RattleBag and Rhubarb

Gall, Nerve, Courage, and The Party of Women

 Women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen of Let Women Speak had a big announcement last week. Give it a watch. And enjoy some Shirley Bassey covering P!nk at the same time.  

I am officially the leader of a political party called The Party of Women.

Yes – it’s the launch of a new officially registered political party – The Party of Women – and Kellie-Jay is excited –  “We’ll be making it all proper as of Monday”.

What lines stand out for you? Here are a few I noted:

Things are gonna change …so exciting

Everything just got real. We are no longer asking our politicians. We’re going to be having those conversations. We’re going to put up billboards. I am going to say in public, on television, on the BBC … things that people haven’t had the gall, the nerve, the courage to say in such a long time.

I am going to be in political debates where I am not going to excuse the fact that I’m standing up for women.

All of you anons, all of you women who’ve been told that you’re not good enough… you people are going to have the voice that you damn well deserve. You people are going to be able to speak directly to power 

There’s going to be nothing in the way anymore. No little barrier of politeness, nobody’s going to be telling you you’re not good enough, nobody’s going to tell you haven’t got enough experience, you’re not educated enough. You’re going to be the women that will bring this country back from the brink. You are going to do it one by one throughout councils in the land, you are going to take over the PTTs, and you are going to have those conversations everywhere you damn well please, and nobody is going to tell me you’re not good enough, and  nobody is going to tell you that you’re not good enough least of all yourselves.

It’s going to be fricking massive 

Today UK, Tomorrow the world. There is no stopping us now 

I just want you all to remember you have given your votes to people  and you have given your backing to people, that time and time again have shown that they don’t deserve it and they are not good enough.

Now you can be that person. You don’t need to give your support to someone else. You don’t need to give your support to someone else who thinks that – maybe – way down the food chain, maybe, we can talk about women’s rights, maybe you are making too much fuss, maybe your not being respectful, maybe you are not being polite enough. That’s gone now.  That conversation is over We’re not asking, We don’t need people to do that for us because we are us. We are the thing, we are the issue.

Our language, our spaces, and our rights that’s going to be something that the Party of Women will just talk about until we bore ourselves 

So to all those people asking you to pledge your allegiance to parties that have shown you time and time again that they don’t care about you. You don’t need to do that anymore. You don’t have to be politically homeless anymore. We are huge in number.

And its not just women. This is the Party of Women because the thing we all want to change has its dirty nasty little fingers in so many pies throughout our entire lives … this nasty insidious cult has reached everywhere and it’s going to take ordinary plain-speaking ordinary women who get their hands dirty on a daily basis, who can’t afford the luxury of being polite and respectful to AGPs and fetishists … it’s going to take us to bring it back.

The Appeal

It’s a class-based appeal to all those distressed at recent changes and whose voices have been unheard or shut down. It’s a single-minded focus that is politically inclusive, direct, and unwavering. This is,of course, consistent with the Let Women Speak events that KJK has convened across the world.

We are a global constituency of women. We focus specifically on the word “woman”, and other female language that clearly defines us, and our rights. The purpose of our campaign is to raise funds in order to promote the fight back against this global assault of women.

The Inclusion Intrusion

KJK is single-minded, implacable, uncompromising, and fearless. Her appeal is to women who may not hold prestigious degrees and positions but who are directly affected by adverse changes in their daily lives.

These women prioritize the safety and well-being of children; advocate for the rights of marginalized women in vulnerable situations such as prisons and hospital wards; and emphasize the importance of maintaining single-sex facilities like changing rooms and public toilets. They are everyday women who feel their voices have been silenced by a culture of forced kindness – #BeKind – that champions “inclusion” at the expense of women’s spaces, lives, and language. 

Here is a Microphone, Tell your Story

KJK  advertises a place and time, gets the permits, and turns up with stewards and a mic that she hands to any woman who has something to say.  And so they do.

Some talk about the impact of the loss of single-sex spaces such as menopause support groups, rape crisis centers, and domestic violence shelters, and about men being housed in women’s prisons and hospital wards. 

Some talk about having to share public changing rooms and toilets with men. Some talk about being shunned and canceled for their opinions and what it means when gender identity trumps sex. Some talk about the impact of allowing men to compete in women’s sports and others talk about schools teaching children about gender identity, being born in the wrong body, and sex as a spectrum.

Women saying these things in public – speaking their truth, sometimes with their voices shaking – is called hate speech and incitement to violence. 

In a sane world, these things would not need to be said and these events would not be necessary. But we are not in a sane world and these women’s stories and these women’s gatherings and stories cause outrage. Politicians and pundits across Australia and New Zealand vilified her as an extremist akin to a terrorist and her event in Auckland was left unpoliced as out-of-control activists went on the attack.

I observed the event she held in NYC where the mob seethed and howled and spat and were so violently out of control that arrests were made and the NYPD could not guarantee her safety. And for what? For saying to ordinary women: “Here is a microphone. Tell your story.” 

So it’s going to be interesting to see the impact of The Party of Women on the UK election later this year. KJK has already talked about standing in Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s London district. Whatever happens, you can be sure that political poltroons with their weaselly words about women and women’s rights will be challenged.

They will all have to figure out how to answer the question: “What is a woman?” 

6 thoughts on “Gall, Nerve, Courage, and The Party of Women

  1. I’m just a guy, and not a “dame”….
    But I like your post, just the same.
    Yet WordPress won’t give me a break:
    When I click on Like, it just won’t “take.”
    :'(

    1. mistermuse – thank you for taking the time
      To post a comment – and yes – it’s a crime
      Wordpress can be clunky
      So funky and junky
      But and your words are always sublime.

  2. Well done. Party of Women long overdue.
    On a smaller scale I am excited to support a good friend who is running for the South Carolina Senate this November. She is a proven leader, a proven agent of change and would be a breath of fresh air for our state house where old white men are in charge.
    We would have a different world if women were in charge!!
    Onward.
    Sheila Morris´s last blog post ..for Pretty on our twenty-third anniversary

  3. I’m not sure what the right comparator is—maybe there is none—but what I can say is Kellie-Jay is a superlative organizer with a tight focus on centering women, an unwaveringly clear message and, with it all, a wicked sense of humor. She is right about the need to hold the line, and woe betide anyone who wobbles. I hope her new party is a great success. She has exactly the right approach there, too. Here’s a tweet she put out on that:

    You have had a few hours to digest the news about #PartyOfWomen, where are you going to stand? And which political office?

    Local council
    Parliament
    Senedd
    Scottish Parliament
    Stormont
    Police Commissioner
    Susan Scheid´s last blog post ..“A new knowledge of reality”

  4. The world seems to be in a state of out-of-control hysteria. Why don’t they all shut the “f “up for five minutes and take some deep breaths? And then have a civilised, sensible conversation. As I have said, when I retired 17 years ago I basically withdrew, which may be one of the better moves I’ve made. We had to take sensitivity training back then but all this other twaddle had not yet arrived on the scene. As a young girl I would have hated sharing a bathroom with boys. How could any sane person think that is right? There is just so much wrong with all of this and by the looks of it no-one even really knows what they are protesting about. I confess I sometimes have to work it all back…if someone is protesting anti-transgenderism…I just wrote that and I’m not sure. My feeling? Let everyone be what they want as long as they don’t cause harm to others.
    And yes, I think women should have a chance at running things.

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