A Poundshop Le Pen, Solidarity & Progress

A PoundShop Le Pen, Solidarity & Progress

Ida Dunne-Moore

Lessons from a very uneducated woman, delivered in haste

Right now, Owen Jones is smirking. And it's not even the fake, smug jerk-smirk he owns like a resting b*tch-face. It's the malevolent, brooding self-satisfaction of one of those meme cats. 

Base wanker - OJ

I'm exhausted. And it's exhaustion of that weary, wary, self doubting feeling; that I don't know enough to comment, because each side appears so well defined. So vociferous and resolute. 

And angry. 

This internecine squabbling within RadFem / Gender Critical quarters, regarding the ideological schism between the all welcome, no-borders soapbox and dedicated left-wing feminists with firm ideological boundaries, it really puts me off getting involved with any campaign to any meaningful degree. I really think we all need to pull back from this as much and as soon as possible. 

It's miserable that we are so fiercely infighting, and feeds into more stereotypes than I dare think about. 

I was there, at the Brighton Let Women Speak event. I walked down, cracked a beer, and was initially given that familiar "u-huh, one of us" nod as I wandered through the Congregation of Misogyny & Woo to the dark side. It was probably my black clothes and steel-toe boots. Also my obvious, edgy youth and down-with-the-fellow-young-people-ishness. 

Do you know, I was surprised I wasn't judged by the LWS contingent? I expected, halfway between there and leaving the house, they might be suspicious, because of my clothes and presentation. But they weren't. 

And, from the instant I crossed that fuzzy, badly policed line which lapped against the speaker's event like incoming tide on a beach, I was jeered and bombarded with the hand gestures, hisses and screams trans rights activists have perfected. Just smiling at another woman, listening to the speakers, it would be enough to condemn you to the gulag if they were in charge. 

I live in Brighton, so have actually felt nervous (on one occasion) since. I've seen the narrative the TRAs have heaved from their innards and dumped online, I've seen them fall apart like loo roll in torrential rain and then... This:

A distinct vibe of the jabby fingers; absolute support / condemnation. Division. And I love people on both sides. And the tension makes me feel like I should pick a side. 

I'm just non-binary in a binary world, I suppose. The discomfort is real. The struggle, too.  

I have an issue with Kelly-Jay Keen that some will ridicule, dismiss or condemn - I think she's too hard, obsessively too hard, on people like Debbie Hayton.

I like Debbie. He's measured, writes great articles and has clearly changed his mind over the years, and lets not ignore what an asset trans allies are in getting some people who would never hear us out, listen. And I know this exposes misogyny, that a male speaking is given more credence than a female. I also agree it's a shame, it is wrong, that he is so widely platformed while lifelong feminist, academic women are not. 

But, as someone who was scared about raising concerns over trans activism, even after a very real outrage I suffered by a supposed transwoman during the absolute worst time of my life, I appreciate our trans allies. 

I was also there, scared of the response from friends, the judgement of wokey twats around me - I'll be disowned, I thought - because whatever I see, it's a simple case of hate to my wider community. 

Misogyny atomises us from our needs: we aren't that important, we probably expect too much. All these other, more vital identities crowd in, obscuring our most basic class - sex. 

Why aren't we all more focused on the list of the thousand and one More Important Matters which are somehow always in the way? 

Somewhere in my head, a conversation spills into my consciousness - am I weak? No! I am not weak! Why then am I trying to portray myself as some delicate flower, wilting at room-temperature? Can't I see my struggles aren't as dire, there are needy people I'm shutting out? Think of the trans, we are implored, like my childhood church demanding prayer for the poor black babies... 

Those alleged friends who carried unfathomable misogyny under this cloak of wokeness, they had a foreboding power over me. And so, it was reading articles by Miranda Yardley, Hayton, Kristina Jayne Harrison, in conjunction with many, female, others, that gave me the confidence to call it. 

Do I suffer with internalised misogyny? I'm fucking sure I do. Am I only just now, in middle age, emerging from crippling self doubt? Well, duh. 

I find the sniping at them (why doesn't Yardley get it?) ugly and destructive. But guess what? Other women disagree.

Other women, who have suffered at the hands of AGP men, have a visceral response to trans identified males speaking on this. I totally understand, and respect that. 

Even though I find value hearing some of them, I understand trauma, for one. But I also know my mind is not done learning and I accept that rejecting what they say as trauma is the act of a closed-minded, patronising turd. I don't always like or feel comfortable with the rhetoric, but when has that ever been a legitimate barrier to listening? 

So, you know what I do? I try to hear other women. 

I've seen enough of Kelly-Jay Keen by now to believe she really is fighting this for the benefit of women and kids, and she's gifted at bringing attention to the cause. 

And, for fuck's sake, one right-wing woman with gross views on immigration and benefits (entirely dependant on benefits, here) speaking about the term 'cis' and the need for clear language is irrelevant, really. People will distance themselves from what they want. Asking them to do so tends to awake the gobshite adolescent. Haven't we had enough of that? 

This constant, judgemental watchfulness, the guilt by association, is oppressive and insulting. 

I condemn Hearts of Oak and whatever grim, macho outfits of their ilk. What a knobby name, too. 

But whilst they were there, the live-streaming was with phones. We were all recording with phones. 

Two men had phones. But if you listen to certain characters, you'd have thought we'd carried Nick Griffin aloft through the streets, lobbing our hats in the air and cheering after he rented a deck chair for every woman and her dog. 

Christ on a cock-shaped bike. 

... 

I don't think the grooming gangs of predominately Asian, Muslim men got away with abusing predominantly white, working class girls on race and fears of accusations of racism - I think some powerful or (disastrously) well-placed people were involved, whether in sexually abusing the girls themselves, taking bribes or neutralised by blackmail. 

This as well as cultural taboos on both sides that degraded these poor children. These were certainly worse, of course, on the side of the abusers, who irrefutably employed racism against the girls to dehumanise them. We have to talk about that. 

I was once a white working class girl, and a 'difficult', furious, drug using, traumatised one at that. One who confided in social workers, family counsellors and police, that I was being hurt by adult men, and, guess what? No one cared. (Actually, I'm sure some cared, but enough of them for action? Nah.) 

Whistleblowers are always hated, but probably not referred to as 'whistleblowers' at the time. Maybe 'racist' was a good proxy. 

... 

To ignore the snobbery from the Gender Critical Left - the "domesticated zombies" "thick feck" "PoundShop Marine Le Pen" and the rest is an egregious, silly mistake. Can we accept that good people have said bad things, not drag it out infinitum? 

I am left wing, I live in fear of benefit cuts, more ATOS obstacle courses with their lies and tricks. 

I am frightened by the Tories, and have instinctively sided against them since childhood. I've seen desperately vulnerable people fight immigration and heard enough about the holding centres to be afraid. I hate their attitude to animal welfare. I hate brexit. I hate HS2. They pump shit straight into our ecosystem, for the love of God. 

I wish the present Labour party would listen, and if you think you might get through, past the sneering dicks on the front line and reach the apathetic pricks higher up, go for it.

Please, thank you and good luck. Because it doesn't appear to be a winner. A year ago today, Keir Starmer insisted it was wrong to say only women have cervices. I haven't seen any change, despite the intense efforts of many. Maybe the tide will turn when they finally see how batshit, misogynistic and unpopular it is, but seeing the vile dismissal of women against the sex industry as 'SWERFs' (one of the most disingenuous slurs possible), the insanity of Labour Lesbians being refused entry and precocious twats demanding WPUK be kicked out of Labour, it feels like an uphill battle with a downhill wind and landslide of slippery, bastard misogynists clinging onto our legs. 

But this is grim, and as character traits go, divisive ain't a great one. Your aim, my aim, might be wider, deeper, more detailed liberation from patriarchy but, right now, women are sharing hostels and prisons and refuges with obscene predators like Katie Dolotowski, Melissa Addis, Karen White, Kayleigh Woods, Paris Green, Jessica Winfield. A woman was raped in a psychiatric ward and the hospital and police covered it up. 

Having been in a similar situation, I can't fully articulate the urgency. 

And that gets to me. It gets to me this is happening:

Because this isn't about taking shelter under the great umbrella of 'Knowing Men Are Not Women': it's knowing men are not women and female spaces are essential and need protecting and no child is born in the wrong body and affirmative models are disastrous and there is a co-ordinated, conspiritorial, subversive effort to undermine material reality. One that is imploding safeguarding and damaging the lives and bodies of thousands. 

It is causing harm across every captured institution, every Bench Book, every employment tribunal, every rape crisis centre, hospital, prison or refuge policy it possibly can and progress cannot come soon enough. 

You know though, what also gets to me? As a woman who's already wounded by that barely decipherable bristle that turns to weird, cold text appearing, just as the little like and love reacts cease - or the eyebrow raise and pause, when a friend turns against you and responds in that oddly formulaic prose that is so impersonal it could be a robot has possessed them - when that happens again, I know it. 

My supposed friends who pretended to hear but never could bring themselves to listen - I start getting that from this, Gender Critical Left, side. 

To be clear, I've always been cautious, unsure, and had sympathies with both sides. I've been hesitant and I'll talk to anyone who engages in a way which isn't abusive. 

And yet I was Facebook friends with a woman, quite well known on this district of the GC left and with a reputation for purity. She has always been lovely, smart and funny. Recently I worked out her account was no longer visible. And I asked around, is she ok? I've for a long time read of and sympathised with ongoing issues she faces. And when I asked, I got a lot of denial, obfuscation and, ultimately, hostility, too. 

My crime was to criticise the men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse. This was along with a lot of other criticism of; Rittenhouse being there, of the republican party, religious right, gun culture, that inimitable tosser Tucker Carlson, entitled and violent masculinity...

That was my crime. She never engaged with me, although she clearly spoke to at least one person about it. She just blocked me. 

After asking a mutual friend I got a snipey, abrupt reply, because, apparently, I should know. It felt very snide and cliquey. 

It felt symptomatic, too, of this zero tolerance to anti-doctrine conversation and fearful exclusion of heretics. 

I certainly don't stand with Kelly-Jay Keen on all matters and I find her brash and harsh, but I'm sorry, I am not going to stand here, on the side which continues to pick away, obstructing the meaning and impact of so many women, speaking. 

Stake out your own boundaries, of course. 

We all have different values - I honestly find Julie Bindel's defense of meat eating distressing. Oh, and Rowling's treatment of Jeremy Corbyn. And one I cannot be bothered to name, who I once really admired, before I realised how duplicitous, obsessive and nasty she can be. 

Some women I admire can be inexcusably harsh and unpleasant in twitter interactions. Arty Morty was so, so wrong for accusing RadFems of a bloodlust for trans people. And the people who started suggesting that he was sympathetic to paedophiles..?! Exulansic was horrible, abusive to people with DSDs. Karen Davis was vile about Stella O'Malley and PITT. I really take issue with stuff Germaine Greer has said about lots of things. Simone de Beauvoir, didn't she sign that manifesto that would essentially legalise paedophilia? I've tried speaking to Sarah Phillimore and found her surprisingly rude. Jennifer Bilek has done some amazing groundwork but some of her stuff appears totally fucking mental, to me. 

Some of the Suffragettes were Tory. 

But, again, guess what? They are all important. They have all done good, some have done overwhelming good. That is objective. My opinion being strongly, sincerely held and still subjective. 

Who among us remembers the supposedly gender critical woman who's tweet, from an account of just a few weeks, saying that the right to safe and legal abortion was a calculated sacrifice, as the same people would put gender ideology in check? It was shared widely, and the account, with a handful of followers, was then closed. That's a great tactic of TRAs. We get that pinned on us, all of us, despite many of us having fought against bans on reproductive choice. 

Kelly-Jay Keen said that she felt free access to abortion was potentially less important than crushing the indoctrination of children to queer theory, puberty blockers, mastectomies on teens etc. 

I can't make an equivalence there, and feel Kelly-Jay's status as a mother of four children is highlighting the desperate situation for young people over the desperate situation for women with unwanted or doomed pregnancy. But she isn't saying abortion is wrong, she isn't saying access shouldn't be a right, in fact her comment affirms that it is. 

This is what trans activists and The Gender Critical Left™ types do. Who is helped here, exactly? 

On a rigidly left-wing Facebook group, one member lays into other women for expressing any shred of sympathy or shared cause with the right-wing with ferocity and shaming rants, despite having offered a religious right organisation her (expensive) professional expertise for free. I sometimes see these women blocked / kicked out with the hyperbolic condemnation from another, that since they agreed to read the group description explaining it's strictly left-wing and seemingly aren't aware, they are by default, liars. 

It's grim. 

On the other side, may I make my position clear now, and firmly - calling other women "dick panderers" or versions of penile/scrotal support is offensive as fuck. Don't lose your actual feminism in defence of it. That's just silly. 

In fact, both of you, stop misrepresenting each other. Stop it. 

Owen Jones - he is, properly, delighted by this. As are Katy Montgomerie and Kirsty Slater / Gemma Stone / CursedE. That sinister rook-vulture of online abuse and bog-bopping Joss Prior is cheered. Whoever the fuck Chicanery and Vivian Wulf are, they are relishing this. Their narratives are being fed by our own side, our own side making out the right wing evangelical bullshit is real, we are being subsumed by preacher pounds and right-wing guidance. This is spoken as if safely founded in fact and makes us untouchable to that left you are so desperately courting. 

Abusive, ugly, dreary - The happiest day of his life

Because of two men, livestreaming on phones at an open-air, un-ticketed, public event.

Let's grow up.