Cleansing Rituals

In the wake of the horrific riots in Southport and elsewhere, there has been a huge resentment against far-right white supremacists and their gender critical henchmen among the right-wingers of the country. That’s right, the Great White Racist Uprisings coincided with the Iman Khelif controversy and confirmed the suspicions of many decent people that Terfs were not only transphobic bigots but also incorrigibly racist and Islamophobic. There were clear sightings of some familiar GC faces at Tommy Robinson rallies and some comments about Muslim grooming gangs by certain problematic characters like Posey Parker, always too big for her boots and jumpsuits. I don’t have the details of all the wrong thinking and wrong doing because it’s too bloody to track down these allegations, although I have yet to hear of a single GC woman doing anything illegal like throwing a brick at a police officer or trying to burn down a mosque. But of course it is very bad to remind anyone about the Muslim grooming gangs.

However, the association between gender-critical positions and “far-right, anti-Islamic, populist, racist positions was very much in the public domain” (er X) and could no longer be ignored. Something had to be done. Genuine left-wing gender-critical feminists had to put a clear blue water between their positions and those of Yaxley-Lennon and his growing legions of supporters who identify as gender-critical.

An anti-Far Right account was set up on X and also a decent letter condemning racist and Islamophobic gender critical women. There were worthy signatories such as: Julie Bindel, Rosie Duffield, Jo Phoenix, Karen Ingala Smith, Sian Sullivan, Lucy Masoud, Rachel Rooney, Bev Jackson, Beatrix Campbell, Pragna Patel etc.

This is the full letter:

Since the horrific murders in Southport on 29 July, the UK has seen an alarming outbreak of far-right violence, with organised gangs targeting mosques and setting fire to asylum centres. It is clear that this violence has been fuelled on social media, both by grassroots sympathisers and by some powerful players with their own political agendas. It is a populist caricature to claim that this violence represents the authentic voice of the working class and that anyone who criticises it is a member of the middle class elite. Many working class people have come together to oppose the presence of far-right men attacking their communities and to clean up the damage that has been done. It is insulting to the most economically disadvantaged people in our country to equate them with the perpetrators of this violence.

We, the undersigned, are deeply shocked by the fact that populist messages, particularly targeting Muslims, have gained traction among a large number of social media accounts associated with the gender critical movement. Moreover, one major account in particular has actively fanned the flames of racist violence with increasingly inflammatory video messages.

As members of a broad movement that has emerged in recent years around concerns about the destructive impact of gender identity theory, we recognize that we come from different backgrounds and hold different views on other political issues. We welcome this diversity of thought. However, certain views cross a clear line and we are unwilling to collaborate or share a banner with supporters of the far right. By this we do not mean “anyone who criticizes the left” or conservatives in general. We mean anyone who justifies or incites the violent scapegoating of immigrant and minority communities, including the violent and criminal anti-Muslim leader who calls himself Tommy Robinson and those who support or defend him.

We also mean those who have seized on the previous misuse of the label ‘far right’ by overzealous sections of the liberal left to now question, minimise or even deny altogether the existence of the far right, and the serious and very real threat it poses to the safety and wellbeing of communities in the UK.

We understand that the failure of the political parties of the centre and left to defend women’s rights and oppose the unnecessary medicalisation of gender-confused youth has left this issue the domain of the right. Many have long argued that this dereliction of duty has been short-sighted and dangerous, as it has provided the populist right with an open target that they have exploited to the full. However, we do not believe for a moment that Robinson and his followers are sincere supporters of women’s rights or concerned about the welfare of children who might otherwise be revealed as lesbian or gay. Even if they were, their scapegoating of other vulnerable communities is politically completely unacceptable and strategically unwise to support or advocate.

Many of us did not expect that this would ever need to be said, or that the gender critical movement would ever be seriously attacked by the far right. But the world is changing rapidly and this is the position we now find ourselves in. We are not prepared to accept the hard work of so many being co-opted and endangered by those who incite and defend race riots. Not only will it make it much harder for us to get the hearing we so desperately need from the new administration, but we are also ethically obligated not to accept racism in any form.

Some of these signatories, like Lucy Masoud, will never be reprimanded for hating the right groups of people:

One of the signatories of this letter about standing up to racism and violence celebrated the mass murder of Jews last year and posted numerous tweets like this before deleting her account photo.twitter.com/SyQdvMZEwz

—ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 15, 2024

There was much discussion on the Mumsnet feminism forum, with forensic investigations into who did not sign the letter and outrage expressed at the fact that so many cheap Le Pens members dare to advocate the same cause as the decent people.

There is also resistance. Many women who have had the temerity to voice their concerns about the overreach of gender activism have been called Nazis for far too long to give a damn.

GC Story Time

The story of the girls who shouted ‘FAR RIGHT’.

Narrated by Birdy Rose @TheFamousArtBR photo.twitter.com/rUtxWXlFAV

— Biology is okay (@OkayBiology) August 16, 2024