Is a Glastonbury 'safe space venue' really necessary?

Outlaw Pete

Just reading about this today and I do not believe for so much as a second that such a venue / safe space is needed.

Glastonbury 2016: There's going to be a women-only venue called The Sisterhood

In a historic move, this year's Glastonbury Festival will feature a venue open only to women.

Named The Sisterhood, the spot will be hidden in the site's renowned Shangri-La area and is billed as an "intersectional, queer, trans and disability-inclusive space open to all people who identify as women".

Described as a "revolutionary clubhouse," the venue's staff, performers, and security will all be women.

"The producers of The Sisterhood believe that women-only spaces are necessary in a world that is still run by and designed to benefit mainly men," the venue's organisers said. "Oppression against women continues in various manifestations around the world today, in different cultural contexts.

"In the UK, the gender pay gap in the workplace, cuts to domestic violence services and sex worker rights are current talking points that highlight this issue. Sisterhood seeks to provide a secret space for women to connect, network, share their stories, have fun and learn the best way to support each other in our global struggle to end oppression against women and all marginalised people, whilst showcasing the best and boldest female talent in the UK and beyond."

Many people expressed their views on social media where the response to the decision was fairly mixed

Seems to me that this is yet more pandering to a certain hyper sensitive fraction of society that are intent on instilling a sense of hysteria about what they refer to as "rape culture". I have no issue with women having female only gigs or whatever, if that's what they want (nor men having all male ones for that matter) but at such a historic music festival as Glastonbury I feel it is wrong. How could any form of segregation lend to a state of equality in society and isn't equality what western society has been striving for all these years? Where the sexes treat each other equally and fairly? So what's with the need for concert safe spaces?

timmyntc

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Just reading about this today and I do not believe for so much as a second that such a venue / safe space is needed.



Seems to me that this is yet more pandering to a certain hyper sensitive fraction of society that are intent on instilling a sense of hysteria about what they refer to as "rape culture". I have no issue with women having female only gigs or whatever, if that's what they want (nor men having all male ones for that matter) but at such a historic music festival as Glastonbury I feel it is wrong. How could any form of segregation lend to a state of equality in society and isn't equality what western society has been striving for all these years? Where the sexes treat each other equally and fairly? So what's with the need for concert safe spaces?

It will have a crap turnout, or be exploited by lads who 'identify' as trans-female-lesbians trying to pull girls. Either way I give it a year.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Jesus, it really is getting ridiculous at this stage, the paranoia and hysteria needs to stop. It not healthy for either gender.

uck51js9zml2yt

Op if you really want to go you just have to "identify as a woman" and you'll get in!!

seamus

My understanding is that individual sections and venues are independently run. So the Glastonbury organisers don't go out and ask for these people, they just come alone and request to be able to set up a tent or "venue" for whatever their particular thing is.

If someone wants to set up a women-only area, go ahead and knock yourself out. Since the vast majority of people are there to enjoy the festival, get drunk and meet someone for a shag, the tent will be something of an echo chamber filled with the kind of soft-headed people who'd be interested in segragating themselves in the first place.

And no doubt there'll be some enterprising individual who's using the gimmick to extract money from their pockets by selling organic, gluten free, non-GMO, radiation-free headscarves.

Or if there's not, there's a well-meaning but misguided group of people who will sink massive amounts of time and money into this thing and get very little out of it, and so abandon it next year.

Electric Sex Pants

Ok so what if someone set up a whites only venue - no blacks aloud? basically the same idea ya? excluding a group of people? That idea would never have taken off and rightly so. We need to stop pandering to these professional victims who want nothing to do with equality and want to blame men for every issue they have.

timmyntc

seamus wrote: »

My understanding is that individual sections and venues are independently run. So the Glastonbury organisers don't go out and ask for these people, they just come alone and request to be able to set up a tent or "venue" for whatever their particular thing is.

If someone wants to set up a women-only area, go ahead and knock yourself out. Since the vast majority of people are there to enjoy the festival, get drunk and meet someone for a shag, the tent will be something of an echo chamber filled with the kind of soft-headed people who'd be interested in segragating themselves in the first place.

And no doubt there'll be some enterprising individual who's using the gimmick to extract money from their pockets by selling organic, gluten free, non-GMO, radiation-free headscarves.

Or if there's not, there's a well-meaning but misguided group of people who will sink massive amounts of time and money into this thing and get very little out of it, and so abandon it next year.

So could we go and set up a CIS* male carnivore capitalist tent?

*Is that the term for normal people, I'm not sure.. them kids these days and their dangfounded lingo

Wibbs

Yeah, this thread is going nowhere fast. Closed.