A comment from the post – Gendered Justice in New Zealand:

Tell us more about the red fems.
The way to sink em is to get women onside who see this too.
It must be said that all this “system” does is perpetuate and create violence rather than reducing it.

It’s a discussion we need to have. Who exactly are these Red Fems?

As far as I am aware the term first surfaced in this post A Discombobulated Labour and the Red Fems, but we need to be politically definitive as to who or what we are talking about here, so the label cannot be dismissed as misogynist.

We need to go back about 45 years to the time of the anti-war movement which grew out of the Vietnam War. It was fertile ground for young feminist activists to cut their political teeth. This wasn’t unnoticed internationally, and we hosted visits from well-known feminist identities such as Germaine Greer, in 1972.

Don’t laugh, but this was a more conservative time and Greer was arrested and fined $40 for using the word ‘bullshit’ in one of her public speeches but make no mistake just who David Cunliffe was parroting in his ‘sorry for being a man speech’ when he came out with;

The bullshit, the deep-seated sexism still prevalent in New Zealand.

It needs to stop.

In the years that followed Greer’s visit we saw pressure groups form throughout the country generally referred to as ‘Women’s Lib’ (Women’s Liberation) culminating in four national conferences between 1973 and 1979. Great opportunities for networking and further political activism and by the time we dropped into the new millennium New Zealand had simultaneously, women in the positions of Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and Attorney General.

While this ‘women’s transformation’ was going on something quite different was happening in the background. There was bitterness, infighting, division over ideology and political philosophy, and splinter groups, based on race and sexuality; not unlike the fractured infighting we see in the ‘men’s movement’ as it is sometimes called or even in some of the squabbles that pop up on this site from time to time.

But there is a defining difference that separates out these feminists into two distinct groups and this is what identifies Red Fems.

They see equality, as being only equality in a man’s world, not, equality in the world.

Beyond this there is a quest to replace what they perceive as male-dominance in society with female-dominance, and to feminise society.

One of the last of the old campaigners was Sue Kedgley a former Green MP, however the Labour Party is where most of the radical feminists have hung their political hats, although it is not the only place – former and embittered Green Party MP Sue Bradford is evidence enough of that.

This is why we are now seeing overt feminist policy coming out of the Labour Party; policy like changing the burden of proof in rape trials. Likewise we see the Greens pushing young women to cry ‘Rape Culture’ at any opportunity.

This is also why we saw the Glenn Inquiry fall apart (as discussed here in Domestic Violence Industry in Overwhelming Disarray ) when Ruth Herbert threw her toys out of the cot and quit, hoping to take the whole show down with her.

It’s not that a feminist like Ruth Herbert doesn’t want an end to domestic violence, she wants a Red Fem end to domestic violence and that requires a different end game, a different range of services, a different political philosophy and different funding channels – if you read her 155 page document attached to the link you can see where her thinking is going.

This radical feminisation of society is now very much part of our political discourse and like it or not the Labour party is the Red Fems home base. That is being reflected in the candidates’ behaviour and the party’s policy, clearly evident in this election campaign.

What is on offer is not a left-wing option but an feminised left-wing option which is being covertly supported by the Green Party.

There is no longer a man’s left-wing party, or even a gender-neutral left-wing party.

When the Labour Party leader says …

I feel deeply, personally that this is a stain on our society and as the incoming prime minister I will personally lead through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet a cross-portfolio solution that will work to eliminate sexual and domestic violence.

… let’s be quite clear, that he is talking Red Fem Policy.

Foot note – Feminism by definition
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
Synonyms: women’s movement, feminist movement, women’s liberation, female emancipation, women’s

There are good grounds for defining Red Fems (Red Feminists) by name when by the nature of their demands and ideology, they fall outside of the above definition.