Thread: This is the speech I just gave to the Media Council

“Hi my name is Beth Johnson.
Thank you for meeting with me today. The reason I wanted to meet, was to put a human face to one of many ordinary women who have been branded TERF and vilified in our media... /1

TERF, like bitch, is a gendered term. It’s now widely acknowledged as a pejorative term for women like me - Gender critical feminists. GC feminists believe that biological sex exists and matters politically; that sex, not gender, must remain the basis of women’s rights... /2

We believe that the only thing women have in common is their sex, and that it is politically imperative that we retain a word to describe those of the female sex. The word we have is ‘woman’. /3

I do not hate or fear transgender people. I have nothing but empathy and compassion for their struggle. I want them – like all people - to live lives free from violence, prejudice, and discrimination. I want us, as a civilised society, to have a conversation about... /4

...how we can support transgender people, without erasing the word women for female people. But the word TERF has been deployed to demonise and stigmatise women like me. To put us beyond the pale of civilised debate - as those who question orthodoxy often are... /5

TERFs, as @radionz tells the public, are bad people whose views are worthy only of mockery and ridicule. Internationally, TERF is recognised as a derogatory term used – quite successfully and skilfully, as RNZ has demonstrated – to intimidate and shame women into silence. /6

Just a few of the international publications and institutions that acknowledge TERF is a slur are /7 https://twitter.com/hogotheforsaken/status/1158355043667664896

I was terrified by the events of 2019 – @MasseyUni cancelled our booking and we were publicly demonised as a hate group. Our public figures were sent abusive and threatening messages, and some of us feared for the safety of ourselves and our families.../8

We also had our employers contacted as those wishing to silence us went after our livelihoods. When @TheSpinoffTV contacted us to do their comedy series, we knew they intended to ridicule us. /9

We are defending women’s rights in our spare time – none of us are media trained. I was intimidated by Alice’s vitriol towards those she disagrees with. But Meghan Murphy has publicly stated she never turns down an interview request, even from hostile media... /10

She would have spoken to Alice, as she spoke to @NewshubNZ and other outlets during her trip to NZ. But the producers never contacted Meghan, nor any other feminists as far as we’re aware. https://fb.watch/1nbE05yuYy/  /11

We declined the crew to film at our event, but they turned up anyway on tickets under different names. I was MC on the night at parliament and watched in horror as Alice refused to relinquish the microphone at question time and grandstanded, disrespecting our audience /12

Many of whom are second wave feminists who fought for the rights Alice’s generation now enjoys. /13

However @radionz lawyers now position this, the programme was never intended to cover gender critical views. Because if it was they would have covered at least some gender critical views. but they didn’t touch on one single point. /14

Instead, they did what they evidently always intended to do: to stir up contempt for a group of women’s whose political views differ from their own. /15

Thank you for considering our complaint today. My hope is that our national broadcaster can see their way to facilitating rational coverage of both sides of this issue going forward. Because this issue has a long way yet to run. Thank you. /End