Anyone who's going to this year's Filia conference, what do you think of the talks?

[Appalonia]

I had a look and I have to admit I didn't find a lot of them very inspiring or relevant. Maybe it's just me but a LOT of them seemed a bit ...niche. I'd be interested in hearing other people's points of view, as the conferences I've been to before in Bradford, Portsmouth and Glasgow were excellent. I don't know how to upload them from their app myself, but you will be able to find them on there.

Some did strike me a bit like that too, but I've never been before and just assumed it's always like that.

I'm sure there will be a lot of interesting points to take away.

I actually found it a really diverse list in a good way. It is really hard to choose what to go to listen too

There's another thread that's got a bit of info about this from the other day although it was overshadowed by a discussion about KJK. If you find it, you could scroll through and see if there's any interesting info/comments about the conference.

I've never been to a conference and unless one happens to be held in my nearest town, I'm very unlikely to be able to make it, sadly.

I loved the fact there's a session dedicated to Gisele Pelicot.

Quite a lot of same old same old.

I agree that it was a great idea to have a session on gisele pelicot

does anyone know why virago pulled out of filia?

I've flicked through the Agenda and I'm sure there will be enough talks that interest me to fill my time however, they do seem to be moving away from 'sex and gender' when I'm not sure that battle has been won yet.

I'll also add (and I don't think this will be a popular opinion on here) there does seem to be even more sessions than usual aimed at the lesbian community. Of course their voices should be heard but then we also need to hear from the boring hetrosexual housewife's juggling 2.2 children, a career and often an arse for a husband/partner. Naturally the lesbian community will focus more on the difficulties that effect them but that's what put me off feminism in the last century, I didn't feel they represented me.

I think they've got a bit high on their own supply tbh. I've been going for the last 6 years and the numbers have increased every year. But the main reason for that is the increased interest in feminism and women's rights due to the very real threat from transgender ideology. Having speakers like Maya Forstater, Helen Joyce , Julie Bindel etc were huge draws. I don't see any of them giving talks this year. If Filia think that the talks they've got on offer this year will appeal to average women in the future then I'm afraid they will just sink into irrelevance again. Such a bloody shame.

Pretty sure julie bindel is doing a panel. There were a lot of names I recognised

I thought they’d make more of the Supreme Court. There is a celebration of the win on Sunday morning but I thought there would be sessions on how to take your government to court and win.

I've been at the last 4 FiLias and been active in fighting gender ideology for about 8 years now.

Personally, I welcome the focus away from GC politics, overall. At the last event, I found myself bumping into otter activists I knew well and them asking me if I was going to attend their talks. Mostly I wasn't, as I'd heard them talk several times before and felt if I went it'd just be to support them and I'd be denying a place from someone for whom it could be new. It all felt a bit back-slappy if you know what I mean? Huge respect for the individual women and what they do, but if it's the same old people in the audience every time, surely they're just preaching to the converted, and what's the point of that?

One of the things I really value about FiLia is that I get to learn about things I wasn't aware of.

Having said that, I wouldn't mind a couple more GC sessions on the programme. A session taking stock and asking "what next" after the SC ruling would be really useful, for example.

I also wish there were a few more practical, activist sessions. Although FiLia is supporting feminist action, the format of the event is a lot of being talked at and the actions happens elsewhere. I hope in future years they do some more collaborative sessions, where women come together to actually DO something.

Mostly, though, I'm really excited for the event. I think the FiLia team do an amazing job putting such a huge event together and I can't wait to be there!

Sunday morning? Oh dear, there will be a lot of rather hungover women after the Saturday night party!😂

There are a few sessions about working through institutions ie how to be a local council botherer etc. For me it is always the chatting to other attendees and talking to stall holders and finding out about their campaigns that makes the weekend.

They booked a venue for 3000 attendees but only 2000 tickets have been sold.

I hope they will reflect on that.

So many women are annoyed with Filia choosing Brighton as a host city. It’s difficult to get to from most of the UK, expensive, a dump and full of TRAs!

Why not Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham?

Also as pp mentioned there are a lot of lesbian only sessions. I personally don’t believe it’s helpful to divide women so much. Surely focus on our common cause as women? Most women do get married/cohabit with men and have kids, but you’d never know that from Filia’s agenda. What about the problems of patriarchy faced by the majority of women?

Mumsnet is more feminist than Filia.

Sunday morning is dedicated to the SC judgment and the impact on women locally and nationally.

You're right, I don't find your comments about lesbian sessions very 'popular' at all, mostly because I don't see that the figures justify them.

I've had a quick look at the list of sessions, over 100, ranging from tai chi to local government to menopause to trade unions and lots in between.

TEN are lesbian-related, and you think that's too much? and 'even more than usual aimed at the lesbian community?'

Since ten is problematic, what would you consider an acceptable level of lesbian focus, that wouldn't put you off feminism again? How much less than 10% would be OK?

Don't they try to have it in a different area every year, and this year is the turn of 'the south'?

But I agree, why bloody Brighton? There are plenty of other places that are less expensive, full of pissed people and with a general anti women vibe.

Only reading because I was mildly interested in what actually happens at a conference like this (would I get anything out of going, would I be able to contribute?). Ten percent of sessions with a lesbian focus doesn't strike me, as a vanilla heterosexual woman, as too high, given that the figure I remember hearing for percentage lesbians in the female population is 10% (have my doubts about the reliability, but in the absence of better data it's as good a place to start as any).

There's a case for trying to over-represent minority interests at a national event like this - in a bigger gathering you actually get decent numbers of any minority so it's an important opportunity. Also, almost by definition, minority interests lose out when agendas, priorities, decisions are decided by democratic majority.

I'll butt out again, other than to say that there's no way I could afford to travel to Brighton, never mind pay for accomodation, so the only chance I'll ever have to go to something like this is if it's closer to where I live and paying per day is an option.

Disclaimer, I am local to Brighton and have been involved in a feminist court case for 4 years that affects women in Brighton. If you want to talk about women’s oppression from violent, narcissistic TRAs then women in Brighton are the ones to speak to!

I haven't checked your figures but I'll accept what you say that it is 10% aimed solely at the lesbian community.

I didn't say it was problematic I commented that it seems more than other years and yes there would obviously be a point where I would no longer feel the organisation represented my views.

Can I ask you the same question, what would be the cut off point if we were talking about a different subset of women for example women with ASD. Assuming that is a group that excludes you, would you still be fully onboard if 20% of the sessions were aimed solely at that group and 20% of the organisations hierarchy were members of this group? How about if it was 30%, 40% or 50%? There must be a point when you would decide Filia was no longer an organisation for you.

Why Brighton is it is the only place on the South Coast with a big enough venue that was available

Given that lesbians have been excluded and attacked by genderism in all mainstream 'feminism' in the past ten to twenty years, I think its a good thing for that section to have extra space afforded to them. Lesbians have had the brunt of some of the worst of trans and MRA activism.

It would be entirely acceptable if the number of specific sessions [ there will be lots of cross-over, ASD women go through the menopause/have issues in the workplace etc etc] was roughly proportionate to the number of ASD people in society.
Ditto lesbians.
At 10% in 2025, which you say is an increase on previous years, I think it'll be a long time before lesbian-only sessions reach 30%, 40% or 50% so at that rate it should remain 'an organisation for you' for a while yet.

It's acceptable for the number of specific sessions to be proportional to the number of people in society having that specific characteristics?

I don't think that works. Roughly 90% of women are hetrosexual but it wouldn't be acceptable for 90% of the sessions to be aimed only at hetrosexual women.

Having said that, I take onboard Arabella's point that the lesbian community have had a really rough time over the last couple of decades so can see it as a positive that they have a little more space.

I think this is an odd way to look at it.

Several sessions run concurrently, throughout the 3 days. It's only possibly to attend a small proportion of sessions on offer.

I wouldn't care if 90% of workshops aren't relevant to me, I'm much more interested in the talks / workshops I do go to.

As long as there's enough on the programme of interest to me that I have a bunch of sessions to attend, what does it matter what the sessions I DON'T go to are about?