This is the first time I have read your newsletter on substack. A link from facebook brought me here (Fair cop I think). I was peaked by the headline. In the same way that you have sought to improve your understanding, so have I. I have also questioned whether I might be adjacent to the far right, mostly because the matters that concern me are being reported in so-called “right-wing’ media. But I have also questioned why are so many feminists still wedded to the Left. My biggest fear is if Labour forms our next government we will have Gender self-ID, gender-based pronouns will be mandatory and mis-pronouning someone will be a sackable offense. Women will have no safe spaces and all the top “women” will all be male. I cannot for the life of me understand why any feminist would want to align themselves with Labour. From my own perspective the left-right political spectrum does nothing for women. There isn’t a single party that I would trust to look after our needs. Their politics are rooted in a time before women could vote, when men thought they knew what was best for women. To use your analogy of the coin, it has a man’s head on it.
I find it so disappointing that different people fighting the ‘gender critical’ cause need to criticise each other publicly. It weakens us and reduces our power. We should just stop it. As for the 18th September, “fallout” what fallout? The live stream video has 28k views and 2.5k likes. Compare that with 100 views for a typical Women’s Declaration International live stream. Furthermore the trans activists have been exposed as the rabid rabble that they are. I call that a resounding success. I don’t see Kelly as an egoist rather as someone who is super-motivated by her successes. Selling her merchandise is important. It funds her activities and allows people to demonstrate their GC credentials in a simple way. If all the women in the Labour conference wore one of her tops, maybe they would think again about losing the female vote. I wouldn’t criticise her trend to Populism either. It is what will win this battle. I am not sure what you are calling “anti-trans material”. What I see is someone who is unwilling to compromise. Why should we try to compromise with people who have knowingly pursued rights that are damaging to women, children and gay people. Trans people can live their lives pretty well without having any further rights but they are so caught up in their fiction, they will only satisfied if the whole world accepts it. It is never going to happen.
I don’t think Kelly dislikes left-wing women, I think she is just dismayed that they remain left-wing. Those feminists couldn’t even 'pander' to their own party, if they wanted to. Banished as they were from the Labour party conference. I can’t see anyone making more progress than Kelly in this battle, so I am firmly on her side. If she wants to stand for Parliament, I’d happily stump up her fee to run.
I agree that she is brave. She is fearless and encourages others to be brave. She is finding a path for all of us and if some of her decisions backfire she learns and moves on.
The term ‘far-right’ and it’s use in attempts to denigrate or label individuals for supporting/advocating same-sex attraction, women-and-girls single-sex safe spaces and children’s safeguarding is a dead-end as a political strategy.
It means that bystanders and those on the Left or who regard themselves as progressive are going to have to somehow cope with the cognitive dissonance caused by unconsciously recognising that the ‘far-right’ supports same-sex attraction, women-and-girls single-sex safe spaces and children’s safeguarding. Is the British (and US) Left thinking this through properly, because it doesn’t appear to be. Are left-leaning people aware that they will be labelling the ‘far-right’ as dedicated supporters of same-sex attraction.
And not only the ‘far-right’. It’s become routine on social media to denounce GC women as ‘literal Nazi’s - that is National-socialists who apparently aware loyalty to The Fuhrer and the policy of Lebensraum - ‘cos that’s what being a ‘literal Nazi’ entails amongst other things. So is the US and U.K. Left all set for adopting the view that this newly-discerned hornets-nest of Nazi’s are also dedicated to…protecting the concept of same-sex attraction and campaigning against transing-the-gay - notably adolescent gay males and lesbian girls?
If so, then we are looking at the Left performing a substantial re-writing of history and the interpretation of extremist politics. Nazi’s as dedicated protectors of homosexuality and women-and-childrens rights? And the Left? Well I guess they voluntarily swap places with national socialism. As mentioned, perhaps this concept hasn’t been really thought-through.
Good article. I'm still left with concerns about the lazy labelling of anyone who prioritises family promoting family values as being right wing or far right. Just to be clear I have never married and have two children, the elder child male and delightfully gender critical is just 20 and my daughter - until relatively recently a fully paid up member of the TWAW and 100 genders crowd is coming up for 17. I am not white but escaped marginalisation by being irredeemably middle class. I am a proper socialist but when I entered this fight 4 years ago, having discovered that my daughter was using pronouns in an incomprehensible way, I found that mainstream leftwing women with a few notable exceptions ,Dr Julia Long for example, were forever biting their tongues and apologising for their existence. I saw Kellie Jay and fell in love because she reminded me of my feisty 99 year old mother who had no problem in speaking her mind and never lost an argument. She and Magdalen Berns introduced me to the main points of the argument without apology and because I am a fighter ( a union rep for nearly 20 years and generally seen as trouble by those in authority) and I loved the fact that they were not saying that we as women had to compromise. Remember all those women who've told us that we do have make some concessions., Suzanne Moore, Woman's Place UK Jane Clare Jones, even the estimable Helen Joyce said that we as women had to make some compromises. Helen J, at least appears to have rowed back from this position. But this is why women lose: we cannot please everyone and so we must learn to please ourselves
People do not criticise KJK merely because they are ‘jealous’ . No movement or individual that is unable to reflect on criticism will survive for long.
Sarah - I am enormously grateful to both you and KJK. Both of you are brave and indefatigable in your work for women, children and society. I find it very hard to believe that you are jealous of anyone on the GC side.
The problematic part of "far right" is the "far" bit. If one's on the "far left" then everything to the "right" is going to be "far", by definition. It has become a shibboleth and is being uncritically used to characterise a wide variety of political and socio-cultural views which the speaker finds remotely threatening or undermining of their own assumptions. The crucial issue, however, as you have highlighted, is one of free speech, or more specifically 1) reciprocity 2) free speech 3) non-violence. The trouble begins when one group of people reject one of the above principles in the name of their possession of the Truth. As my late supervisor, Roger Scruton, used to say, the Right disagrees with the Left but the Left hates the Right.
Thanks for this Sarah. I appreciate your clear thinking here. I agree with you on the importance of not suppressing dissent because that forces things underground where they often accrue more power. Civilised debate is the way to go I’m finding these boxes incredibly constricting!
I thought the article was very helpful. We are getting into a right mess with left, far left or right, far right. Politics are no longer that simple they are very complicated. We all need to be aware, check facts, do our own research, do not believe everything we read.
I was nodding along with strong agreement and then veered off at the ending notes. It seemed unnecessarily dismissive of KJK: 'tropes', merchandise, ambitions. Appears anyone trying to side finance their full time activism becomes some form of grifter, these days.
As a tradcon, I also think there's a journey to be had on the other comments about 'racism' and "anti trans not pro-women". The claim of a 'far Right' seeing females as purely gestational beings is very reductionist too. Modernist feminists don't get to be the only ones to assert the nature or scope of womanhood. It was their feminist predecessors who created the gender ideology mess in the first place, then tried to don the cloak of ideological saviours and laid the blame at the door of the patriarchy: somehow that is mediated through trans-identifying men in their contorted logic.
I hugely admire Sarah and her work. I find the idea that belief in free speech is far right deeply sinister. My impression of KJK is that she is a very fiery and impulsive person who likes to get things done and doesn't have time for the endless navel gazing, sanctimony and mean girl gate keeping on the left. The idea that KJK is far right is beyond parody.
You work for the appalling @BadLawTeam with #whiskypriest and fake vicar, Calvin Robinson and the appalling thugs Laurence Fox and Harry Miller. You post swastikas ‘because you can’. It’s apt don’t you think?
"Thugs"?? You'll have evidence for that assertion, I take it. However, on a broader point, go back and read the article properly, especially the bits about free speech and who allows it.
This is the first time I have read your newsletter on substack. A link from facebook brought me here (Fair cop I think). I was peaked by the headline. In the same way that you have sought to improve your understanding, so have I. I have also questioned whether I might be adjacent to the far right, mostly because the matters that concern me are being reported in so-called “right-wing’ media. But I have also questioned why are so many feminists still wedded to the Left. My biggest fear is if Labour forms our next government we will have Gender self-ID, gender-based pronouns will be mandatory and mis-pronouning someone will be a sackable offense. Women will have no safe spaces and all the top “women” will all be male. I cannot for the life of me understand why any feminist would want to align themselves with Labour. From my own perspective the left-right political spectrum does nothing for women. There isn’t a single party that I would trust to look after our needs. Their politics are rooted in a time before women could vote, when men thought they knew what was best for women. To use your analogy of the coin, it has a man’s head on it.
I find it so disappointing that different people fighting the ‘gender critical’ cause need to criticise each other publicly. It weakens us and reduces our power. We should just stop it. As for the 18th September, “fallout” what fallout? The live stream video has 28k views and 2.5k likes. Compare that with 100 views for a typical Women’s Declaration International live stream. Furthermore the trans activists have been exposed as the rabid rabble that they are. I call that a resounding success. I don’t see Kelly as an egoist rather as someone who is super-motivated by her successes. Selling her merchandise is important. It funds her activities and allows people to demonstrate their GC credentials in a simple way. If all the women in the Labour conference wore one of her tops, maybe they would think again about losing the female vote. I wouldn’t criticise her trend to Populism either. It is what will win this battle. I am not sure what you are calling “anti-trans material”. What I see is someone who is unwilling to compromise. Why should we try to compromise with people who have knowingly pursued rights that are damaging to women, children and gay people. Trans people can live their lives pretty well without having any further rights but they are so caught up in their fiction, they will only satisfied if the whole world accepts it. It is never going to happen.
I don’t think Kelly dislikes left-wing women, I think she is just dismayed that they remain left-wing. Those feminists couldn’t even 'pander' to their own party, if they wanted to. Banished as they were from the Labour party conference. I can’t see anyone making more progress than Kelly in this battle, so I am firmly on her side. If she wants to stand for Parliament, I’d happily stump up her fee to run.
Your opinion and you may have it. As for me, mine.
But of course.
I agree that she is brave. She is fearless and encourages others to be brave. She is finding a path for all of us and if some of her decisions backfire she learns and moves on.
The term ‘far-right’ and it’s use in attempts to denigrate or label individuals for supporting/advocating same-sex attraction, women-and-girls single-sex safe spaces and children’s safeguarding is a dead-end as a political strategy.
It means that bystanders and those on the Left or who regard themselves as progressive are going to have to somehow cope with the cognitive dissonance caused by unconsciously recognising that the ‘far-right’ supports same-sex attraction, women-and-girls single-sex safe spaces and children’s safeguarding. Is the British (and US) Left thinking this through properly, because it doesn’t appear to be. Are left-leaning people aware that they will be labelling the ‘far-right’ as dedicated supporters of same-sex attraction.
And not only the ‘far-right’. It’s become routine on social media to denounce GC women as ‘literal Nazi’s - that is National-socialists who apparently aware loyalty to The Fuhrer and the policy of Lebensraum - ‘cos that’s what being a ‘literal Nazi’ entails amongst other things. So is the US and U.K. Left all set for adopting the view that this newly-discerned hornets-nest of Nazi’s are also dedicated to…protecting the concept of same-sex attraction and campaigning against transing-the-gay - notably adolescent gay males and lesbian girls?
If so, then we are looking at the Left performing a substantial re-writing of history and the interpretation of extremist politics. Nazi’s as dedicated protectors of homosexuality and women-and-childrens rights? And the Left? Well I guess they voluntarily swap places with national socialism. As mentioned, perhaps this concept hasn’t been really thought-through.
Good article. I'm still left with concerns about the lazy labelling of anyone who prioritises family promoting family values as being right wing or far right. Just to be clear I have never married and have two children, the elder child male and delightfully gender critical is just 20 and my daughter - until relatively recently a fully paid up member of the TWAW and 100 genders crowd is coming up for 17. I am not white but escaped marginalisation by being irredeemably middle class. I am a proper socialist but when I entered this fight 4 years ago, having discovered that my daughter was using pronouns in an incomprehensible way, I found that mainstream leftwing women with a few notable exceptions ,Dr Julia Long for example, were forever biting their tongues and apologising for their existence. I saw Kellie Jay and fell in love because she reminded me of my feisty 99 year old mother who had no problem in speaking her mind and never lost an argument. She and Magdalen Berns introduced me to the main points of the argument without apology and because I am a fighter ( a union rep for nearly 20 years and generally seen as trouble by those in authority) and I loved the fact that they were not saying that we as women had to compromise. Remember all those women who've told us that we do have make some concessions., Suzanne Moore, Woman's Place UK Jane Clare Jones, even the estimable Helen Joyce said that we as women had to make some compromises. Helen J, at least appears to have rowed back from this position. But this is why women lose: we cannot please everyone and so we must learn to please ourselves
People do not criticise KJK merely because they are ‘jealous’ . No movement or individual that is unable to reflect on criticism will survive for long.
Sarah - I am enormously grateful to both you and KJK. Both of you are brave and indefatigable in your work for women, children and society. I find it very hard to believe that you are jealous of anyone on the GC side.
The problematic part of "far right" is the "far" bit. If one's on the "far left" then everything to the "right" is going to be "far", by definition. It has become a shibboleth and is being uncritically used to characterise a wide variety of political and socio-cultural views which the speaker finds remotely threatening or undermining of their own assumptions. The crucial issue, however, as you have highlighted, is one of free speech, or more specifically 1) reciprocity 2) free speech 3) non-violence. The trouble begins when one group of people reject one of the above principles in the name of their possession of the Truth. As my late supervisor, Roger Scruton, used to say, the Right disagrees with the Left but the Left hates the Right.
Thanks for this Sarah. I appreciate your clear thinking here. I agree with you on the importance of not suppressing dissent because that forces things underground where they often accrue more power. Civilised debate is the way to go I’m finding these boxes incredibly constricting!
I thought the article was very helpful. We are getting into a right mess with left, far left or right, far right. Politics are no longer that simple they are very complicated. We all need to be aware, check facts, do our own research, do not believe everything we read.
I was nodding along with strong agreement and then veered off at the ending notes. It seemed unnecessarily dismissive of KJK: 'tropes', merchandise, ambitions. Appears anyone trying to side finance their full time activism becomes some form of grifter, these days.
As a tradcon, I also think there's a journey to be had on the other comments about 'racism' and "anti trans not pro-women". The claim of a 'far Right' seeing females as purely gestational beings is very reductionist too. Modernist feminists don't get to be the only ones to assert the nature or scope of womanhood. It was their feminist predecessors who created the gender ideology mess in the first place, then tried to don the cloak of ideological saviours and laid the blame at the door of the patriarchy: somehow that is mediated through trans-identifying men in their contorted logic.
Now do the Far Left
I hugely admire Sarah and her work. I find the idea that belief in free speech is far right deeply sinister. My impression of KJK is that she is a very fiery and impulsive person who likes to get things done and doesn't have time for the endless navel gazing, sanctimony and mean girl gate keeping on the left. The idea that KJK is far right is beyond parody.
You work for the appalling @BadLawTeam with #whiskypriest and fake vicar, Calvin Robinson and the appalling thugs Laurence Fox and Harry Miller. You post swastikas ‘because you can’. It’s apt don’t you think?
Ad hominem attacks is all you lot have
couldn't argue your way out of a wet paper bag
"Thugs"?? You'll have evidence for that assertion, I take it. However, on a broader point, go back and read the article properly, especially the bits about free speech and who allows it.