Uncomfortable Optics
Last week, “Gender Critical” campaigner Posie Parker (Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull) toured Australia and New Zealand, where she delivered anti-transgender speeches at several events. Protests against Parker culminated in one campaigner pouring tomato sauce over her, followed by a surging crowd and Parker’s security extracting her from the event. Since returning to the UK, Parker has appeared on the Brendan O'Neill Show (Spiked’s chief political writer) to set the narrative on her version of events.
Parker’s performance reminded me that I have been observing this sphere of right-wing populist politics for almost a decade now. Sometimes, I need to step back from seeing the narrative shifts by degree and consider the novel/visceral impact of blunt agenda-setting. Posie Parker reframed progressive feminists as internalising misogyny because they ideologically cannot differentiate men from women. The Gender Critics, therefore, advocate for safe spaces on behalf of women who feel marginalised by the institutionalised blurring of gender boundaries. Additionally, Transwomen are framed as left-wing incels - dangerous, sexually repressed, men who are exhibiting their self-perceived entitlement to women's space, time, and attention (and who knows where that will lead?)
Seeing feminist discourse flipped on its head like this is astounding to me, someone who remembers anti-feminism as a discrete content genre within the burgeoning populist right. There was a time when the notion of gendered safe spaces was roundly mocked, as was the entire premise that Western women were oppressed by the omnipotent force known as the patriarchy. Here, Parker is clever in that she avoids the battle over definitions by simply not calling herself a feminist. Unlike Christina Hoff Sommers, who identified herself as a second-wave feminist (and not a loony third-wave feminist), Parker identifies as a Women’s Rights Activist, a middle-aged and working-class mum. Hoff Sommers defined herself as the “Factual Feminist”, breaking down the misinformed illogic of ‘doing’ third-wave feminism. Parker, on the other hand, commands a matronly presence, telling young people, “this how it is and this how it is going to be”. It is difficult to explain without sounding like I am showering Parker with praise. All I can say is that I serve women like Parker every day in my retail job, and they are an absolute force to be reckoned with when angered.
Listening to Parker on the Brenden O'Neill Show I could not shake the feeling that her talking points were a little too well-curated. It was like someone had applied Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals to popular feminist discourse. In 2020, Parker founded Standing for Women which has launched several publicity campaigns. One of which was a poster campaign designed to attract J.K Rowling’s attention. Quite simply, I do wonder who are the people behind Parker.
Trump Wins Bigly
Donald Trump yet again proves to his base that he is the God Emperor capable of outfoxing the pernicious attempts of the Deep State demons that are trying to crush the very soul of American liberty - all without firing a single Tweet. Over a week ago Trump predicted, on Truth Social, that he would be arrested following a grand jury inditement over hush money being paid to a porn star he had been screwing. The indictment never came, the grand jury hearing was delayed, and then the District Attorney dropped the case.