Please read our official Public Statement. It seems some Irish Twitter accounts have been making slanderous claims against us. A witch hunt of some sort. Some are hungry for us to comply or for others to. People will go to great lengths to silence women. We won’t be bullied.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
We would like to address the comments made about our group and the slanderous accusations made by people who seem to think bullying women and organisations to unfollow us is acceptable. This witch hunt will not be tolerated.
Our group is made up of diverse individuals, women of colour, Irish women and women who are part of the LGBT alphabet and we’re here to tell you that your accusations are baseless. We also find it incredibly racist when we’re told that we’re “white feminists”, when some of our members are migrants from 3rd world countries. Your assumption lies on the perception that you think only white women can fight for women’s rights.
If you know anything about radical feminism, which we’re assuming you don’t, our focus is getting to the root of female oppression & dismantling the system that allows that. Not everything revolves around the “T” & women in the sex trade who are there by “choice”. We agree that trans individuals and people who are in the sex trade deserve respect and they need better mental healthcare & support. People deserve to live their lives as they choose without fear of backlash or harassment.
We will not stand by and let your slanderous claims silence us. We will not be held hostage by bullies.
We will not saturate our goal, which is to liberate females from structural sex-based oppression.
Girls & women deserve better. You will not shame us for wanting better and demanding better.
Our movement is for girls & women and that encompasses class, sexuality, disability, gender identity expression, religion and race, regardless of their political leanings and whether they like us or not.
You’re showing your ignorance and your position of privilege when you forget that there are still girls & women who are fighting for rights across the world.
Billions of women are still oppressed simply for being born female, this is something girls and women, mostly women of colour, cannot opt out of.
There seems to be a section of “progressive” men and women on Irish Twitter who have made it their goal to bully and silence women who don’t subscribe to their ideology. It seems respecting people and going by the motto “live and let live” is not enough. They’ve taken it upon themselves to police people’s thoughts to ensure it aligns with what they consider “kindness”. Their version of “kindness” means denying facts, walking on eggshells and full capitulation to their whims and demands.
Any critique or question that you raise is automatically shut down with wolf cries of “bigotry”. Some use emotional manipulation tactics to get you to comply. They play on fear and on guilt.
Are women not allowed to centre females anymore? Are women not allowed to fight for women’s rights or talk about issues that only biological females can experience or have experienced? Why are women being bullied and forced to include males in our movement? If we want to talk about fighting FGM, we should be able to talk freely about that without having to bring up male circumcision. If we want to campaign to stop little girls being married off to adults, we should be able to do so without being attacked. If you personally want to have males in your feminism, you are more than welcome to do so. But our movement as radical feminists is male-exclusionary and there’s nothing hateful about that.
Forbidding women to organise politically or speak out unless they consider men’s feelings is misogynistic. We won’t stand for it.
