Here are the female members of parliament dressed in the sashes of the Suffragettes. Four people were killed by the campaigns of the Suffragettes, and 24 others were injured. The contemporary press called them "Terrorists"

Shortly after this photograph was taken, these ladies took off their sashes and all apart from a few voted in the HofC for #PalestineAction to be a proscribed terrorist organisation.

No one has died from excessive graffiti

@Geri These colours have also been hijacked by some #TERF. It’s a gross betrayal of every woman there has been and will be in the UK. To have these women vote to proscribe a non-violent organisation, as well as support the erasure of #Trans people is perverse.
@HarriettMB I never agreed with the Suffragettes as they only wanted middle class women to have the vote. I don't understand the terf reference xx
@Geri For Women Scotland, I think it is, wear the suffragette colours.
@HarriettMB @Geri This isn't limited to them. Transphobes and "Gender Criticals" more broadly use theses colors and notably have done so using 🟣βšͺ🟒 (or hearts or squares) to identify themselves on social media.
@hakan_geijer @HarriettMB oh dear. I hope people understand I am not spreading that hatred - should I delete my OP, Harriett?
@Geri @HarriettMB I think this post is appropriately critical of them and seemingly clearly isn't an endorsement of GC shite
@Geri No. It’s fine.

@Geri @hakan_geijer @HarriettMB

Nope, there's nothing wrong with the OP. Harriet was just adding to your point.

@grayface_ghost @hakan_geijer @HarriettMB

ok. i have been tripped up before that was all xx

@Geri @HarriettMB I still admire the Suffragettes; I can forgive them for not seeing through every aspect of enemy's propaganda at once. But it's another matter when those fighting on the wrong side of TODAY'S battles misappropriate Suffragette symbols on behalf of current reactionary elements.

@dedicto @Geri @HarriettMB

I don't. I admire the Suffragists who arguably accomplished far more.

I admit I'm not entirely consistent on this, but I don't know why we lionise the Suffragettes who murdered and maimed innocents. People remember Davison getting killed by a horse but rarely remember their victims.

And my own language gives away how time gives legitimacy there - were the politicians they were trying to actually kill, legitimate targets?

They called themselves terrorists.

Anyway, as you were

@grayface_ghost @dedicto @HarriettMB JS Mill and the 1918 Representation of the People's Act are some of the few occasions when women have been properly supported by men.

But I am not in the humour to talk much about this today xxx

#Neo_Feminism

@grayface_ghost@tech.lgbt @Geri @HarriettMB The French Resistance were also terrorists. Would you call the Maquis murderers, too?

The kind of "nonviolence" that reviles violent resisters as murderers is a political immunodeficiency syndrome. Even Gandhi refused to condemn violent resisters as evil. He only went as far as claiming he had a better way.

"As you were"? I don't think so. Blocked.

There's a reason the Suffragettes are remembered better than the nonviolent Suffragists. The bombing campaign started only after peaceful approaches had been stonewalled into futility.

@dedicto @HarriettMB please reconsider grayface I adore that woman

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn xxxx

@Geri @HarriettMB No need to be sorry, I value your opinion. In fact, I would like to hear more. But the conflation of political terrorism with murder is a special hot button of mine.
@dedicto @HarriettMB Do forgive me. I, like yourself, do like to stand up for my long-time friends. It was wrong to overlay my moral code on yours. Xx
@Geri @HarriettMB Not a problem! But even being a potential target of terrorism myself hasn't been enough for me to classify terrorism as murder. At the time the Unabomber was active, I was a graduate student in computer science at UC Berkeley, and I had taken classes at Cory Hall β€” the only target in the world that he ever hit more than once. I had zero sympathy for his antitechnological worldview. But when I read his Manifesto, it didn't make sense to me to regard him as a common murderer, as the FBI was doing.

@Geri neo-liberal centrist types love to cosplay as left wing progressive social movements

but only decades after the issue is settled 😠

a decade or two from now there will be a picture like that of the same kinds of people standing with trans people pretending like they gave a damn about our rights while the same kinds of people were passing laws to kick us out of toilets and pretending trans kids don't exist naturally and we're brainwashing them

the Guardian didn't support the Suffragettes, it let people from both sides contribute articles and stayed neutral, same as they're doing with trans people now. and people call it a left wing paper πŸ™„

@normjess word! Spot on. Vaguely cynical but fucking right

@Geri I've been called worse 😜

the term 'battle axe' meaning an overbearing woman comes from a Suffragette (who had an hatchet)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle-axe_(woman)

one of them tried to kill Winston Churchill with a weapon too, I think. helped scare the UK establishment/political class into reaching for some sort of compromise

only articles I can find are about one drowning him out by ringing a cowbell

imagine if someone cowbelled Starmer and spared us some of the BS πŸ””πŸ˜œ

Battle-axe (woman) - Wikipedia

@normjess I have visions of the bell woman ..unclean unclean unclean

Pffft. πŸ˜† πŸ˜†

@Geri πŸ˜† time to start a bell ringers group expressly for going to Westminster
@normjess woo I am up for that!

@Geri @normjess
horsewhipping winston churchill through bristol central train station isn't quite the same as trying to kill him with a weapon but i'm very happy to be reminded of it 😸

theresa garnett is the legend in question if you want to look her up ✊

@floppyplopper @Geri
thanks hun! thought I was getting jumbled up with the woman who threw an axe at Asquith

so many Suffragettes with weapons floating around! mysteriously absent from the history books!!

@normjess @Geri
ah, I didn't know about Mary Leigh, thanks so much. Although I'd call that a hatchet, when you call it an axe it sounds like she threw a labrys or skeggΓΈx!
@floppyplopper @Geri
sorry, yes, I'm still confused LOL xx
@floppyplopper @normjess woo such words!!!

@Geri @normjess
skeggΓΈx is your classic viking axe, variety of designs, but a big broad blade and a huge heavy butt to give the blade splitting bower, sometimes the butt would be shaped like a spike or a hammer.

labrys is your minoan double-headed battle axe. probably never actually used as a weapon in real life you see it in mosaics being wielded by female minoan deities as a symbol of their devine power. you still see the labrys still in use today as a symbol of women's power harking back to pre-patriarchal societies like the minoans.

i picked these two out because as capitalist society becomes more alienated from skilled physical labour the small hand-axes that Mary might have used such as a hatchet, adze or froe are less familiar with us and instead we think of large axes we see in our culture such as the two above.

just wanted to erase the confusion, sorry for the lecture on axes!

@normjess @Geri I'm not sure if they tried to kill Churchill but they definitely tried to kill Prime Minister H. H. Asquith by throwing an axe at him.
@Catriona @Geri ah yes, that's correct, thanks!
@normjess @Geri The Guardian is also TERFy as all hell.
@Geri cowards and clowns. The Unserious
@Lazarou the disappointing party
@Geri a brilliant post πŸ’š

@urlyman tyvm. From you that's high praise. It sits nicely against my usual idiocy and current love ramblings.

One of the things I adore about Mastodon is no one has a go at you for writing silly stuff. They just scroll on and think bless xxx

Love you, Jon xx

@Geri degrade the word β€˜terrorist’ just like degrading the work β€˜antisemitism’. Can’t think which country with a massive PR print could get away with this.
@Geri nobody does kyriarchy like liberal white women πŸ™„
@blogdiva @Geri Let's not forget, either, that the suffragette colours have been hijacked by organisations that certainly fall within the definition provided by the Terrorism Act 2000, such as For Women Scotland.
@Geri Western civilization is the political equivalent of Botox.

@Geri

And I expect those exact same rabid right wing rags; Torygraph, Hail etc ran almost identical hysterical headlines about the suffragettes in their day as today on those voicing solidarity with Palestine.

@Geri
My response to that could only be in language I would not usually use.

@Geri

how quickly they forget.

@Thebratdragon I spotted it straight away. I am sure man would have learnt the history of the Suffragettes, if only at their high schools

@Geri This is why I follow you Geri. An excellent post making me aware of something I would be in blissful ignorance of otherwise.

The stench of political hypocrisy these days is utterly nauseating.

@Black_Flag Damn I thought you followed me cos I was a hot bitch xxx
@Geri I told you not to say that out loud!

@Black_Flag

Hahahahahaha. Luv ya 😘