Thread by @RachaelCGrant

I’ve been silent for a while. The irony doesn’t escape me. Once, my mum, who was a dinner lady at my primary school, told me that at break I used to go around to the “misfit” kids, the kids nobody else would talk to 1/18 #letawomanspeak

and play with them, creating my own little group. My mum said she was so proud of me for standing up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves. Over the last few days I’ve watched our movement fracture and splinter #feminism 2/18

It’s been a long time coming. I can’t stand back in good faith and not speak out when I see other women being vilified in the way @JeanHatchet has been. I stood up for Posie and LAWS was created. I stand up for Jean now. 3/18

I haven’t been active in feminism since Christmas but I read Jean’s post. Should she have posted? That’s not for me to judge. Should she have been slated because of it? Absolutely not. 4/18

1) we don’t know what went on behind the scenes, and even if we did, it’s subjective. There are three sides: hers, theirs, the truth. 2) regardless, should a woman who has done amazing, selfless work for others be treated this way? Never. 5/18

I have my own views, of course, but my own views are whether certain actions isolate poor women, working class women etc; musing on whether we, as a collective, should be using certain tactics (any means to achieve a goal? I don’t think so). 6/18

I don’t care about the she said/she said. Neither should you. It’s okay to disagree. It should be fucking encouraged. Where has the ability to debate gone? To critically think about the actions of a person without having to ostricise, belittle and silence. 7/18

It’s expanded past Jean. How on Earth are we to advance as a movement if we descend into bitching and bullying and freezing out as soon as someone says something we don’t like? Simple answer: we won’t. We can’t exist on soundbites and media clips. 8/18

It’s also okay to be wrong, to make mistakes, to say “sorry, I fucked up”, without it being your everything, without it defining you. I’m not perfect, neither are you. It would be good to remember that. 9/18

I reserve the right to criticise, to be criticised. I reserve the right to debate. I reserve the right to say “I don’t agree with your action but that’s okay, I don’t have to.” #letawomanspeak 10/18

I reserve the right to say that I am going to distance my work from your work because our morals do not align, but I recognise you, I see you as part of this movement, I’ll listen to you speak. I’ll fight for you. 11/18

For me, the worst part of what’s been happening is the ugliness of people on display. The rapid descent into name calling, of personal attacks, of jabs to the ribs because you were friends with a woman once and you know what makes her tick. 12/18

Of the slating of another woman’s intellect, her clothes, her face, her body, her career or lack thereof. I’m seeing petty, small-time, passive aggressive bullying everywhere and I’m ashamed it has come to this. You should be too. 13/18

I can argue with the best of them. I’m angry women’s rights are under threat (aren’t they always?), but I am nothing if I’ve lost my compassion. Not just for women who have worked their arses off for the last year, 14/18

but also for those individuals who are confused and scared about what gender and sex means to them. I don’t hate trans people for who they are and the journey they are on; I hate the ideologies in the society we live in that doesn’t allow any of us to just be. 15/18

Six year old me on the playground spoke to those kids because of a simple fact: we are all human. We all deserve respect. You’re all welcome at my table. 16/18

I’ve lost friends in this battle; this thread might lose me more. But why am I here in this women’s movement? What am I fighting for? For equality, for fairness, to be able to be who I am as a woman without fear. 17/ 18

I need to face myself at the end of each day. If I’d stayed silent I wouldn’t be true to myself. It might not be glamorous or rebellious to centre truth in compassion, or an internal moral compass, but I don’t care. It’s who I am. And it’s got fuck all to do with “being nice.” 18