's not a call to authority. It's pointing out that lots of women (and some men - the letter's authors are men) who have spend many years thinking, talking, listening, writing and so on have signed this letter because they're completely aware of the link between 'gender critical' perspectives and the far right that are well and truly in the public domain and want to distance themselves from it.

Other well informed and intelligent people are of course free to express themselves how they wish, where they wish.

It's not performative shunning. It's wanting to put clear blue water between their views and the anti-Muslim, great replacement theory, 'Yaxley-Lennon has a point', stolen election hate that has influenced many 'gender critical' accounts that are in the public domain.

There's those that write letters, those who write books, those who write articles, those who crowdfund many many thousands of pounds to defend the things they wrote.

And of all the years of their writings and open letters? What have they accomplished, besides a bigger bank balance for themselves?

They've stopped not a thing.

Then there's those that do. Who put up a billboard? Who got mainstream attention? Who organised a political party? Who gathers 100s if not 1000s of women at microphones around the world? Who has been on national news in several countries around the world, getting eyes on the issues?

The first group dislike the second.
Trans ideology supporters watch the divisions and laugh.

(I know I shouldn't post this, people might be upset and call it nonsense, but until the splintered groups come together for a sole purpose, until the purity tests and the head girls stop bickering, trans ideology wins)

It is a call to authority, you are implying that because well known feminists have said something there must be some substance to it. I assert this is not necessarily the case as their motivation may in fact be part of a recognisable pattern practiced by those on the left.

Nah. Diversity of views and disent and argument are all healthy. No matter how much we all argue, the world will continue being round.

Oh goody. The Head Girls™️, embedded in purity politics, are still so jealous of other feminists getting attention that they've decided to tell political opponents we're all racist. Because that's exactly what the letter will be used to prove. Talk about self-sabotage!

more likely, argue about it for a thousand posts while saying nothing new.

Well I guess that's why you posted it, isn't it?

No they haven't. The connections between gender critical views/perspectives and racist, anti-Muslim, populist hate are already in the public domain for all to see. Which, I assume, is why the signatories of this letter want to publicly distance themselves from all sort of fundamentalism.

I keep remember Pragna Patel speaking at Filia in Cardiff in 2021 about how the far right was influencing 'gender critical' views. Unfortunately, no-one on the now infamous 'elephant in the room' thread was willing/able to engage with what she had said because posters were so busy trying to convince themselves that the whole meeting was a coded attack on KJK. But this is exactly what Pragna was warning about - a gradual creep of racist, anti-women, populist hate into 'gender critical' discourse so that people don't even recognise it anymore.

Let it all out OP

Anti-Muslim or anti-Islam? Many people are desperate to conflate the two. Yet I cannot see how you can be a feminist or gender critical and be pro-Islam? A religion where women’s voice is worth less than a man’s.

If you haven't aligned yourself with the far right, they don't mean you .

You're welcome

So why the fuck post it here?

Speaking as a shire wife and proud domesticated zombie, I'm always a bit puzzled why some people are so intent on trying to convince me of how to be pure. They don't want my type anyway.

Oh, I guess they enjoy my regular donations, though. There is that.

But do they really think struggle sessions are a good method of fundraising?

I think this is divisive, and not particularly helpful. Better to say we are a broad church with many differing opinions, which inevitably crosses the political divide. And that’s the point isn’t it? You don’t have to be left or right wing to agree that women’s spaces need to be protected. It’s a strength, not a weakness that people of all political viewpoints can agree on this. We all agree that gravity exists…

agreeing that women’s spaces need to be protected doesn’t make me far right just because a far right person also agrees with that point - it’s the old Hitler was a vegetarian thing.

Upthread, someone said the letter was written by a man. Is that true? Because it makes it even worse - women are queuing up behind a man who wants to split and purge women from a women's movement.

I have to admit I've not mustered the energy to even read the link.

Because of that letter we are all far right to the transactivists. Even the signatories. Probably especially the signatories now. And that stands no matter how many women we denounce as witches in a vain effort to prove our own purity; when we're divided, the stake waits for us all. So much for the sisterhood!

There has been a strong message put about by tra's that being gc is linked with being far right. I thought that was rubbish, until I saw gc people who certainly gather plenty of attention, espousing far right causes and beliefs, marching alongside far right activists and calling for the result of the general election to be overturned.
Others may be happy to stand with those people, others are not. No one is forcing anyone to agree, or sign the letter, but the ire displayed by some posters is eye opening.

I'm disgusted by this letter, Julie Bindel, Rosie Duffield and Joanna Cherry can get to fuck and this is coming from a woman who has previously supported all 3 of them.

'stand with'

The only serious point I will make in response to this tedious bullshit is that if you repeatedly call someone 'far right' when they are not you dilute the meaning and that overall makes it harder to properly identify and combat racism and prejudice. It makes things worse, not better.

And yes, I have ire. I'm fucking sick of people deigning to dirty their hands coming on here to educated the unwashed masses while handing out sly digs at the same time.

'stand with', good god. Grow up.