GAG tells us all what to do
Activism at its finest: vandalism and intimidation at…corporate headquarters of a polluting oil giant? Steve Bannon’s indoor pool? The parking garage at Fox News? No – a women’s library. Guerrilla Feminist Collective was there and tells us what the “activists” had to contribute:
Last night we had to push through physical intimidation and lots of verbal nonsense to enter the new Vancouver Women’s Library.
Anti-feminist protesters actually showed up for once! They were welcomed inside (snowing, cold, everyone was welcome), but asked to leave when they tried to tear down feminist posters in the space and continued their physical intimidation inside. Police had to be called for fear of destruction of the space and the safety of library patrons inside. The protesters held signs and shouted at people entering the space. They poured wine over the books. They smoked inside when asked not to. They pulled the fire alarm. Some of them tried to bar then pushed women entering the space. As far as we saw, men were left alone to come and go as they pleased.
Women were shamed and blamed for calling the police, for fearing for theirs and others’ safety. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. All battered women will be familiar with these tactics. When we pointed out how we were physically barred then pushed from entering the space, and how threatening that felt, protesters wanted to know how we’d gender the person, rather than discuss the ethics of violence at hand.
That’s what “trans activism” has become – a transparent excuse to tell women what to do and push them around if they refuse.
Despite clearly stated goals (creation of women’s space for women’s work and dialogue), inclusion (all women), transparency of funding (self & UBC women’s centre), hard work (unpaid), and initiative (frankly brilliant caring GOODNESS of heart, seeking to create A WOMEN’S LIBRARY) the organizers were demonized, targeted, lied about, and all but burnt at the stake.
Ridiculous demands were made, such as the stepping down of founding member Emily (for having volunteered at and supporting a shelter for women fleeing male violence), creation of a board of directors (must everything be Mc-incorporated?), and the removal of certain books (fascism 101).
One of the three founders dropped out last minute under the heat of hatred and vicious verbal attacks rampantly circulating the “activist” communities. The remaining two women, Em and Bec, worked hard with the help of friends to open this space on time and as promised. We’re so proud to know and support these women, this space, and the beautiful hope it brings for women gathering, women speaking, women lifting each other up and shielding one another from the hate and violence that surrounds us, however that may brand or market itself.
Despite all the shit, the pure hate, the lies, the violence, the verbal attacks, once inside, the library was amazing. The conversations inside were energizing. The solidarity and diversity in women young and old was beautiful to behold. No wonder they want to shut it down. Women united are powerful. We can’t let them win.
We are feeling so much love and gratitude for the women of Vancouver Women’s Library and cannot wait to see it grow and flourish. Not just the collection of physical books, but the community of strong, brave women who will utilize and contribute to the space. Thank you women, and see you soon. Stand proud. You have created something good and true.
Who are the people making these demands, and what are they demanding? A group that calls itself, fittingly, GAG, posted a long manifesto – demand – ransom note – whateverthefuck, claiming to speak for a nameless “group”…
*This note is being shared by GAG on behalf of a group composed of sex workers, trans women, IBPOC, queers, and people in solidarity with them, in opposition to the opening of the Vancouver Women’s Library. This note is to be copied and shared by other groups in solidarity with those leading the action this evening*
Oh that group. But what’s it called, where does it meet, how can we talk to it, why is it speaking through an intermediary?
It’s classic, though, isn’t it, all those sub-groups whose only reason for living seems to be bullying and silencing feminist women. All those sub-groups that can think of nothing more urgent to do right now than to disrupt the opening of a women’s library. Funny how much the new “activism” looks exactly like the old misogyny.
So, their account of themselves:
“We are writing this list of demands in response to the opening of the Vancouver Women’s Library. With the ongoing violence against trans women, sex workers, and IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour) perpetuated by one of the main organizers paired with the exclusion of work that centers trans women and sex workers we came together as a group including: sex workers, trans women, POC, queers, and people in solidarity. We demand the following, because there is nothing radical about replicating settler-colonial violence, transmisogyny, and whorephobia*.*If you are not a sex worker this term is not for you.
TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism) : Trans Exclusionary Feminism, also known as Trans Women Exterminationist Feminism, is a loosely-organized group with a message of hate and exclusion against transgender women in particular, and transgender people as a whole. They have attached themselves to radical feminism as a means to deny trans women basic access to health care, women’s groups, housing, jobs, support services, restroom facilities, and anywhere that may be considered women’s space. TERFs are complicit in the deaths of trans women, by outing them, promoting the denial of needed government services, and creating the myth of trans women as sexually predatory men in disguise.
SWERF (Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminism) : Sex-Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminism or SWERF, is a group who advocate for criminalization of sex work, see sex work as inherent exploitation with no recognition of autonomy and agency of sex workers and seek to control people’s bodies much like the state. They enact violence on sex workers by working to deny their access to resources and support. They work alongside the colonial government to pass bills that do direct violence to sex workers, such as, Bill C-36 (see inside).
You can see how dishonest it is. It’s Trump-level dishonest.
After that string of lies, they get to their “demands”:
OUR DEMANDS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE ORGANIZERS
The library needs to be transparent about its funding, organizing policies and affiliations with other institutions, both within the academic system and outside of it.
The library must elect a new board that is comprised of women that reflect the breadth of experience in our community, so that the organizing committee is not entirely cis and white.
Not entirely “cis” – so they “demand” that a women’s library not be entirely women. We were allowed about five minutes to push all-male institutions to let women come in (in tiny numbers), but that’s all over now – women are too damn uppity so they have to be punched back down again.
The library needs to have a policy of not featuring titles that are written by non-trans women and non-sex workers that dehumanize, speak over and advocate harm towards trans women and sex workers. We have enclosed a list of books from the catalogue that perpetrate these issues.
The library needs to include a vast array of books written by women of colour, sex workers, incarcerated women, and trans women about their lived experiences. We are currently compiling a comprehensive list of suggestions that we will share when the other demands are met.
Current organiser Em Laurent must step down as an organizer and end her involvement with the library because her presence is not safe for community members and after years of violence enacted against women, sex workers and queers, accountability will be a very long process.
The organizers must also enter into a public meeting with the communities that it aims to serve to discuss the harm done to marginalized women in the community and how the library can move forward.
“Must” – women have to do what they’re told or else.
Then there’s another 50 thousand words or so explaining how right and perfect they are and how scum of the earth the women who organized the library are.
…all of the organizers have been linked to an organization that does not support trans women, active drug users, or active sex workers and collectives that call for the exclusion of trans women and femmes, abolition of sex workers rights, and that center a feminism that excludes anyone who is not white, cisgender, or doesn’t fit into western constructs of womanhood.
Cis white women are the beneficiaries of white supremacy. People who are the most affected by police brutality, settler colonialism, racialized violence, incarceration, gentrification, sexual violence, ableism and houselessness can and should be the people creating safer spaces for those most impacted by these experiences.
…The same ideology and praxis of hate is present and replicated in right-wing/alt-right/neo-nazi organizing. TERFs and SWERFs organize for the same violent policies and work in partnership with right-wing hate groups to replicate settler-colonial white-supremacist constructions of cisheteropatrarchy that outright reject, erase, and deny IBPOC sovereignty, body sovereignty, and all peoples that do not fit under euro-centric nativism…The moniker ‘self-identified’ is used by cis women as a move to innocence from their complicity in violence against trans women. It is used to mark trans women as ‘Other’ and centre themselves again as victims of patriarchy. This will not stand.
They repeatedly accuse one of the organizers of “violence” by which, it turns out, they mean “ties to” a Vancouver women’s shelter.
Then they give a long list of books they order the library to remove.
Peak activism.
brutal insane bossiness and so smart of them to be anonymous and to transmit their demands through an intermediary. . . and I have never heard of an organization that DOES support active drug users unless it is the syndicate of active drug dealers. . .
“. . . all of the organizers have been linked to an organization that does not support trans women, active drug users, or active sex workers. . . ”
what a bunch of dishonest bullshit. . .
In other words, they haven’t yet found a single book that can be placed in that category, so they are pre-emptively blaming the library for their absence, on the grounds of having failed to meet all the unreasonable and incoherent demands.
I’d be willing to bet that they aren’t going to donate any of that “vast array” of books, but expect the library to buy them, once they’ve actually compiled the list.
To read these manifestos, one would think that feminist women were the sole perpetrators of violence in the world. And the sole beneficiaries of patriarchy, too.
So, create them. Don’t go destroying other people’s hard work because it doesn’t center your concerns.
Trans activists are masters of appropriation. Feminism, LGB activism, intersex issues, civil rights for people of color.
No lie is too outrageous. And the gullible–feminists and lefties eager to seem woke but not up to the work of critically examining claims coming from their own “side”–they lap it up like chest milk.
So who’s stopping them from creating these “safer spaces”? Wouldn’t everyone benefit from more places serving underserved or vulnerable groups? Go start your own! How does it make sense to bully the people who created something because they didn’t create it to your specifications?
I’m not an activist or theoretician, but even I know this is horseshit. TERF isn’t a “group” at all, loosely organized or otherwise. It’s a description (or an epithet, depending on your perspective).Calling it a loosely organized group makes it sound like a network of cells! TERF is up to something!
Oh, hi, Yes, it looks like Lady Mondegreen beat me to it!
What’s with the “Exterminationist” thing? Are feminists sending transwomen to camps now? Or is this term the “logical” conclusion of questioning the basis and reality of gender? “If gender is a social construction rather than a biological fact of life, then transwomen are not really women, therefore they’ve ben exterminated?” Do I have that argument chain correct? If not, someone please correct me.
Two things strike me about that manifesto, well several things that make me both sad and angry, but two primary thoughts. They are sooo big on telling others what should be done, and who should be in charge of doing it, but as they’re not doing it themselves, that suggests they exp cut someone else to either give them a huge gob of. Only, or to do all the heavy lifting under their direction. The second thing is that the specific demands made of the library and its organisers is clearly designed to force the library to promptly close, as it would be bereft of leaders, founders, workers and, indeed, books.
Wreckers. Wreckers with a huge sense of entitlement. Apparently you can change your identity, even your body if you wish to and have the luck to be able to afford it, but some leopards can’t change their spots.
Wouldnt it be interesting if these trans activists have been mobilsed/incited by anti feminists who are using divide and conquer tactics?
The left is easily encouraged to eat itself. Its how I would to it if I were a 4chan strategist.
Years and years of this sort of thing and it still amazes me. Build your own library, like these women have done. Build your own shelter for men suffering from domestic abuse, just as many, many women have built such shelters for women.
The existence of a thing doesn’t automatically transmute into a right for you to have the same thing without any effort other than complaining online, lying about people who are trying to do good things or barging into an otherwise safe space and vandalising it.
Obviously and by definition safe spaces are exclusive. Exclusivity is not necessarily the same as discrimination and it’s not exactly difficult to work out why. It’s also not very difficult to understand why some people pretend it is.
You know, trans women and sex workers etc do deserve representation and a library that caters to their needs. So, as others here have said, let them go out, raise money, and spend time creating one. Then they can decide who is allowed to be represented and what their goals are. Probably some feminist groups will be happy to donate time, money and energy to the project. That’s their right and their choice.
“Cis” women have spent huge amounts of time, energy and money creating the spaces we wanted and needed. Some are fully open to trans women – we do have some concerns and fights in common, after all. Some are, and should be, exclusive to “cis” women because some of our experiences and oppressions are not the same as trans women’s. In the same way trans women need their own spaces where they can concentrate on their own particular needs and experiences. Just as black women need a space where white women aren’t welcome because there are differences in our experiences of womanhood and oppression.
Having said that, in what way was this library excluding trans women? Was there a statement to the effect that only cis women were welcome? Or is it that one or more of the organisers is not politically “pure” enough? Was the library really, on a day to day basis, going to be gender policing anyone who appeared insufficiently female? I doubt it given that might well exclude a number of butch lesbians – who, in my experience, tend to be at the forefront of this kind of endeavour.
It feels very much like the male entitlement that expects women to labour on behalf of men. And you know what? In my experience there are far more trans people like Tigger the Wing than like this bunch of whiny, entitled bastards. The shame is that the loony entitled fringe are so loud and so vicious they are spoiling things for all of us – but most especially for their fellow trans people who deserve a chance to be able to slide into a normal, accepted life as attitudes change. I do think that we’re heading for a huge backlash against the current view of trans – the view promoted by such varied people as Caitlyn Jenner and the crazies amongst the activists. The saddest thing is the people most hurt by that backlash will be the ordinary trans folk who are just trying to live from day to day in a way that they are comfortable with.
This could be the mantra for everything we’re talking about these days. Trump voters. Anti-vaxxers. New Agers. Anti-environmentalists, as well as anti-science environmental activists. Creationists. Fundamentalists of all stripes. Well off to middle class white male atheists.
So what do we need to do? Shout louder? I think that would make us look “loony” to most people, who for the most part, aren’t on either side of any of this, and don’t really give a rat’s ass who wins or loses, if we’ll just leave them alone.
Bringing facts hasn’t worked.
Open for suggestions here.
What, no drive-by yet from Silent Bob to scold the VWL for not being inclusive?
Pretty close, yes. There’s a step or two missing, that result from the specifics of trans life in America, that make it a bit less absurd-sounding, however.
The key bit to understand is that for most of the time that transsexuality has even been a formally recognized diagnosis, the gatekeeping protocols have been set largely by (cis) men. Which meant that, if you wanted to be considered eligible for hormone therapy or SRS, you had to jump through hoops designed to ‘prove’ that you were really ‘a woman in a man’s body’, or vice-versa.
So, if you wanted to become legally recognized as a woman, you had to wear dresses, talk about fashion and make-up, be sexually attracted only to men, want to be a homemaker, etc. In short, everything that feminists have spent decades trying to unshackle from the very concept of ‘woman’. (The notion of a bisexual or lesbian trans woman, for instance, was completely alien to the system, and having a relationship with a woman would’ve been a complete killer to someone’s desire to transition.)
Confronted with the high rates of depression and suicide, and the backing of the medical establishment, though, the popular consciousness managed to somehow come to accept the idea that allowing people to transition really was necessary. But this was coupled with, and filtered through, all the bullshit media that seeks so desperately to keep us to two clearly labeled boxes of gender, because it makes it easier for the patriarchy. So the narrative became, “I knew I was a girl because I liked pretty dresses and putting on make-up,” when it SHOULD have been, “Because I knew I was a girl, I paid attention to the messages that other girls got about what girls should be like, and because I felt the need to prove my girl-hood to others, I internalized those messages that much more deeply.” But of course, that’s a hard concept to get across on an afternoon talk-show.
And thus, a trend that could have been a key cut against the patriarchy instead became yet another means of ensuring the two-box system. The difficulty is that, when you have folks like Tennessee State Rep. Richard “Stomp a Mudhole In Him” Floyd still being elected to office, it becomes damned hard to persuade trans women that yes, they can let go of the false gender binary.
There’s a carrot-and-stick approach to how the system treats trans women, specifically, in order to keep them from being a threat to patriarchal society. It places them in a situation where they are forced to be afraid of any effort to undermine their claimed identity, because that way lies abuse and ostracism.
********
On another note, I’ve been trying to figure it out: Does being a supporter of the Nordic model make me a SWERF?
Yes. That is what we’re told. If we support the Nordic model, we are anti-sex worker, and endangering sex workers, and judging sex workers, etc etc etc
@Freemage #15
That’s still not extermination though. “Exterminate” doesn’t mean “denied elective surgery.” To exterminate people is to kill them.
Language like “extermination” catastrophizes trans issues, and that enables them to behave as badly as they like, and demonize anyone who criticizes them, because after all they’re fighting for their very lives!
Same thing with “you [“TERF”] are denying my right to exist.” Um, no, I’m not. Not at all.
I know you know this, just thinking out loud.
Oh yes. Don’t you know these issues are Settled, for all time? Any dissension makes you a hateful acronym.
Please forgive my crudity, but has anyone else been thinking about going to Red Lobster to order the “SWERF and TERF special”? Every time I see those acronyms together, my mind thinks of steak with crab legs, or maybe a lobster tail.
Jesus, yet again I become intensely aware of my male privilege. I get no SWERF or TERF label… I have no spaces to invade… and any harassment from these types is negligible.
Lady Mondegreen: Except that in many cases, they truly do feel they are fighting ‘for their very lives’, and with evidence to support it. Trans women, in particular, are a high risk group for both suicidal depression and for external violence, far and above the baseline even for women as a whole. The fact that this particular brand of identity politics seems to offer a means of reducing that risk makes it a very attractive devil’s bargain for many trans folk. This doesn’t make their wrong (and often shitty) actions any less wrong (or shitty), but it does make them comprehensible to me in a way that, say, the typical Trump supporter is not. I can empathize with it, even as I can see the harm it’s doing.
***
And yeah, I suspected that on the SWERF/Nordic Model thing. That’s one I’m fully in line with this board on, I think. (Never mind that it’s demonstrable that full legalization makes life WORSE for sex workers, voluntary or otherwise.)
Reminded me of this bit from the Nick Cohen piece quoted in the “corporate Hitlers” post:
“Narcissists in business are more likely to seek macho takeovers and less likely to engage in the hard work of innovating and creating profitable firms, the researchers found. “
And thank you, Freemage, for the elucidation.
Your Name’s not Bruce?: Glad to do it, though sometimes a bit reluctant (there comes a point where ‘elucidation’ becomes ‘back-door hectoring’ and I try not to do that). It’s just a bit odd, in that I believe that “TERF” does describe a particular point of view, and that that view is mistaken, problematic and harmful–but that I also don’t believe that Ophelia or most of the commentariat here remotely qualifies under that definition. So I keep feeling the need to thread the needle.
#17 Lady Mondegreen:
Oh oh, can I please be hateful acronym? HA sounds like fun!
“Trans women, in particular, are a high risk group for both suicidal depression and for external violence, far and above the baseline even for women as a whole.”
Really truly sincerely vehemently doubt this. Unless by ‘trans women” you mean only males who have actually transitioned – who are also black, living in the global south, and involved in prostitution. And even then, compare those transwomen to *women in the same situation,* and I think you’ll find equally dire situations.
The vast majority of people claiming the label “transwoman” are middle class white heterosexual males with no intention of ever parting with their beloved penis, whose biggest risk of injury is carpal tunnel while fapping to their grand online weeping of “the world wants me dead.”
MHB: Actually, it’s likely that being incompletely transitioned would be the bit that makes you far more at risk. You are aware that people in the U.S. still use the gay panic defense to justify assault, right? (That said, yes, all the other factors you cite do also increase the risk of assault. The world has many ways to be shitty to those at the bottom of the pile.)
Overall, though, I think you’re making the mistake of letting the internet determine your reality. Yes, there are individuals out there that act in the fashion you describe. But insisting, without proof, that this constitutes a “majority” of transwomen (as opposed to a highly vocal minority active only on the internet) is a bit like claiming that there’s a vast groundswell of support for Trump, with about the same amount of proof offered.
As an aside: There are a lot of reasons why many trans folk will never get SRS; in many cases, it has far more to do with cost, medical condition and ability to get through the necessary hurdles (those gatekeeping measures I mentioned earlier are still in effect in some places, so a trans woman who wishes to display masculine traits has to choose between her sense of self and qualifying for the treatments.)
Freemage, please allow me to thank you for your several posts. Your needle threading is extraordinary.
@ Freemage, MHB
MHB:
Replace “males who have actually transitioned” with “males who can’t pass as unambiguous, gender-conforming people (of either sex),” and MHB’s point stands, Freemage. Transgender murder victims are overwhelmingly poor people of color, and transphobic hate is only one of the problems they face.
Let me be clear: one murder, whatever the motive, is one too many. And I have no doubt that transphobic violence, in particular, happens.
That said, trans activists–not ordinary trans people, trying to live their lives as best they can in a world full of prejudice against gender nonconforming people–trans activists absolutely have used inflated trans murder statistics for propaganda purposes.
Those inflated statistics are then believed, and contribute to the sense many trans people have of being under siege.
The above blog post is a few years old, and refers to the then common (since widely debunked) “1 in 12 trans people will be murdered” factoid. But contemporary numbers still need to be critically examined.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2012/05/murder-statistics-of-transgender-people/
As for the much-repeated 41% suicide rate–well, it’s not reliable.
https://4thwavenow.com/2015/08/03/the-41-trans-suicide-rate-a-tale-of-flawed-data-and-lazy-journalists/
@ 14 StlSin
Well okay then, since you insist.
Bloody lesbians, telling women what to do and pushing them around if they refuse — bullying and silencing feminist women! Exactly the same as misogyny! Peak activism!
(/snark)
… Not to mention, of course, that I don’t trust “Guerrilla Feminist Collective” as an impartial source.
Um, Bob. Even if you believe the Guerrilla Feminist Collective are lying about what happened at the library opening (an event which must have had plenty of witnesses)–
–you can still follow the handy link Ophelia provided and read GAG’s own words. Their manifesto includes a list of the books they insist this small private library to pull from their shelves.
(Which attempt at censorship is presumably fine by you, because Lavender Menace protested a women’s congress in 1970.)
That’s amusing. StlSin expressed surprise that there’d been no drive-by from Silentbob yet, so Silentbob pretends that was an insistence he should do one, and then does a strikingly drive-by drive-by.
As for whether or not the Guerrilla Feminist Collective is lying about what happened – we are in luck: there’s a video.