This post is for women commenters only.
Sometimes on The Standard we have posts dedicated to creating specific kind of debate spaces. Lefties on The Standard started around the 2017 election to give left wing people some discussion free of the acrimony between left and right at that time. A post earlier this year on the death of Sarah Everard, women and male violence was open to women commenters only for similar reasons. Sometimes women need space to talk through issues without the distraction of male view points.
When I started Lefties on the Standard, I wrote,
I had a gratifying experience last month, a late night conversation on twitter about the left and the NZ election and what the Greens are up to. There were maybe half a dozen people in the conversation, and all of them were left wing. The conversation ranged over a number of areas and sub-threads and lasted several hours. At the end I came away feeling buoyed by the debate, that it was not only productive, and gave us food for thought, but that it fed us too. One thing I noticed was that none of us slagged each other off, nor was there a slagging off of our political allies.
We certainly weren’t all in agreement, and the conversation started with us disagreeing on a number of points around Green Party strategy – this was just after the first GP election campaign launch and Metiria Turei had just called Peters out on his racist rhetoric. But it was a conversation free of antagonism and instead explored political issues in depth and offered a chance for people to talk with their allies.
I’d like to try something similar today, a post for women commenters only, whereby we have discussion space for the things that matter to us, and can have those discussions in our own way. The intention is to create women’s space as a positive environment for feminist and other politics that are important to women.
This is a trust model. I’m asking this post be for cis women/biological women only, and that men and people who self-identify as women refrain from commenting. Everyone is welcome to read, and the usual Open Mike and Daily Review spaces are still there for a wide range of discussions as are any posts put up by authors.
Usual TS rules still apply.
This is an imperfect, evolving experiment. I fully support men, people with gender identities, and all groups of people with their own politics to create space for their own discussions. This is about diversity and valuing many voices, that may also enhance when we come together in mixed and general debate.
So, women of the Standard, here’s a space to ourselves…
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