The Week in the War on Women: Monday 12th October - Sunday 18th October
By JL
Monday 12th October - Witch Burning in Westminster
THE TIMES: Rosie Duffield has spoken out about the abuse she’s experienced for trying to protect women’s sex-based rights.
Duffield was accused of “transphobia” after cervix-gate back in July. Since then she has been the subject of a witch-hunt, receiving online attacks and death threats. She has been a target for abuse in the past but says that this feels worse. “It strikes at the heart of who you are as a woman, because it’s base, pure misogyny.”
There were calls for Duffield to be de-selected as an MP, criticism from her own Labour Party colleagues and total silence from party leader, Keir Starmer.
Duffield told The Times that she is simply deeply concerned about the erasure of women’s sex-based rights and spaces, especially refuges and rape crisis centres. She’s also worried about the pushing of gender non-conforming children into transitioning and she stressed the need for sensible debate.
“The vast majority of my colleagues are afraid to even raise it as a subject that we should be talking about… It’s just a vehicle to attack women in public. I feel like my female mouth is being well and truly closed without ever actually having been opened.”
Rosie Duffield’s refusal to be brow-beaten has made a lot of males very cross.
But Labour Women’s Declaration has issued a statement supporting her.
If you’d like to lend LWD your support and hold the Labour Party to its 2019 Manifesto commitment to women's sex-based rights, you can sign the petition.
Tuesday 13th October - The Keystone Cops Got Nothing On This
Devon & Cornwall Police posted a baffling (and legally inaccurate) animation about fruit and vegetables to its Twitter account in order to “Create an inclusive society for all”.
The video, created by students at Falmouth University, centres on a non-binary tomato who visits a nightclub, gets confused about toilets and then reports a piece of graffiti reading “Tomatoes ain’t no fruit” as a hate crime. You really need to see it to believe it. Whilst the cartoon was generally met with derision, the force has made it perfectly clear which side they’re taking in the gender identity debate.
Don’t forget, this is the same police force which investigated a mother on holiday in Torquay on suspicion of a hate crime because she posted feminist stickers on her Facebook account.
Don’t Devon & Cornwall Police have anything more important on which to spend their time and resources?
Last August The Independent reported that Devon and Cornwall Police referred only 4.7% of rape cases to the Crown Prosecution Service.
That’s less than half the national average.
Wednesday 14th October - England Rugby Throws Female Players Into Touch
THE GUARDIAN: England Rugby will continue to allow trans-identified males to play on women’s teams at all but international levels.
This decision comes only days after World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, ruled that transwomen could no longer play on women’s teams. The organisation conducted a major scientific review and concluded that female players are at ‘significant risk’ of injury playing with and against transwomen.
England Rugby are choosing to ignore this data and claim they need “more evidence” before implementing any ban.
Wonder who’s been advising them?
If you’ve a mind to contact England Rugby over their willingness to put female players at risk, there is some useful contact information here.
Thursday 15th October - Witch Burning in Westminster Contd.
Misogyny meisters, Pink News and LGBT+ Labour (of which Heather Peto is co-chair), are determined to silence and isolate Rosie Duffield.
And now, based on the stories they’re spreading, a branch of the GMB has voted unanimously to ‘condemn’ Duffield’s actions. They want her removed from her role as Chair of the Women’s PLP and are requesting a ‘formal investigation’.
Only a few months ago the GMB was described as “institutionally sexist” in a highly critical independent report. The report described how sexual harassment has been used by men within the union to intimidate and humiliate women and concluded that “Bullying, misogyny, cronyism and sexual harassment are endemic within the GMB”.
Friday 16th October - Scottish Government Redefines the Word "Woman"
Women in Scotland are having to pursue legal action against the government in order to prevent it from rendering the word 'woman' meaningless.
In March 2018 the Scottish Government introduced its Gender Representation on Public Boards Act. The Statutory Guidance to the act redefines the word 'woman' to include males. 'Woman' not only means "Anyone born female" as per the UK's Equality Act 2010, it includes those who meet the following criteria:
Have the characteristic of gender reassignment, as defined in the Equality Act
Be proposing to undergo, is undergoing or undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning their sex to female
Be living as a woman
According to the guidance, to be ‘living as a woman’ the subject doesn't even need to dress or look a particular way; using a female name and pronouns will suffice.
So, the board of a public body could be comprised of 50% men and 50% men who like to be called 'she' and that would satisfy the terms of this 'Gender Representation' act.
Feminist campaign group, For Women Scotland, have instigated legal proceedings against the Scottish government to Scottish government to prevent it from redefining the protected characteristic of sex in this Act.
The Court of Session has now granted permission today for a Judicial Review to proceed and a substantive hearing has been assigned for 7th January 2021.
For more information and to help support the case, see the Crowdfunding page here.
And speaking of the Scottish Government…
Saturday 17th October - Gender Critical Woman Barred From Holyrood Election
THE TIMES: Councillor Caroline AcAllister, who has spoken out against the SNP’s proposed gender reform legislation, has been prevented from standing as an MSP.
Caroline AcAllister is the deputy leader of the SNP group on West Dunbartonshire council. She is also a vocal opponent of the party’s plan to bring in self ID legislation and a convener of The Women’s Pledge.
She had hoped to stand in Dumbarton at next year’s Holyrood election. However, she failed the internal vetting procedure, causing speculation that her gender critical views have forestalled her advancement.
One SNP source told The Times: “It looks to me like she was a scalp because she’s the convener of the Women’s Pledge.”
Sunday 18th October - Witch Burning Across The Pond
THE POST MILLENNIAL: Support for JK Rowling cost a young woman her job and her Etsy account.
Vanessa Vokey is a professional photographer who lives in Guelph, Ontario. Last month she took a job as a social media/website content creator at a local restaurant.
Vokey is a member of a few gender critical groups on Facebook. On her own personal page she shared several posts supporting JK Rowling and criticising the silencing of those who criticise gender identity ideology. Nowhere in her posts did she mention the restaurant at which she worked.
Nevertheless, Vokey’s employer gave her the sack, claiming that her gender-critical posts were proof of her ‘intolerance’ and likening her to a racist.
Vokey then began selling JK Rowling themed merchandise through her online business, Quirkystichcrafty, on Etsy.com. She was contacted by Etsy's "Marketplace Integrity Team", informing her that her goods were in breach of Etsy's regulations and had been removed from sale.
Although the backlash on social media meant that Etsy had to restore Vokey’s account, their actions made it clear how they feel about women standing up for their sex-based rights.
This sort of thing is absolutely fine, though.
See you next week.
A collection of spineless politicians and hate mongerers coupled with the realisation that this overwhelming battle is full of regressive and misogynistic bile, there must be a tipping point somewhere and sense will prevail. How do we break this batshit crazy spell?
Just did a quick search of ‘TERF’ on Etsy out of curiosity and if did not disappoint. It was full of things like ‘punch a TERF’, ‘fuck TERFs’ etc etc. Also loads of ‘fuck JKR’, or similar. Utterly vile.