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@TriptychTwinsRidesAgain @Chronic-Yonic https://lascapigliata.com/2025/01/06/on-cancel-culture-in-the-gender-critical-movement/

Gender-critical (GC) circles haven’t been immune from this dynamic either. Talking about Asian grooming and rape gangs, appearing on right-wing platforms to talk about women’s issues, and even standing in the vicinity of someone later identified as being far right, have all been used as “proof” by certain GC leftists, that their fellow activists are “racist” and “far right”. Once accused, various demands are made, ranging from policing their associations, public denouncements and even calls for their expulsion.

With all due respect to anyone’s ideological feelings, it always seemed like a bizarre own goal, for a movement full of disenfranchised women to give credence to false accusations of “far right”, especially when the basis for such accusations is so flimsy, if not entirely absent. Why is anyone even bothering with such nonsense? We are all on the same side, aren’t we? I used to think so, but now I am not so sure.

In order to mitigate effects of censorship, and perhaps to maintain their relationship with the Labour Party, some GC leftists teamed up with trans-identifying men who claimed to be “gender critical”. This worked to a mutual benefit. Trans-identifying men who were willing to promote the GC cause, were quickly propelled to star status. They got speaking and writing gigs that most grassroots activists could only dream of. They enjoyed mainstream media opportunities, often enabling the creation of “manels” (male-only panels) and displacing women from discussions pertaining to women’s rights. Most gratifyingly, perhaps, they were not just accepted but treated as indispensable by the very women who were fighting against men like them. This enabled them to set red lines which the “official” GC movement could not cross. The GC leftists benefitted too. Thanks to their association with (and some would say pandering to the demands of ) trans-identifying men, they could rebuke false accusations of “transphobia” and triangulate grassroots activists as “far right/adjacent/extremists”, in order to present themselves as the “reasonable alternative”. This worked to a point. While it helped them gain the seat at the table – which undoubtedly advanced the GC cause – the compromises and red lines also meant that basic rights and protection for women and children remained elusive.