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Gender Critical Feminism
Feminism is the movement to liberate women from patriarchy. We stand up for the rights of women to control our own bodies as individuals and to control women-only spaces as a class.
Women are adult human females. We do not believe that men can become women by 'feeling' like women or 'identifying' as women. We condemn the erasure of females and female-only spaces, the silencing of critical thinking, the cancelling of feminists and critics, the denial of biological reality and of sex-based oppression. We oppose the 'cotton ceiling' and the pressure on lesbians to have sex with men. Women are oppressed to exploit their biological sex characteristics, and women have a right to a movement that is about their own liberation from that oppression. We resist the redefinition of both "women" and "feminism" to make them serve men.
"Women do not decide at some point in adulthood that they would like other people to understand them to be women, because being a woman is not an ‘identity.’ Women’s experience does not resemble that of men who adopt the ‘gender identity’ of being female or being women in any respect. The idea of ‘gender identity’ disappears biology and all the experiences that those with female biology have of being reared in a caste system based on sex." –Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts
"Men often react to women’s words—speaking and writing—as if they were acts of violence; sometimes men react to women’s words with violence. So we lower our voices. Women whisper. Women apologize. Women shut up. Women trivialize what we know. Women shrink. Women pull back. Most women have experienced enough dominance from men—control, violence, insult, contempt—that no threat seems empty." –Andrea Dworkin, Intercourse
62 comments
"Plain English has power. JK Rowling gets that."
So, so true. This is why we MUST fight to say "women" and "girls" and "male violence" and all the other plain English words that resonate with women everywhere (the same goes for every other language as well - speak plainly and people will hear you).
Word salad hides meaning, as well as lack of meaning. I think this is what's been bothering me about "inclusive language." It all just ends up sounding like "blah blah blah," so no one really understands what's happening or what TRA intentions are. I've read so many screeds that seem to say nothing because they are just too verbose. It just sounds like someone trying to sound smart, but they just come across angry and smug.
YES. I particularly loathe when they disguise pedophilia advocacy under a layer of bland syllable sauce.
This reminds me of George Orwell's essay, Politics and the English Language, where he explores how English is used in some types of writing, sometimes from an aesthetical point of view, but sometimes to willfully hide the meaning behind the words. It is an interesting read.
Plain English I can do. I hated that she had to use the word "Natal"though. But I guess saying "Women and girls" would have been seen as to othering.
Natal is better than cis. I’d rather refer to myself as a natal woman than a cis woman. Because natal has nothing to do with gender
" If you want to bombard me with post-structuralist analysis of how I'm reinforcing discourses and hierarchies of oppression, or whatever it might be, honestly, it's not worth your time. I just love great writing."
This made me lol.
When it comes to Rowling, it's probably reinforcing the cisheteropatriarchy specifically. Have you ever heard an uglier Frankenword than that...
There was a hilarious Onion video making fun of just that on one of the Circles here.
I suspect this man does not care for woke bullshit.
I'm starting to think there is a shift in the climate.
I have been thinking this too. It feels like we're finally starting to see more pushback and less blind acceptance of every new order from the wokest activists. The Keira Bell ruling won't be ignored for much longer, I think - journalists are going to start feeling like it's safer to speak out (while, of course, continuing to reiterate their support for trans people) and they'll get hungry for those Pulitzers and other accolades.
honestly, i think british feminists have done a lot over the last year to lead the push and they deserve our kudos. i've had a few conversations with co-workers over the year about this; it started with a lot of them having no idea what was happening but more recently there's been more awareness and i think it's because of the reaction to JKR. TRAs overplayed their hand throughout the year. the more they screamed "no argument" the more regular people started to look at the other side and realize we have sound arguments.
I'm in constant admiration of British feminists. Thanks, sisters.
It's slow but starting.
After Kiera Bell then the ruling on Free Speech, more people are testing the waters of pushing back.
What was the ruling for free speech? Was that the one with the mother who went to jail over a tweet?
Kate Scottow. She was fined, not sent to jail - and told by the judge that she ought to be teaching her children to be kind https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/17/kate-scottow-and-the-freedom-to-be-unkind/
Her appeal was successful, thank goodness 😅
It was the one where the judge stated that Free Speech includes the right to offend. It was the one with the mother who was arrested for the tweet. I think her name was Kate Scottow, she won her appeal.
It was a thoughtful piece that took a lot of guts to write and make public. The masses have turned on many public figures who, years later, were vindicated.
And despite what the TIM on my facebook says, she was INCREDIBLY respectful throughout the whole essay. Which is hard to do when you get rape/death threats from these people on the daily like Rowling does.
I found it interesting that she said that she was friends with a transwoman and she said she thought of her as a woman even though she was trans. What TRAs got so mad about is that is how most people think.
I doubt any TRA'S or trans people actually read the essay. The most exposure they got of it was probably edited and biased interpretations from "allies". As soon as became clear that JK didn't believe trans people were the literal sex they claim to be, they responded with the usual hysteria, narcissism, lies and violence.
I'm glad most people, like this critic, saw right through the smear campaign (and attempts at emotional manipulation).
Yeah, I came back to facebook after like a 10 year absence and someone I thought was a normal reasonable TIF is crying about how JKR literally wants her dead. Coming to that conclusion after reading her lines about loving her trans friend and saying transition is often fine is not possible. It's sad that fearmongering has such tight control on our society.
Nope you're wrong. At least 10+ articles on Medium, maybe 7+ on Reddit ( Reddit has a whole subreddit dedicated to her Hate) and over 250 on YouTube. One Trans YouTuber had 25 videoes on the subject. Don't know about Tumblr cause I'm on all the block list. I'm sure Instagram blew up to.
Then there were post post post when Eddie Redmayne wrote his own article about the abuse JK Rowling was suffering. And the main gripe: She's been made out to be a victim. The public was giving her sympathy!
Later there would be a counter essay in which had 150 signatures from people like Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman and Stephen King etc.
So yes they read the essay.
huh on Tumblr plus irl only like... two people had ACTUALLY read it in full. many said they had to stop because it was wayyyyy toooooo triggering
All the posts I mentioned broke each paragraph down.
So they did read it in its entirety.
Stephen King used to be my favourite author, now he just grinds my gears into the ground.
He's one of those dudes who call themselves feminists and are to an extent but are constantly pushing their view of women and how feminism should be managed. Dude, you can't be an ally if you want to set the terms.
IT was so weird I wondered what kind of fucker would come up with that. Turns out someone with no backbone.
I actually do think that her essay was remarkably well-crafted, for reasons aside from me agreeing with her.
I think it’s a struggle to communicate gender critical ideas in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the average person without any substantial exposure to radical feminism, but she nailed it in a way that really makes sense out of a topic with so much crazy bullshit and weird vernacular around it.
I rate her as an essayist better than a novellist tbh.
It was a brilliant piece of writing. I'm glad others think so.
beautiful. powerful.
I see they're having a go at him on Twitter, predictably.
Have they threatened him with rape, called him the c-word or say he should die in a fire? I just wonder what their “having a go” is like for a man.
Does Twitter have analytics where responses to a certain tweet or hashtags can be categorized by user demographics and words including “rape” “fire” “bitch” “cunt” “die” “cut” “punch” “scum”, etc? Along with anime avatars?
That could lead to some great info graphics
Great idea! Wow.
I immediately went to Twitter, because I knew that the responses would be hilarious and infuriating.
This one seems to be the best so far. It’s so funny to me when people insist that they alone know the views of this or that historical person, certain that she would approve, or disapprove, or be rolling in her grave at the very thought.
Lol, I've wondered before where Russell would stand. On the one hand, he would prioritise facts over ideology, and would see through the bullshit, especially the capitalist foundation. He was anti-religion and one reason was that he felt that a belief in the supernatural led to otherwise-unjustifiable practices like witch-burnings. He also saw through smear campaigns and political manipulation, and cared about people over theories. Otoh his political essays generally have a blindspot for women's perspectives (I didn't notice this when I first read them at 17, but it stood out when I reread a couple more recently) and I think he would be inclined to believe in the 'prudes trying to control people' narrative if he didn't look deeper. He was someone prepared to change his mind based on evidence, even with things he was strongly in favour of, so I'm inclined to think he would start positively disposed to it, then go 'wait, what the fuck?' like the rest of us, probably not as early as the first feminists started ringing alarms, but still relatively early. I can't see him supporting deplatforming, so I think that would have got his attention if he hadn't been looking before that. I feel like it's disrespectful to him to think he would entertain any of it, but I've been disappointed in various people over this, so I'm not going to make assumptions about his views just because I like him a lot. :P (
but otoh lol he was way too smart for this rubbish just saying)I find this account convincing!
He sounds like a really interesting person! You’ve clearly read a lot of his work, so where would you suggest someone who has never read him before start?
Glad these two men are policing feminism and telling it like it is to the other men who dare acknowledge a feminist.
Oh dear...Does it mean anything though? They have a go at everyone. Plus, if it's a male, they won't go very hard in sad cat girl mode. They're going to word salad him and then find some woman to blame for his actions. Damn Terf Industrial Complex strikes again!
Yes they piled on very hard to a woman who RT'd him.
Vultures spotting their new icon to spew hatred at.
I'm happy to see this; I was fucking blown away by the craft of that essay, and in some ways I'm more pissed off by TRAs' characterisation of it as 'rambling' or 'dithering' than all their lies about the arguments within. I'm happy this piece linked to Suzanne Moore's essay, too!