I'd Never Been Ashamed for How I Look or for Being Proud of Who I Am - Until Yesterday (By a decent girl subjected to the scum that is Guido Fawkes)

I am a 19-year-old woman from Manchester, I'm a student at Manchester Metropolitan University and I've been active in Labour Party politics since I was 18, and I must admit while it's been a bumpy ride, I've always managed to keep my head above the water and stick at it.

Until yesterday, I could talk to anybody about sexism in politics, and tell them although it is upsetting, it's never been bad enough to make me want to quit everything for good.

Until yesterday, I'd never had my appearance picked apart so ruthlessly online by internet trolls, I didn't want to leave the house.


Until yesterday, I'd never had to ring my parents in tears, concerned they'd see the article and believe the content.
Until yesterday I'd never been ashamed for how I look or the fact I'm proud of who I am.

Until yesterday, I'd never considered quitting everything, because of how embarrassed I was over what somebody wrote about me on the internet.

Yesterday, I got Guido'd. Like having your photo posted on Redwatch or in the Daily Mail, this is something anyone politically active on the left may have to deal with at some point.

Of course, being a young woman, the attack takes on a specific character. In this case it was that, having been selected for a liberation role on a committee, I couldn't possibly have got in on my own merits. Rather, I must have been gifted it because an older man found me young and attractive.

This was complemented by the usual trawling of social media for pictures of me out with friends or enjoying myself so that his followers could comment on my appearance. Discussing my politics seems to be beyond them. The body shaming, slut shaming, abusive nonsense continued as the blog pointed people towards my Twitter, making the usual retort that "you don't have to read the comments" irrelevant.

As I say, one expects this to some extent from the gutter press and the keyboard misogynists who get off on it. What is less cheering is when those supposedly on the left engage in this. Whether it is members of my own Labour Club who think it's an appropriate tool with which to advance their own ambitions, or a former director of the London Labour Party using it as an excuse to bash those in a different faction to him, this does tremendous damage to young women who want to get involved in the political process. This behaviour cannot be tolerated in our party. After all, how can we hope to challenge sexism in wider society if we tolerate it in our own structures?

I make no apologies for being a young woman at ease with her sexuality, with friends and a social life. I make no apology for being politically active, and fighting for what I believe in. I don't see a contradiction, and I won't be told I have to give up enjoying life to have my voice heard. In the words of Emma Goldman, comrades, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."

The pictures they chose to publish, might be sexualised, they might not be what you find attractive, but I touch upon the point that those pictures are for me. Do you think I dress like that to please 50-year-old men, either in my political field or on a site like Guido? No I do not. I dress like that for myself. I take charge of my sexuality, and anyone who thinks that is somehow not my right to do so, well, you know where to go.

I want to use this as a way to help other women in this position. Never apologise for your sexuality. Never apologise for your successes. But you should never accept something like what I faced yesterday, because it is only in our reaction, that we can show them exactly, what we are made of.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family, my friends and the long list of people who have taken their time today to offer me support and love during what has been a difficult day.

And to those who have done quite the opposite, well you know where the door is.

Don't let it hit you on the way out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/frankie-leach/frankie-leach_b_9139958.html

sassy wrote:Sounds like Stormee is thick as two planks to me.

sassy wrote:You really don't get it do you.  She is having no pop at any Labour supporters, and it's all about Guido manipulating photos etc to make out she was having an affair with Landsman (which she wan't) and trying to infer that is why she got the job (which is also untrue).  Guido is the dirty face of Conservative dirt trawling, the very lowest order of scum.

As I say, one expects this to some extent from the gutter press and the keyboard misogynists who get off on it. What is less cheering is when those supposedly on the left engage in this. Whether it is members of my own Labour Club who think it's an appropriate tool with which to advance their own ambitions, or a former director of the London Labour Party using it as an excuse to bash those in a different faction to him, this does tremendous damage to young women who want to get involved in the political process.

sassy wrote:Oh yes, a 19year old who has had her parents in tears is not going to be in the least upset   And the only 'publicity' has come from Guido, so she is bound to have arranged that 

sassy wrote:Good grief, I think you need to remember back to being 19, and how excited you got when something important in your life happened, and how pictures of you being shown countrywide, which had nothing to do with the night in question, would rock your confidence.   I find it quite disgusting that you would even think the above about a 19 year old girl.

sassy wrote:Let me tell you, my grandaughter is 21, sharp as a tack, streetwise and ambitious, but if someone put in a national publication that she had got a job by sleeping with an older man, she'd be in bits, and I'd find the bastard that wrote it, rip his head off his shoulders and shove it up his arse.

sassy wrote:I FGS, he might not have said it, but that was the implication.  Getting angry about something so scummy being done to you is capitalisation?    You would rather she just took it and slunk away?  Good on her, I hope she runs into Guido and gives him a bloody good slap.

sassy wrote:'Wearing revealing clothes'!   You do realise that those photos were NOT taken at the meeting but were from a few years before?

eddie wrote:Oh my God! So what??! Get over it love!
Jesus, don't read the fucking comments and don't care about them!
She's got into the pubic eye then makes more of it by going more public, then fucking crying about it!!
"Some boy picked on me! Where's my mummy's tit?"

Listen, don't moan that some pictures of you out in public made it online and people have commented. Of course they commented! That's the media, that's people, that's life!!

Get a grip. It's life. Some people are just big babies.

Raggamuffin wrote:

eddie wrote:Oh my God! So what??! Get over it love!
Jesus, don't read the fucking comments and don't care about them!
She's got into the pubic eye then makes more of it by going more public, then fucking crying about it!!
"Some boy picked on me! Where's my mummy's tit?"

Listen, don't moan that some pictures of you out in public made it online and people have commented. Of course they commented! That's the media, that's people, that's life!!

Get a grip. It's life. Some people are just big babies.

Haha!

Look at what the girl has achieved overnight. She's got a bunch of feminists who now admire her greatly, she's got a bunch of guys admiring her dress sense, and she's managed to flatter Jon Lansman by implying that he's 50. I'd say she's not upset at all, she's made the most of a situation and is probably even thanking Guido Fawkes.

nicko wrote:WELL, they'v got one Big Girls Blouse already!