Feminist Current

Robert Wintemute, a professor of human rights law at King's College London and a lawyer for the LGB Alliance, was scheduled to give a talk called called “Sex vs. Gender (Identity) Debate In the United Kingdom and the Divorce of LGB from T,” at McGill University in Montreal last week. The event never happened, though, cancelled shortly after it began as protesters stormed the venue shouting profanities and slogans like, "Trans rights are human rights," threw flour at Robert, and unplugged a projector he used for the event. Robert rightly called the protest “extremely anti-democratic.” In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with him about the protest, as well as how we came to a place wherein trans rights have superseded women’s sex-based human rights in law.

Scottish women suffered major blow in December when the SNP government passed a bill that will allow anyone to get a gender recognition certificate through self-declaration without a diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" or doctor’s assessment. They will need only to claim to have been "living as a different gender" for three months. Teenagers will become eligible to apply to change their legal sex on the day of their 16th birthday.

For Women Scotland was founded in June 2018 amid fear exactly this would happen, leading to an erosion of women’s rights. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith, about the group's fight for women’s sex based rights in the country and what happens now that the Gender Recognition Reform Bill has passed.

Marissa Darlingh was an elementary school counselor with over a decade of experience working with students in culturally diverse public school districts when she was fired from her job at Allen-Field Elementary School in the Milwaukee Public School District.

After speaking at an April 23 rally in Madison against gender identity ideology in schools, a campaign was organized to get Marissa fired, and her supervisor began an investigation. Marissa was subsequently suspended, then received a no-trespass order. She received a letter of termination on September 30, and filed a federal lawsuit, arguing this was a violation of her free speech rights. Her attorneys also argued the district violated Darlingh's constitutional right to due process by not giving her sufficient notice before she was suspended from her job on June 14.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Marissa about her work, her case, "allying with the right," and why she spoke out against teaching kids about gender identity ideology.

Two months ago, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini traveled from her hometown in the province of Kurdistan to the Iranian capital, Tehran, to visit her brother. She was arrested by the morality police getting off the subway for failing to cover her hair properly, in accordance with Iran’s Sharia law. Three days later, she was dead, beaten severly in the head. Iranian women said "No more," and launched an uprising. Protests and demonstrations have been ongoing ever since. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Maryam Namazie, a secularist, feminist, and human rights activist, about the uprisings, the history of Saria law and women’s rights in Iran, and how Western feminists can better support Iranian women in their fight for freedom.

Today, women only spaces are highly controversial. Thanks to gender identity legislation, “female only” has become practically obsolete. When Sall Grover set out to create a female only social network and app, she was trying to help — offering women a space where they needn’t deal with the predatory, sexist, harassing behaviour of men. She had no idea such an endeavour would make her a target. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with the founder & CEO of Giggle about her experience trying to get the app off the ground, and about a case brought against her on account of a complaint lodged against her by a trans activist named Roxy Tickle, with regard to a tweet exchange between the two about the McIver’s Ladies Baths in Sydney and about the fact Roxy was kicked off of Giggle after breaking the rules on sex to gain access to the app.

Pornography has been wholly normalized in our society. It is expected that men and boys use it, is joked about, and is treated as a harmless pastime — synonomous with masturbation. But the industry is anything but harmless.

Benji Nolot is the founder of Exodus Cry, an NGO committed to abolishing sex trafficking and breaking the cycle of commercial sexual exploitation while assisting and empowering its victims. He recently produced a series called, Beyond Fantasy, which looks at the disturbing realities of popular genres of porn like "barely legal" and "hardcore," as well as the reality of coercion, violence, and health impacts like STIs on those on film.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Benji about the documentary series and what we all need to know about what goes on on and off screen in porn. The truth is almost unimaginably disturbing.

Infighting is not new to feminism — who is doing things right, who is doing things wrong, who is toxic, who is good, who is a phony, a grifter, not an ally, too right, too rich, too academic, too old, or too pretty has always been up for debate, and potentially a reason to cancel women from the movement. Today, even within the already marginal "gender critical feminist" umbrella, women are expected to pick sides on party lines.

Women like Kellie-Jay Keen (Posie Parker) seem particularly divisive. Last week, Posie held a Speaker’s Corner event in Brighton, which drew the attention of trans activists as well as many women wanting to speak out about the impact of gender identity ideology on their lives and rights. But it also drew the ire of some feminists, who complained that Posie’s event (and her work, more broadly) was too closely connected to the right.

One response came from Katy Worley, also known as DJ Lippy, a London-based DJ turned activist, best known for her work with the feminist collective Make More Noise. She began organizing protests and publicity stunts to fight gender identity ideology back in 2020 and produces a weekly talk show called Wombs with a View.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Katy about the controversy and whether feminists need to choose between left and right.