#uk radical feminism

[i-piss-bubbles]

Uk radfems who wanna make friends hmu I'm in Suffolk

[ititledit]

We have brothers, sons, lovers – but they can’t live here!’ The happy home shared by 26 women

With residents aged from 58 to 94, New Ground is the UK’s first cohousing community exclusively for older women. Setting it up was an 18-year battle – but with soaring numbers of people living alone, is this an idea whose time has come?

Chipping Barnet, a leafy suburb of north London, is an unlikely location for a feminist utopia. Yet it is here, at the top of the high street, past the Susi Earnshaw theatre school and the Joie de Vie patisserie, that you will find Britain’s first cohousing community exclusively for women over 50. The purpose-built development is entirely managed by the women who set it up as an alternative to living alone.

New Ground’s entrance, all glass and bold typography, could easily be mistaken for a co-working space, as could the common room I am ushered into. Everything is bright, airy and spotlessly clean. The walls are lined with sleek white bookcases and a cinema-grade TV screen. The only clue as to the residents’ demographic is an unfinished 1,000-piece jigsaw on a table overlooking the large garden.

[tlacatecctzin]

When will this become unacceptable? What is the breaking point?

[homosexuhauls]

For more than half a century, it was just a rumor. As London’s river boat pilots passed by Waterloo Bridge (“The Ladies’ Bridge,” as some of them called it) they’d tell a story about the women who had built the bridge during World War II. But the idea that women had been largely involved in building Waterloo Bridge wasn’t included in any official history of the structure, or detailed in any records. During the new bridge’s opening ceremony, on December 10, 1945, then-Deputy Prime Minister Herbert Morrison had declared that “the men that built Waterloo Bridge are fortunate men.” It wasn’t until 2015 that the hard work of these women could be confirmed, by the historian Christine Wall, thanks to a series of photographs she found.

Eight years prior to her discovery, Wall had collaborated with the filmmaker Karen Livesey on a documentary called The Ladies Bridge. It explores the stories of women working on Waterloo Bridge and records first-hand the experiences of a variety of wartime workers who were women. “There was jobs galore. There was absolutely jobs galore. You could go anywhere,” recounts one woman in the film.

Watch The Ladies' Bridge here

[radykalny-feminizm]

Multicultural societies can be great, but there's one condition: different cultures must be willing to learn from each other and respect each other's values.

If people from one culture are open and welcoming, but people from the other culture want to enforce their own rules and take away people's freedom in the name of their religion, then the results are going to be catastrophic. This is why Europe is suffering right now and it's women who will pay the highest price.

Wondering what I mean? Let's have a look at some statistics:

Poll: 46% of French Muslims believe Sharia law should be applied in country

Over 40% of UK Muslims support “aspects” of sharia law

If it doesn't terrify you I don't know what to tell you. It surely terrifies me as fuck.

[someone-will-remember-us]

A ban on puberty blockers could be made permanent as the Labour Party takes a harder stance on transgender issues, The Telegraph can reveal.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, intends to stop powerful hormone blockers being given to children via any means, subject to the outcome of a legal hearing.

Laws to ban the blockers being supplied to children by private or off-shore clinics were passed by Victoria Atkins, his predecessor, in emergency legislation ahead of the general election.

But these are due to expire on Sept 3 and the new Government had to decide whether to pass a law to make it permanent. It is understood Labour will now seek to renew the ban with a view to making it permanent.

Mr Streeting said he would “always put the safety of children first”, adding: “Our approach will continue to be informed by Dr Cass’s review, which found there was insufficient evidence to show puberty blockers were safe for under-18s.

“This ban brings the private sector in line with the NHS. We are committed to providing young people with the evidence-led care that they deserve.”

JK Rowling backed the move in a number of posts on X, formerly Twitter, citing studies detailing reported negative effects of puberty blockers and praising Mr Streeting for doing the “right” thing.

It comes after criticism of the party for its stance on women’s rights.

The appointment of Anneliese Dodds as the minister for women and equalities sparked a row this week, with Lesbian Labour, which claims to represent “the voices of lesbians in the Labour Party”, saying Ms Dodds “doesn’t get it”.

JK Rowling, Martina Navratilova and other feminist campaigners hit out at Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint Ms Dodds, who has previously said there are many definitions of a woman.

The decision to pursue a permanent ban on puberty blockers is one of the first decisive steps on trans issues made by the new Government, which is keen to fully implement the findings of the independent Cass Review.

Dr Hilary Cass, the paediatrician who led the review, has said the drugs may permanently disrupt the brain maturation of adolescents, potentially rewiring neural circuits that cannot be reversed.

Her review urged giving children “time to think” before sending them down an irreversible path because people were changing their minds up until the age of 25. It led to the NHS stopping under-18s being seen by adult clinics and given cross-sex hormones.

Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy for Sex Matters, a human rights charity, said it was “an excellent sign that Labour intends to take an evidence-based approach to child gender medicine, and to prioritise child safeguarding”.

“As the Cass Review showed, there is no research to support using these life-altering drugs for gender confusion. Mr Streeting now needs to go further, and rein in the private sale of oestrogen and testosterone,” she said. 

“Otherwise, unregulated online clinics will continue to profit from desperate teenagers and young adults, who have been misled by trans lobbyists into thinking of these powerful hormones as a panacea.”

The NHS halted all prescriptions of puberty blockers with a view to starting a clinical trial, but there were fears about the number of children accessing the blockers via private online clinics such as Gender GP, which is based in Singapore.

The emergency legislation brought by Ms Atkins sought to put an end to that after a campaign to impose a widespread ban led by Liz Truss, the former prime minister.

But the decision to ban the drugs is being challenged in the High Court by the Good Law Project and TransActual, an activist group, with a hearing beginning at the High Court on Friday morning.

Jolyon Mougham, the director at Good Law Project and the lawyer bringing the challenge, said before the hearing that Mr Streeting had made his position clear to the judge.

“Wes Streeting’s position is that, subject to the outcome of the court proceedings and consultation, he will renew it and convert it into a permanent ban,” he said.

The High Court was told that Ms Atkins had overruled officials and acted on her “personal views” when she used emergency legislation to ban puberty blockers.

At the hearing on Friday, lawyers for TransActual and a young person who cannot be named told the High Court in London that the legislation made by the previous government on May 29, which prevented the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricted NHS provision to within clinical trials, was unlawful.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland are defending the claim, and have said the case should be dismissed.

[womenstruation]

Perhaps as a result of the masculinisation of Back women, nowadays hyperfemininity has somehow become a necessity to being a Black woman who is proud of her Backness. As a young woman who has no interest in make up, wigs /weaves etc. I often stick out amongst other Black women my age, which doesn't bother me too much. What does bother me, however, is the constant implication that I somehow must be "white-washed" as a result or some self hater who knows little about Black culture. I have to constantly field accusations of knowing nothing about my country of origin and nod along to well meaning "jokes" that I'll end up with a white husband.

[majchic]

[womenhelpingwomen]

Looking for Women-Only Housing in the UK

Does anyone know of any Women's Lands or Women-Only housing in the UK? We're trying to connect women in our group who have knowledge and resources to share with other like-minded women. If you have any info please DM us or email us at womenhelpingwomen@tutanota.com.

@ukrfeminism

[spidergwen-real-notclickbait]

The woman pleaded guilty in March this year to procuring drugs to induce an abortion under the Offences against the Person Act, legislation dating to 1861

legislation dating to 1861

we’re so fucked

[ititledit]

Sticker still there four days later. This is a high traffic area, so very pleased to find it still up.

[tlacatecctzin]

It is… dystopian that this happens everyday in our society.

Not too long ago, a man underwent trial for mass rape due to being caught upskirting women. The police miraculously looked at his device and found evidence of the disgusting crimes he, along with almost 100 men, committed.

Andrew Simpson gets to walk free, enjoy life with his ‘well paid’ job, devices left unchecked, and torment women for the rest of his life. He’s yet another thorn in the cage of patriarchy that keeps women oppressed and abused.

When will we all wake up and get loud about this? It’s already too late and long overdue.

https://x.com/wommando/status/1846942108269109276?s=46

[homosexuhauls]

Did any UK radfems catch "Gender Wars" on Channel 4?

Non-UK link here (I just found the link on twitter, no idea who this person is or what their politics are)

It was a pretty surface level look at the gender ideology debate, primarily focusing on Dr. Kathleen Stock's experience within the academic world, and on those who have disagreed with or protested against her. There was talk of male violence, "trans women are women", single-sex spaces (limited mostly to bathroom chat and a brief mention of rape/domestic violence shelters, which was frustrating) and freedom of speech, but no mention of statistics, women's sports, Mermaids/Tavistock/ROGD, the "cotton ceiling", same sex healthcare provision, and a whole other host of things I'm forgetting. I understand that the documentary had to limit the issues discussed, but I think they overlooked some of the higher priority conflicting needs/interests in favour of the flashier or more digestible conversations.

I'm glad that Dr. Stock, Julie Bindel and Linda Bellos* were the high-profile "TERFs" featured in the documentary. It's nice seeing the focus taken away from demagogues like Kellie-Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker). Homophobia is at the heart of gender identity ideology, so it makes sense to centre parts of the gender critical discussion around the lesbian perspective.

Some of the trans participants (Dr. Finn Mackay and Stephen Whittle afaik) in the documentary have claimed to have been misled regarding the context of their interviews. The former tweeted about not being informed that the documentary would focus on Dr. Kathleen Stock, and said that had this been made clear, the invitation to appear would not have been accepted. I won't defend Channel 4 for using deceptive journalistic practices, but I was glad to hear their perspectives as two female trans people - the documentary was otherwise very male-centric on the trans side.

There was a very painful moment to watch in the documentary, as a debate about the right to cause offence, held at Cambridge Union, was used by one of the participants to make personal attacks on Dr. Stock's character. She was visibly affected by this, but made it clear that she would defend any opponent's right to argue against her. I think she came off very admirably here, showing herself to be consistent in her principles (belief in free speech) but also not hiding her emotional response to baseless insults.

A final noteworthy observation is that all of the trans interviewees made constant reference to the belief that Dr. Stock's views (or any gender critical views) are putting trans people's lives at risk. In their eyes, it's the inherent and apparently lethal danger that gender criticism poses, which justifies all manner of tactics used in the name of trans rights. This isn't new to me, or to radblr, but I think it will shock some of the offline crowd, considering Dr. Stock made multiple references to trans people absolutely needing ongoing legal protection.

Overall, I think Channel 4 have created a very balanced, very superficial introduction to gender identity ideology and its feminist critiques. Drawing a clear line in the sand between gender critical feminism and conservative transphobia will likely anger both conservatives themselves and those who conflate the two groups. But I found it really refreshing.

*Linda Bellos only featured very briefly at the end, and I absolutely wish we could've heard more from her.

Cambridge Union - "We have the right to offend" - full debate

[aaafeminist]

(reblogs appreciated for bigger sample)

[someone-will-remember-us]

LONDON -- Violence against women and girls has reached epidemic levels and police are treating it as a threat on the same scale as terrorism, Britain's police chiefs said Tuesday.

More than 1 million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by U.K. police in 2022 to 2023, accounting for one-fifth of all recorded crime, a new report commissioned by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing said.

One in every six murders was related to domestic abuse in the same period. At least one in every 12 women each year will be a victim of crimes including sexual offenses, rape, stalking, harassment or online sexual abuse, the report estimated, with the exact number thought to be much higher because of crimes that go unreported.

“Violence against women and girls is a national emergency," Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said in a statement. "We need to move forward as a society to make change and no longer accept violence against women and girls as inevitable.”

Blyth said the data was “staggering” and growing in scale and complexity every year, with such crimes increasing by 37% from 2018 to 2022.

She said one growing concern is the way some online influencers “radicalize” young men and boys into extreme misogyny. Senior officers focusing on violence against women are in discussions with counterterrorism police on how to tackle the issue, Blyth said.

Teachers in the U.K. have expressed worries about the spread of “toxic masculinity” among boys influenced by the misogynistic views of some social media personalities.

Britain's government last year classified violence against women and girls as a national threat to public safety, and police forces were told to prioritize their response to the issue in the same way as they do terrorism and serious organized crime.

The report said thousands of police officers were newly trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offenses in the past year.

But Blyth said this wasn't enough and called for more government support to tackle a criminal justice system that's “overwhelmed and under-performing for victims.”