The Socialist North - Issue 152

Fight misogyny, transphobia and racism with Socialist Feminism

"‘I’m no danger to women’: Antrim man spared jail over rape fantasies" read a headline in the Belfast Telegraph on February 15 2023. The article reported that a man had just been handed 150 hours of community service by a court in Northern Ireland. He had taken images from two women's social media pages and uploaded these onto a website that shares rape fantasies. He had posted the images together with details of what he wanted to do to the women and asked for comments from other users of the site.

By Ann Orr

THE QUOTE in the headline is equally breathtaking as it is illuminating. Illuminating because it encapsulates the reality of online misogyny by its infuriating belittling of the impact of such ideas and online behaviour.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that even among very young school children, Andrew Tate is a major reference point. This is backed up for example by a survey organised by an Ulster University student in recent months found that of the 231 participants, the majority of whom were aged between 21 and 24, a staggering 43% agreed with "some of Tate's content" while 12 individuals stated they totally agreed with his views. Recognising that his harmful content is gaining an echo in large part because of the deep uncertainty of the present period only underlines that ideas spread by figures like Andrew Tate must be exposed and challenged. The strongest way to do this is to build united movements of solidarity and struggle. The potential for this has been illustrated by vigils and protest in the aftermath of murders and also the actions for example by Metro workers in Bilbao (Basque Country) who organised protests inside and outside their workplace last year after a colleague reported an incident of sexual harassment.

"Family values" and misogynistic double standards

Kate Forbes, one of the candidates to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP and Scotland's First Minister, when asked about her attitude to children outside of marriage stated that this would be something she would personally avoid. She added: "In terms of my faith, my faith would say that sex is for marriage and that's the approach that I would practise." She is an opponent of the changes proposed under the Gender Recognition Reform in Scotland, ostensibly based on the provisions for people aged 16 - 18. In the same interview to Sky News she stated "A rapist cannot be a woman and therefore my straight answer would be that Isla Bryson [a transgender woman recently convicted of the raping two women] is a man." This is nothing but the use of a le-

galistic approach to justify transphobia. While the majority of perpetrators of sexual violence are men, it is a myth to say that a woman cannot be a perpetrator. In law (across the UK and in Ireland) a formal distinction is indeed made between rape and other forms of penetrative sexual assault. The fundamental issue however is the absence of consent, not the gender identity of the perpetrator! Such lines of argument not only reinforce harmful myths about gender violence but also reflect an approach by which the recognition of someone's gender or correct use of pronouns and names is contingent on their behaviour or character in some way. Recognising someone's gender in no way detracts from our condemnation of anyone who perpetrates gender violence, domestic abuse, sexual assault or harassment. And in any case, trans people are far more likely to experience sexual violence than to be the perpetrators of it and according to the Human Rights Campaign around 50% of transgender people experience sexual violence at some stage in their life. Views such as those expressed by Kate Forbes are part of the very context in which gender violence can thrive - creating difference and gendered power dynamics which lay the basis for men's violence against women. Gender essentialist ideas and transphobia are part of what we need to challenge in order to be able to end gender violence.

A conscious backlash against wave of feminist struggle Recent shocking developments in the South also underline the connection between misogynistic tropes and the use of racism by the establishment and the far right. As covered on page 11, racist thugs are using distorted fears about gender violence as attempts to justify their actions and garner support. The idea that "our women" need to be protected against "unvetted males" is often repeated. The reality is very different with the vast majority of perpetrators of gender violence and sexual abuse being known to the victim / survivor. This was under lined by figures published in February 2023 by the Central Statistics Office in the South showing that 83% of reported suspects of sexual offences are known to the victim.

Transphobia, homo phobia, misogyny, racism and other such divisive messaging have real consequences. They lay the basis for the attacks we have seen in the South re cently, the homophobic mur ders that took place in Sligo last year, the murder of

teenager Brianna Ghey in January and the significant rise in femicides. The man arrested for Natalie McNally's murder is reported to have meticulously planned the brutal and horrendous attack, creating an alibi by faking a live stream of him playing a video game during the time of the murder. A 14-year-old boy murdered Urantsetseg Tserendorj in Dublin in January 2021 by stabbing her in the neck. The two teenagers charged with Brianna Ghey's murder are 15 years old. In France a recent report by the High Authority on Equality stated that "discrimination, violence and harassment" had reached "alarming proportions''. Of the participants who were 18 to 24, 22% reported having experienced psychological control or excessive jealousy by a male partner. 15% also said they had been beaten by a partner or ex-partner. Furthermore 22% said they had been sexually assaulted or raped. Young people must therefore be central to the campaigns against sexism, racism and LGBTQ+ phobia.

"Woman, Life, Freedom" - the rallying cry of a new generation Events in Iran in the last year have shown that movements against gender violence and oppression can not only unite working-class people of all genders but have the ability to quickly broaden and take aim at the entire system. This is essential because our fight is not just to ensure that anyone impacted by gender violence or LGBTQ+ phobia or racism can seek help and support. While this is an important part of what we fight for and that includes fighting for service provision and expansion such as the promise, not yet delivered by Stormont parties, to open an enhanced and expanded service for women who are homeless after the closure of the Regina Coeli hostel in 2022. Our fight is also for more than that: it is to eradicate the very foundations on which racism, misogyny and LGBTQ+ phobia spread.

“Woman, Life, Freedom” is the chant that captures this sentiment so succinctly and it is applicable all over the world. It encapsulates that our struggle is for our very lives. We do not simply want to exist - we want to be able to exist and thrive in full freedom: in a society in which each individual can live the way they want without fear of abuse, assault and violence. That is only possible on the basis of challenging the very foundations of this capitalist system. We take our inspiration from the mass movement in Iran which brought people of all genders together in a struggle against state violence, against violence against women and against the entire brutal regime. We also take inspiration from the mass movements that have shaken the establishment around the world, from BLM to abortion rights struggles in Latin America and here. Clara Zetkin, revolutionary socialist who over 100 years ago first proposed International Women's Day, called on workingclass people regardless of their gender to fight hand-in-hand to challenge the entire capitalist system. Her message remains vital in 2023 as we fight for a world in which we can finally throw out the protest placards that state "I can't believe we're still protesting this s***".