Woman’s Hour

Here is Woman’s Hour. The discussion of feminism and free speech among Caroline Criado-Perez, Jane Fae and Jude Kelly is the first segment, ending at 13:54.

A few notes and bits of transcription:

Jane Fae talks about talks about absolutism in politics.

Caroline Criado-Perez talks about ideological totalism and purity politics.

…there is a dogma, and if you have ever stepped outside of that dogma, then you are tainted and impure and you cannot be allowed to speak.

…if you don’t toe the party line your very presence can cause trauma.

Jane Fae talks about that “people are talking about you” thing. She’s been told that Julie Bindel is dangerous, Bea Campbell is dangerous – no, she doesn’t believe that.

CCP:

I don’t think opinions can make someone unsafe.

They talk about no-platforming, and CCP says the no-platformers are dishonest about it, they say they’re just expressing their views and similar. She mentions the no-platforming of Kate Smurthwaite, which I blogged about extensively at the time – here and here and here and here and here and here.

So later in the program, at 34:40, the presenter Jenni Murray said this:

If you were listening earlier to our conversation about censorship and no platforming, you may remember that Caroline Criado Perez said that effectively the comedian Kate Smurthwaite had been no platformed from Goldsmith’s Student Union. They have got in touch and said she was not no platformed or banned by Goldsmith’s Student Union, no policy exists to that effect, the decision to cancel the show was made by the Comedy Society president after conversations with the performer 24 hours before the show was meant to happen, she made the call at the last minute based on facts later found to be unfounded such as the claim that there were going to be protests and this was balanced by the fact that only eight tickets had been sold anyway.

Thus shitting on Kate all over again. The “eight tickets” excuse is and always was bullshit, because the show was free to students, so they never expected to sell a bunch of tickets.

Notice how tidily Goldsmith’s rushes to confirm what Caroline said about the dishonesty of no-platformers.

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