Twelfth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

POST NAMER TBC-- work harder, meme!

Welcome back, anyway! Chat fandom, media, creative things, weirdness from around the net, funny stuff, anything! Meme awaits!

(start a comment thread by replying to this post)

 

Comments

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

I hope it prompted some interesting conversations and the stallholder learned that/why the venue was inappropriate. Seems like a bizarre stall to either suggest or approve. Idk how the organisers approve or deny stalls; would be interesting to know what happened with it!

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Ffs what is going on -_-

https://nitter.net/JeanHatchet/status/1976989174063345734#m

Honestly my main reason for not going this year was laziness, but I was also weirded out my Raquel Rosario Sanchez being Weird About The Hostages; seems I was right to be wary. Waiting to see if/how the organisers respond before I judge the org itself. It's a big conference; they might not know everything that's going on. But it does look bad. :/

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Also that style of hijab looks targeted at the more religious, conservative end of the Muslim market. I slightly wonder if it was an attempt to get refused a stall to start a court case for discrimination. Seems bizarrely inappropriate. Guess we'll see.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Tho I could also imagine miscommunication...

"Can I sell?"

"What do you sell?"

"Beautiful scarves!"

"Sure!"

*scarves are seen*

ohno.jpg

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Aha! Apparently it's raising money for a refugee charity, "We Are The Tree". Personally I think the charity looks sketch, at a quick browse, but that's prolly why the stall was allowed.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

(the directors seem a bit sus and the plans for the charity (downloadable on Companies House) read to me like a pyramid scheme.)

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

(Plus why would you found a new charity for refugees in autumn 2024, instead of working with an existing one, and then try to raise funds by selling hijabs at a conference full of women who oppose the hijab. You'd think, if you had no idea what you were doing, you'd want to work with people who knew what they were doing.)

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently someone started waving a palestine flag at the party. They got removed by security, but also, who tf does that at a party? It's not like the women there have never had causes they cared about before, but they've always been able to understand why the party space isn't the place to fight for them. What is it about this topic that makes people fucking unhinged?

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

And I am still laughing slightly at the mental image of the opening speaker trying to start a chant, only for it to go down like a lead balloon, though sounds like it was more depressing than funny in person. I wonder if she expected it or if she's been in an echo chamber for too long. Apparently the organisers asked speakers not to bring it up because it's so divisive, but their wishes were ignored. I assume some speakers/attendees are getting blacklisted after this.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, and:

https://nitter.net/MaryamNamazie/status/1976416359996326101#m

I think it's sneaky to try to broaden out the meaning of a phrase ("woman, life, freedom") from a different political campaign like that, especially since she's got Filia attendees to chant it while filming them in the past.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Video of party cringe:

https://nitter.net/nicolelampert/status/1977157949429571858#m

I'm sorry this year sounds like it's been such a clusterfuck, though also assume the internet amplifies the fringe stuff and most of the conference was normal.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently fights broke out. I am starting to wonder if the flag itself is cursed. :')

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Jean Hatchet's been b& for filming this sorry display at the women-only disco. Lucy Masoud apparently threw a drink over her; unclear if also banned (currently seems not). JCJ grabbed Hatchet's phone, I think to stop Hatchet filming women attending without their consent and posting it online. She's getting demonized for it by the usual crowd. All depressing, but bubbling for a while, I think.

Meanwhile, clip of a TRA earlier in the day trying to lead a TRA chant, failing (because there seem to be none there!), bellowing "WHAT ARE WE DOING???" repeatedly (I found that quite funny), and then trying to assume leadership of a parallel chant from the keffiyeh-draped attendees nearby. Many levels of cringe, but must say, the way he just casually tries to steal from the women and insert himself as their leader in real time, I think this is a good candidate for the most Male Behaviour I've ever seen from a TRA.

https://nitter.net/frau_bode/status/1976980025007374358#m

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

I think it’s necessarily and intentionally a broadchurch, and trying to get as many women in and talking to each other and thinking about feminist issues as possible. It’s always a hard line to navigate, but older feminists will generally be pretty tolerant of women navigating the beginnings of feminism and of the enthusiastic idiocy of the young, and the woman dancing with the flag was very young, as are the couple of women I’ve seen wearing the scarf thingy. I’ve had loads of interesting and useful conversations, as well as attending a session where a very American woman was intensely vague and American on stage while another American woman was chomping at the bit in the audience to ‘ask a question’ in which she just talked for ages about her own life and thoughts. But mostly it’s been really interesting. And in incidental conversations with other women in sessions, I’m pretty sure I’ve nudged a couple of women further along their own feminist awakenings.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

> while another American woman was chomping at the bit in the audience to ‘ask a question’ in which she just talked for ages about her own life and thoughts

Lol, I think I was there for that! Though it was uncannily similar to my uni course, so there may have been more than one. :D

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

https://nitter.net/hatpinwoman/status/1977361984308842562#m

> I don’t remember doing the Macarena while holding the American flag after 9/11

Idk this sounds exactly how many Americans would react, to Own The Terrorists.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

SD

> What is it about this topic that makes people fucking unhinged?

And also lose all critical thinking skills, come to that. "Here is a man who claims he, personally, has been starved for months. He is visibly overweight. I will treat him as a reliable source. Here is a woman who claims her leg is broken and her broken leg was then beaten with a thick piece of metal by soldiers. She has posted a video in which she is standing on the leg, walking on the leg, and bouncing around on the leg while claiming this. She is not using any kind of walking aid. There is no possibility this woman is lying."

But then a feminist says "some women were chanting outside the conference", and there's video evidence of the chants, and allll the same people are suddenly there like "I don't see any evidence of this; she's lying; she's part of a Conspiracy to promote a Narrative". Makes me wonder how many of those women actually went through the peaking experience, vs just happening to be in circles that questioned transactivism from the start, because they don't seem like they're prepared to question their worldview when it's not adding up.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure it’s the Sudanese woman who was in the flash session that nobody was supposed to record or take any information from, with another Sudanese woman and a woman from the DRC. On the one hand, they had some interesting perspectives on how international politics and aid works (or doesn’t), and the way women get left out. There were stories of atrocities. On the other hand, there was also some performative crying with informationless complaints about requests for information, announcing that they weren’t ever going to leave the UK, and also a Sudanese woman spending a long time explaining that she was bullied at school for being of a higher-status ethnicity and was always kind to the servants, and was raised to consider herself Sudanese rather than a member of a tribe, which was just absolute ruling-class stuff. You know, I understand that all pain is pain, but read the room.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

Dyrt

I had briefly searched the directors and one had a job of "wellbeing coach", while another looked like she had ties to high-ups in saudi arabia (worked for the "research arm" of a big saudi holding company, where it looked like the Director of *that* was a close relative of hers). Another of the refugee-charity directors seemed to have a masters degree in spy stuff? (Security and something, from the Uni of Khartoum; I'm too lazy to search it again and idk how to interpret it, not being Sudanese m'self, but it looked like spy stuff and I was curious about the curriculum!). The plan for the charity for refugees involved treating them for trauma and teaching them recovery tricks, so they could then become teachers and teach others. None of the directors is a qualified therapist or medical practitioner. It all looked very sketch to me, though I am a very cynical dan.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, one Sudanese woman was complaining that universities wouldn’t hire her, and was it because she was black or spoke poor English or because she didn’t have relevant experience in the country, which is so unfair because she could learn standard operating procedure and also Google translate exists! I felt like I was being trolled.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

SD

But yeah, ruling class and Sudan tracks, and I think the prominent ex-muslims at the conference should keep their wits about them, though I'm sure they're used to that. :/ Because ruling class but in strict, plain hijab? That seems weird to me. Maybe not *impossible*, but unusual.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

SD

(oh this post is ambiguous. to be clear, 3 directors. 1 is a social media manager and didn't seem too odd, tho iirc was previously involved in a completely different nonprofit that folded after like a year (not that unusual for company directors tho). Another was the "wellbeing coach", with a history of DEI roles, and a degree in spy stuff from Sudan. And another was a (molecular biology?) lecturer who worked for a big saudi holding company where it looked like she had ties to the directors.)

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

"Anyone who makes a point of saying they were Always Kind To The Servants was, in all probability, not so kind to the servants" -- a not-very-catchy proverb dan made up just now.

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

> nobody was supposed to record or take any information from,

> some performative crying with informationless complaints about requests for information

I need to know more about this, lmao

Re: How's Life? - Filia 2025

[(Anonymous)]

‘Chatham House’ rules, and stuff about them being afraid of retribution, but then later they said they were going to stay in the UK forever.

Crying about vague, underdescribed situations in which they make claims and then white women ask them to explain what they mean or give some examples so they can help, and that this is unreasonable because they might not be able to write or might have poor English skills. In the context of working at a professional level with professional charities. A lot of crying and talking about how unfair this is. But then waving around two sides of closely written A4 and saying everyone should take a copy, with a slightly bitter comment about “here’s your information”. The paper says that the DCR is very violent, and balkanising it is bad, and also how dare the UK promote democracy when this is going on. I felt like there was a difference in communication styles, possibly cultural.

Possibly-spy Sudanese woman said that Egypt would be the next country to collapse into division in a couple of years, though, so that will be interesting to see if it’s true.