The “women’s march” that’s all about the men.

[BackToLurk]

I couldn’t see a thread about this, but I’m just here to share how annoying it is to see a so-called women’s march so concerned with placating men. This is the march in January.

As well as the highly predictable “this is for all women” (meaning including the ones who are men) and the ‘we don’t tolerate transphobia’ (meaning any concept of sex-based oppression), the Facebook group is full of posts reassuring men that of course they’re welcome and it’s not all men and obviously “not my Nigel”. It’s infuriating. Why do people do this?

Be worth looking into as what they done was highly discrimatory. I wasn't even saying anything against the trans community and they gave me the boot

I assume they have evidence of the 'threats' and 'inciting violence' they're claiming.

It is direct discrimination on the grounds of belief.

They may be able to discriminate if they claimed their genderist TWAW views allow them to exclude people with other views.

But I think that would require TWAW to be Grainger tested to see if it was Worthy of Respect in a Democratic Society - 'gender critical' views have already been tested and found WORIADS.

(I am not a lawyer, this is just my understanding.)

'a religious or belief organisation is restricting its membership or participation in its activities, or the provision of goods, facilities and services to persons of a particular religion or belief. This only applies to organisations whose purpose is to practice, promote or teach a religion or belief, whose sole or main purpose is not commercial. A restriction can only be imposed:

• if the purpose of the organisation is to provide services to one religion or belief
• if it is necessary to avoid causing offence to persons with the same religion or belief as the organisation'

www.equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equality-act-2010/your-rights-under-equality-act-2010/religion-or-belief-discrimination

You could contact the Free Speech Union to discuss it, they are happy to hear from people who've suffered because of their views/beliefs:

freespeechunion.org/

Yes. I went when pregnant and then with small DC on Mothers' Marches, but I wouldn't do the same now there are the risks you describe.

I believe this is from the fb argument I was having earlier on a FB page. She didn't like my response and deleted her comments.

Ah, okay. It's pretty dishonest behaviour.

Fairly typical though.

Very much so and as soon as she is challenged on it, she's taking down the comments.

Now with added Socialist Worker

Still lots of talk about men

Yes when, “inclusivity is at the core of the UK Women’s March” it's clear women aren't at the core!

It's basically a get together, for anyone seeking a subset of "inclusivity" and we know who wants to insert themselves and where they want to be.

Unfortunately people are buying into it

I had a similar experience. The most recent staff survey showed that we have no trans staff. But these non existent staff still need to be centered apparently.

This is just a re-run of what happened when women tried to coopt the out cry after the murder of Sarah Everard and created a facebook group that tried to dictate to women who joined out of spontaneous anger. (It was discussed at length on FWR - I think Streets was in the title of the group.)

And this one is just a re-run of the Women's Marches in the UK after the last election of Trump.

They are just re-creating it for when Trump becomes President for the second time.

Why is anyone surprised then, whether you like it or not, these are their politics. Why waste time being shocked by a group whose politics you dont shared,

Far more important is why GC women dont organise on the same level.

For a reminder of the 2017
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/womens-march-london-donald-trump-protest-trafalgar-square-inauguration-washington-dc-a7539636.html

The turn out being much more about being against Trump rather than pro women.

And that "man"ifestation of the group just withered away.

And in the US, that set the fashion for that group, it led to leaderhsip battles, political point scoring etc., https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/three-founding-women-s-march-leaders-leaving-board-after-anti-n1055351

I cant for the life of me think why anyone is surprised or is bothering to be concerned what they talk about. It's like joining a group of marxists and then being shocked that the talk about marx.

Its just the usual cooption by the left of any spontanious response to events. They just want to control it and tell us how to think

See thread from 2019 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/3483242-Womens-March-London-says-trans-voices-should-be-elevated-over-womens-voices

This is just willingly taking part in a sort of political groundhog day.

More importantly is how do we break out of it than agonising over what is predictable.

I’ve just joined the group out of pure curiosity, and already know I’ll be kicked out as soon as I say anything!
My reasons for marching for women’s rights would be to keep women’s spaces for women. To keep men out of women’s sports. I want my daughter to be able to go into a women’s bathroom/changing room/ gym locker room etc and not have to share that space with a man in a dress. This is women’s rights to me, am I’m so devastated that these women have been manipulated into believing this is wrong.

This is just a re-run of what happened when women tried to coopt the out cry after the murder of Sarah Everard and created a facebook group that tried to dictate to women who joined out of spontaneous anger. (It was discussed at length on FWR - I think Streets was in the title of the group.)

Yes, "Reclaim These Streets" - I imagine some of the same people are likely involved.

This post seems to assume that anyone who is talking about this is also unable to be involved in any activity aiming to protest in a different way or look at ways to 'break out of it'.

It also ignores the fact that people like @TigerLily40 joined the group and wanted to be involved, before becoming disillusioned. She won't be alone, which indicates that everyone isn't necessarily aware of this happening before and so it's worth highlighting.

I mean you could argue a lot of the stuff talked about on FWR is like 'groundhog day', so why bother?

Excellent decision

People need to remember that discrimination on the grounds of belief is not wise. I would be wary of calling this an "excellent decision". Just saying.

Thank you for your post and you have made some very good points. I know I shouldn't let them ruffle my feathers but I feel discriminated against for my beliefs and other women felt the same way too. I feel it is important to be a voice for them and take this further which I am looking into.
What I have learned since this happened is that there are groups of women who organise (and unlike WRM know how to organise) protests and more importantly deal with politicians first hand in regards to women's rights.
I sat in those lead meetings for the WRM and heard some very unsettling things which made me leave.

The use of the word TERFs is considered derogatory and to be banned on the basis of belief is discrimination. They claimed to be inclusive of all expect if you disagreed with them

Is reclaim the streets just as bad as this woman's rights march?

Not "Reclaim the Streets" the established campaign. This one was called "Reclaim These Streets".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReclaimThesee_Streets

The only person who used the word was ArabellaScott. No doubt she had her own motivations for doing so. What the site rules actually say is that "this is an inclusive space. Discrimination or transphobia will not be tolerated." Which is no different from any well run organisation.

This group?

No throughout the group they use the word TERFs and actually threaten to hit them. I sat in on organisers meetings where they repeatedly used that words and worse. Go into the group and search the word TERF and you will see what I mean. I was a lead organiser and left because of this. In the organiser group chat, it was horrendous.