Feminist movements are every complex and built on decades of fighting for equality. Through the exploration of its social history, I began to see patterns of views coming through that were purposefully excluding trans women from events, archives and 'women centres'. Villainization of trans people is so prevalent now in the media and society, that for women who self-proclaim themselves as a "feminist" to be excluding an entire community of Women, just simply isn't feminist. Feminism is more than defining women to their genitals - I'd say it's even ironic that people that label themselves as feminist are so obsessive over policing women's bodies.
Why does a transphobe get to tell us what makes us a woman?
We're used to seeing signs at protests, made in a fast pace, usually with paint or sharpies - maybe because we see protest signs and banners as the manifestation of anger and frustration. Something quick and in the moment. 'Nothing Feminist About Excluding Women" is a hybrid of a quilt and a banner. It's a mix of the slow-paced craft of quilting, through the careful and laborious sewing of 'Feminist' and 'Women', combined with the fast-paced markings of 'Nothing' and 'About Excluding'. This isn't something made quickly to be thrown away and forgotten about. Its aesthetic gives it a sense of permanence - and the fact is that we will need to tell "TERFs" that they are simply just transphobes more, than once. The patient and precise sewing representative of the feminist history of textile, and quicker handwriting representative on how quick it can be tainted. The lavender throughout the piece is a homage to the 'Lavender menace', a feminist group prevalent in the second wave of feminism that stood up to the exclusion of lesbian women in the 'Women liberation movement'. Their name was first used by Betty Friedan to exclude lesbians from the movement as they felt as though they were 'tainting' the movement. It felt important to me as a Lesbian woman to stand with my community and sisters.
