Category: women
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The Subject of Desire
I always hate it when a “sexuality” question turns up in all those random forms you have to fill in. Even when you get past “do I want to tell you this,” you still have the problem of what to put – is a bi woman lesbian when she has a female partner? Is she…
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Real feminism
I wrote a piece recently in which I suggested we dump the phrase ‘gender critical’. Someone who read it messaged me and said “so what shall we call ourselves instead?” First, let’s look at the issue… What’s wrong with ‘gender critical’? I had been wondering, but others were ahead of me, pointing out that you…
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Who are we and what are we doing?
***Long read*** Personally, I figured it out at FiLiA 2022, in discussion of all the terrible things happening across the globe, and in glorious celebration with women from 70 countries. If you haven’t named it yet, please see if you can find it in this article. We need to sort out some distinctions… Women are…
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“I never lose”
Words spoken by a woman who has become the figurehead, a queen, for one part of the women’s sex-based rights movement. It’s a dangerous statement, standing alone. It’s a fantasy, a fictional position. I found out recently that the full quote she lifted the phrase from is, “I never lose – I win, or I…
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What I will remember
Standing on the fourth floor balcony in St David’s Hall in Cardiff, my head spinning amid the three days, 100 speakers, 70 nationalities of FiLiA 2022, a moment to look out across the bewildering mass of Victorian stone and autumn treetops to the hills, and breathe fresh air. I look the other way and see…
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It’s come around to toilets again, has it?
Like many campaigners, I got bored long ago with the media’s habit of limiting the sex self-ID debate to whether transwomen should use women’s toilets – thing is for the most part they always have so whatever you think of that, it’s not news. Here are a couple of points that are, or should be…
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First thoughts after FiLiA 2022
In the first half of my life, the prevailing opinion in the UK was that the authorities should not interfere in the mutilation of girls and young women because it would be disrespectful to their parents’ culture. In the second half of my life, the prevailing opinion in the UK was that the authorities should…
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It’s just not fair
To quote Mandy Clare, who will be joining me in a presentation about women and socialism at FiLiA, socialism is primarily about fairness. But even if you’re not a socialist, most people value fair play (see for example, Fair Play for Women ). Looking at Eddie Izzard, currently seeking to be Labour parliamentary candidate for…
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Politically homeless?
Analogies are melodramatic. That’s what makes them powerful. Outside of poetic language, real people die of being really homeless. It’s a shame and a constant anxiety to all of us that we’ve allowed bad government to continue for so long that in some areas, the homeless are as numerous about the streets as rubbish sacks…
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Half a Yellow Sun and the Whole of the Moon
Think of the starving children in Biafra. If you’re my age, you’ll remember being told that, probably over the pig-bins in the school dining room. Kids used to joke, asking if the school would send the contents of the pig-bins to Biafra. What did they know? My life changed a lot after my first visit…
Kay Green 