Women plus

I see this from Maya:

https://twitter.com/MForstater/status/1213071711576428546

So I investigate. The British Library is having an exhibition April 24-August 23 2020 on women’s rights. Unfinished Business, it’s called.

A protest banner which reads 'Hate is your weapon. Courage is ours.' Designed by Shakila Taranum Maan and kindly loaned by Southall Black Sisters

Image: Designed by Shakila Taranum Maan for Southall Black Sisters

It starts out well enough.

From bodily autonomy and the right to education, to self-expression and protest, this new exhibition explores how feminist activism in the UK today has its roots in the complex history of women’s rights.

Be inspired by those who paved the way – from Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to study law at Oxford University, to Hope Powell, the first British woman to gain the highest European football coaching licence. Meet lesser-known Suffragettes such as Sophia Duleep Singh and challengers of recent years such as the No More Page 3 campaign.

But then…

Take to the keyboard and the streets by exploring the work of contemporary activist groups working online and offline today. Get to grips with the causes they fight for, from ending period poverty and securing abortion rights to telling the stories of women and non-binary people of colour.

STOP

What do “non-binary people” have to do with anything? Why can’t women’s rights be about women’s rights any more? Why do we always have to add an extra, as if women are so fucking trivial that we can’t just have our own damn movement for half the god damn population?

If there are women who don’t want to be called women but prefer to go by “non-binary” then good luck to them, but they don’t get to take a chain saw to women’s movements. They can join the movement as women or they can piss off, but they don’t get to change the women’s movement to the women and non-binary people’s movement. Enough with this pandering bullshit.

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