Had an interesting encounter in the library yesterday. I was studying there with a friend on our laptops sat next to some computers. A woman comes in loudly saying ‘you should be in the VIP section’ to which we both, rather perplexed said ‘sorry, what?’

Cue a tirade of abuse… …and insults for the fact we owned our own laptops. A barrage of anger against us for being ‘rich, white and entitled’ and basically implying that we shouldn’t be in the library as it’s not meant for people ‘like you’.

She then spent an hour ranting about how awful…

TW: This is not a nice story.

Yesterday I heard of the suicide of a woman I met some years ago. She transitioned to male and had been taken testosterone for years. She was young, disabled, autistic.

She unexpectedly fell pregnant & lost the baby. The information we have… …at this point is that she was told the years of testosterone had a big part to play in why she lost the baby.

She blamed herself, and so this week she ended her life.

I am heartbroken at a medical ideology that tells young women & men that these hormones are life saving…

To make it clear to begin with: I abhor violence on all sides.

A few years back now I would have been on the Free Palestine marches thinking that it was the ‘right side’.

Then I had the ‘wrong thoughts’ for a leftie which opened my eyes to the lies my ‘side’ told as well👇 I read books by ex Muslims and by Jewish authors.

I watched what happened to Isreal last month.

I do not condone the killing of civilians in retribution.

But I can see the antisemitism that is being widely espoused under the banner of progressive politics & am horrified

Why are all women controlled by the threat of male violence, and even if it’s #NotAllMen it’s enough to make all women act differently? A thread 🧵 👇

My 17 yr old niece gets the bus to work, college & the gym. She is young, blonde, pretty & kind. She has become a target… …for predatory men. From comments, staring, ‘jokes’ & now the inevitable & classic ‘creepy man on bus’. It started as soon as she hit puberty & it’s only getting worse.

The other day a man sat next to her on an otherwise empty bus. This is not a neutral act. It is an act of…

Happy Halloween! Normally every year I use this day to remind you all that this is Samhain - A night to remember the dead. But this year, let me take you on a little history lesson about witches.

The majority of women targeted & murdered were not witches 🧵👇 Witchcraft absolutely was a form of paganism & practiced well before Christianity came to our shores. But mostly this was using herbal medicines alongside the odd bit of praying/worshipping the goddess.

Women were the healers & historians & if they were good at their job…

What was discussed at #FiLiA2021 🧵👇

How important music is to women in Iran (a place where women can be arrested for dancing)

How to bridge the divide between younger & older feminists

How to help in the fight to get prostitution charges expunged from women’s… … criminal records

What we can do to help women fleeing the #TigrayGenocide

How women from all political parties can support each other to make sure women are included in policy & law

The onslaught of abuse women politicians face & how we can fight back & demand better…

The silence from mainstream women’s orgs about this is deafening. Are they all going to sit there and pretend that ‘challenging’ women on their ‘bigotry’ when accessing a rape crisis centre & requesting a woman is ok? That asking a rape victim to ‘reframe their trauma’ is ok?

https://twitter.com/DrJessTaylor/status/1425009284614610949

The more I think about this the more angry I get. I was made to 're-frame my trauma' as somehow being my fault because, in the words of the policeman we called, 'victims and abusers chose each other from across a crowded room'. I was made to feel that I was responsible..