The First RadFem Social Network

[IMPress Polly]

The censorship of women who criticize the politics of gender identity, which means radical feminists very broadly (as well as some others), on major social media platforms like Twitter and increasingly Facebook recently led an American writer and software engineer named Mary Kate Fain to establish a woman-oriented social network called Spinster, which is a kind of edgy, wonderfully uncool way of saying 'autonomous woman'. The title is also a reference to a hallmark 1986 book by Dr. Sheila Jeffreys 1986 called The Spinster and Her Enemies, which lays out, among other things, an early history of men appropriating control of the women's movement, which is what radical feminists (as yours truly) believe has largely happened to mainstream feminism.

Spinster is linked to lots of other social networks, so there's plenty of dialogue with the outside world that occurs, and men are allowed too, but there are rules to Spinster participation that protect women against harassment and threats, slurs (including "terf"), pornography, etc., and allow women to speak our minds about gender identity politics without penalty.

Spinster launched on Monday (August 12, 2019) and within three days had already become the largest social network using a Gab server. It's proven way more successful than Fain thought it would be already and could wind up being one of the largest feminist social networks on the internet period. Since its launch less than a week ago, it has frequently been overloaded by people signing up. Clearly there is demand for this kind of online independence from both male governance and harassment and corporate control.

Here's a recent podcast interview with Fain about her new social network, which she created after losing her job over her criticisms of transgender politics. I think it'll continue to catch on, perhaps even significantly beyond the radical feminist scene. I think the fact that this is the safest social network on the internet for women and the only one clearly and specifically centered on women's issues and women's lives will be attractive to many even beyond our ideological ranks. Just thought this development was worth mentioning.