Segregated audience in UK election.

[msj]

The UK is having an election and some Labour MP's have come under fire for being present before a segregated audience (segregated based on gender). See link: https://twitter.com/sionsimon/status/594537312115159040

So, I ask, what would you do, assuming they were not willing to accommodate your view that the audience should not be segregated because, Allah ( or Yahweh or Jesus depending on the context)?

Edited May 4, 2015 by msj

[msj]

I will point out notable atheist Lawrence Krauss had this happen to him and he chose the second option:

[Guest]

I'd leave, but I can't imagine a Labour candidate doing so.

[msj]

Don't you find that strange?

To accommodate religious belief to the point of such vile sexism should be anathema to a Labour MP, no?

Why does religious accommodation come before gender here?

Presumably if the segregation was racial then even Labour would have found it unacceptable.

Is the order racial > religious > gender > LGBT > fat people > atheists?

[msj]

Also, isn't it interesting that this is put up under the Sex and Gender issues forum rather than the Religion and Politics forum?

A whole bunch of interesting questions come from this story.

[Guest]

Didn't you place it?

I'm not surprised about the Labour position. I guess the most cynical way of looking at it would be that in a cultural group where men are held to be so superior to women the votes rest with the men, but Labour has always been the left party in the UK, and the idea of offending Muslims is anathema to them, regarless of the situation. The events in Rotherham were allowed to go ahead, in part, due to that misguided policy.

Edited May 4, 2015 by bcsapper

[msj]

Didn't you place it?

Yes I did.

But it probably belongs in the Religion and Politics forum more so than this one.

But I placed it here anyway.

I should have done up a poll about Orthodox Jews not wanting to sit next to female passengers on airplanes in this forum since it is not political and then put this poll in the political forum since it clearly is political.

Oh well.

[eyeball]

You wouldn't catch me dead in the place one way or the other so.

Is there anyway any politician could come out of this without blisters, which begs the question how did the un-Labour candidates fare when they were raked over the coals for being there?

[Guest]

What would be the "other" way? A completely integrated audience? If so, why not?

I would hope this was a Labour only event. I can't imagine Labour being singled out if the Tory candidate had stayed for the event too.

[msj]

It appears to be a Labour rally before an audience segregated by gender.

[eyeball]

I can't imagine anti-labour parties not being invited to the same audience. Will you let us know how that goes/went?

Thanks in advance.

[msj]

It was 5 Labour Party members at a Labour event: http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/574616/Labour-Left-speakers-segregated-rally

[Big Guy]

I would attend with the provision that I had the opportunity to make a statement. I would then speak on my views on segregating by sexes. What better venue is there? Your target audience has been collected for you!

[bush_cheney2004]

Doesn't Quebec already do this using language segregation ?

[LemonPureLeaf]

Why put up with all the problems associated with these Muslims? They're more trouble than their worth. Why not just not let them in to begin with?

[overthere]

I would stay and hope I caught a furtive glimpse of a womans ankle peeping out from under the tarp she was wearing.

I live for those kind of thrills.

[Moonlight Graham]

To accommodate religious belief to the point of such vile sexism should be anathema to a Labour MP, no?

Why does religious accommodation come before gender here?

The thing is, segregation in Muslim cultures is largely about sexual modesty and avoiding temptation. It's the same thing with women who wear a hijab or niqab. But Westerners only see it as patriarchal domination and sexism. Muslim sexes don't want to interact with each other to avoid temptation of the other sex.

But maybe there can be a crossover where at times it also becomes about male domination. When it's about avoiding temptation I don't care, but when it's also about domination myself and most westerners have a problem with it. But how do you know when it's one and not the other?

[Moonlight Graham]

Is it sexism if both sexes are equally segregated?

I mean, it's not as if the men are at the meeting and the women are in another room hidden in the back.

[Big Guy]

Do the Mennonites not separate their people by gender?

[Guest]

Do the Mennonites not separate their people by gender?

The Labour candidate would probably not mind.

[msj]

Is it sexism if both sexes are equally segregated?

I mean, it's not as if the men are at the meeting and the women are in another room hidden in the back.

Fair point. I suppose the South really can have separate entrances for whites and blacks then?

[cybercoma]

Doesn't Quebec already do this using language segregation ?

swing and a miss