Women saying 'No' at FiLiA 2023

Men's anger about our boundaries will not damage our activism

I’ve just come back from FiLiA conference in Glasgow. It was my fourth visit to FiLiA, the largest feminist conference in Europe, and perhaps the world. I have been a delegate and also on a panel at FiLiA three years in a row (in Portsmouth, Cardiff, and Glasgow), and, back in 2015, when the event was still called Feminism in London, I spoke on a panel about obstetric violence with three other women (two of whom, incidentally, have since publicly thrown me under the bus for saying that this specific type of violence is sex based. Eyeroll.)

Those of you who have followed the news about FiLiA over the past few days will perhaps already know that two newsworthy events happened, firstly, that trans rights activists tried and very nearly succeeded to get the event shut down, and secondly, that J.K.Rowling made a surprise appearance.

Left to right, Julie Bindel, J.K.Rowling and Claire Heuchan at FiLiA 2023. Pic credit Deirdre Johnston

What doesn’t get talked about though as widely as it should is what the conference is actually about, and what kind of conversations take place within the walls. As I sat in session after session over three days, it became clear to me just why all of the women who attend this conference are gender critical, or ‘terfs’ as the activists would call us: because you cannot fight back against the key issues that the conference raises without a sex based understanding of the world, without, essentially, knowing ‘what a woman is’. This is why the trans activists outside are so angry and incensed by FiLiA. They are incensed that the 1500 women in attendance all collectively believe in the reality of biological sex and understand, in deep, rigorous, well-thought through and intellectual ways, what the impact of patriarchy is on female people. And they are incensed that such a large group of women collectively refuse to include people born male, no matter how they identify, in this analysis. They are - as men have been since time immemorial - incensed by our boundaries, and by our plain and simple, “No.”

The biggest sign at the Friday morning protest read, ‘No Feminism without Trans Women’. But feminism is the only human rights movement which focuses entirely on the concerns of women. It is OK - and in fact in many cases it’s essential - that a rights movement excludes certain groups from its remit. Focus, boundaries, clarity - this is how you get stuff done.

In the above photo, taken by me, male protestors hold aloft a sign saying ‘Fuck Off Transphobes’. The man with his hands on his hips is Tom Harlow, a particularly aggressive individual whose energy immediately stood out to me (I think you will see what I mean if you watch this film he posted the night before) when I walked past the protest. He was filmed shouting ‘fuck you’ to the women in line for FiLiA, making ageist remarks and hurling abuse.

"Never forget the capacity of progressive men to retreat to misogyny under pressure". Johann Lamont, FiLiA 2023

Anyway, here we are talking about the protesters outside again, when inside the conference, something much much more interesting was happening. FiLiA runs several sessions in parallel so there is a huge variety of talks to choose from. It is hard to impress on you just how truly ‘intersectional’ FiLiA is, with women from 35 different countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, attending and being given a platform to speak. Some of the sessions from Glasgow will soon be online, but in the meantime, if you want to get an idea of what it’s all about, there are lots of the sessions from last year’s FiLiA on youtube here.

A highlight of the first day for me was was UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, in conversation with Joanna Cherry SNP. Alsalem and Cherry are both unapologetically gender critical, and, amongst other things, their discussion emphasised just how difficult it is becoming for both organisations and individuals at an international level to work to improve women’s lives, in a world in which it is no longer considered ‘inclusive’ to speak about issues only affecting females. The FiLiA conference - which very nearly didn’t go ahead when activists pressured the venue to cancel the event with just 12 hours notice, and was only rescued by the intervention of lawyers - being just one example of this concerted global attempt to silence women on issue that affect them exclusively.

Many other sessions I attended brought this problem to life, for example one called ‘Lost Voices of Women’, where a range of speakers including Shonagh Dillon (founder of Aurora New Dawn), Karen Ingala-Smith (founder of the Femicide Census and Counting Dead Women), Yasmin Rehman from Juno Women’s Aid, and Rahaila Gupta from Southall Black Sisters, talked about the damage done to their work and the work of others attempting to end men’s violence against women. Ingala Smith highlighted that femicide is not the same as murder, and that our recording of the statistics around it needs to remain sex based if we are to truly address it. Shonagh Dillon talked about the GRA and how women were silenced when they tried to raise concerns about it. Here were these women, all giants in the field of ending male violence, all speaking from personal experience about the way their work has been and continues to be undermined by trans activism.

Amidst sessions on prostitution, surrogacy, femicide, male violence, advocacy and activism, politics and policy, lesbian solidarity, sexual health, drug abuse, trade unions, raising young feminists, academia, child abuse, pornography, self defence and peace, there was so much solidarity to be found. As I listened to the many speakers, it struck me that this specific kind of female solidarity it also under threat if we are all persuaded to stop believing that there is anything different or special about being biologically female. Nowhere was the joy of sisterhood more apparent than the annual FiLiA women only disco, which took place on Saturday night. Here the venue - also used as a nightclub - came into its own. If you’ve never been to a women only disco, it’s hard to explain just what’s so special about it, but let’s just say that once the male gaze is lifted, a different energy fills the room and that energy in unapologetic, warm, confident and powerful.

And some of us, in homage to the wonderful Elaine Miller, even wore ‘merkins’ (pubic wigs), which caused much hilarity.

My Terfology T-shirt is from Wild Womyn Workshop

I’m so glad the trans activists did not succeed in shutting down this beautiful event filled with, as the FiLiA slogan puts it, ‘sisterhood and solidarity’. I only wish that they, in particular the councillors for the Scottish Green Party who joined the protest, had simply come inside. I think if they had, they would quickly realise that the conference has nothing to do with trans rights, it is only focused on women’s rights. And the fact that they tried to shut it down only goes to prove that gender ideology is damaging to women’s rights. But they did not succeed, they did not stop us speaking, or indeed, dancing. And they never will.

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I wrote the 8th edition of The Word is Woman whilst at FiLiA.

You can read all of the back issues of this catalogue of the erasure of women from language, here. Edition #9 is out on Friday. See you then! Milli x