A Kate Smurthwaite gig tomorrow at Goldsmiths College –
Kate Smurthwaite will be performing her stand up show Leftie Cockwomble for all to enjoy! The show is about free speech, language and the media with some very interesting views on the Daily Mail and Frankie Boyle…
Doors 7pm for 8pm start!The show is FREE for Goldsmiths Comedy Society members and the Feminist Society*
£4 OTD for general public
*This is only valid if you have paid your membership and you will be asked for your student number OTD
Monday 02 February 2015
7pm – 11pm
Oh wait. It’s off.
What? Why??
Because of bullshit, that’s why. Kate posted the “explanation” publicly on Facebook.
Comedian Kate Smurthwaite has had her scheduled performance at Goldsmiths College cancelled after security officials said they “could not guarantee the safety of students”.
The issue arose from a group of students who objected to Kate’s widely-recognised support for the Nordic Model on prostitution. This arrangement, currently in place in Sweden and Norway, decriminalises those who sell sex and criminalises the purchase of sex. The students from the college’s Feminist Society (FemSoc) support legalisation of the sex industry and for this reason threatened to picket the event causing security to pull the plug.
Kate says “The strangest thing is that my show is not about prostitution. I don’t even mention it. In a massively ironic coincidence my show is about free speech, it’s power and uses and abuses. It is also about Saudi prisoner of conscience Raif Badawi who is now being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
“I find it very strange that anyone would feel they couldn’t enjoy a comedy show unless they agreed with 100% of the political views of the person performing. Goldsmiths have recently hosted Phil Kay and Rob Beckett – did anyone ask them what they think about fox hunting or all-female shortlists?”
Goldsmiths Feminist Society initially held a vote on whether they should support Kate’s appearance with 70% voting in favour of the show going ahead. However the losing minority announced they were going to form a picket line anyway and used Twitter to invite others from around the UK to join.
In a message from the organiser at Goldsmiths Comedy Society, who arranged the show, Kate was told “I asked you because I obviously admire you and enjoy your politics and comedy, but I have already had aggressive messages from the FemSoc and meeting with their ‘leader’ about it all.”
The show, a final London performance of Kate’s one woman Edinburgh Fringe political show Leftie Cock Womble, had been scheduled for Monday (2nd Feb) night and tickets had been on sale for several weeks.
That’s some bullshit there.
I don’t understand.
…
I agree that the would-be protesters reason for picketing is deeply stupid, and I think Leftist puritanism of this sort is worth talking about, but–how does a protest threaten the safety of students?
If the protesters are just protesting, they are exercising their free speech–and that shouldn’t interfere with Smurthwaite’s show. Am I missing something?
No, apparently this was the decision of the security boffins. It’s deeply silly.
Seriously! Were there threats of violence? The best I can come up with from that Facebook thread is that some FemSoc people sent aggressive emails about picketing the event despite the vote. The horror!
Do they just not want to pay for extra security (which is probably mandatory given presence of ANY protestors)? Or do they just really not understand that the phrase militant feminist does not actually refer to an armed force?
Or did the Twitter invitation mentioned in the post attract the attention of some much less savory elements?
Strikingly similar arguments to those that criticise the atheist feminists as being “divisive”, why won’t you shut up! You agree with 99+% of what atheist celebrity X says! Sometimes the 1% is pretty important …
To compare a security companies inability to deal with a peaceful protest to Raif Badawi and pull the freeze peach argument, bullshit indeed. I support *sex workers* rights to protest public figures that profess to be on their side but support legislation that they say will make their lives harder.
Yyyyeah, that’s…
From what’s described, it seems this is on the security officials, not the people planning to picket. Smurthwaite’s response reads like the kind of thing I’d usually expect to see scoffed at, here. How is her free speech being harmed by people who find her views objectionable speaking out and saying so? Obviously, this assumes there weren’t actual threats or reasons for security to be concerned beyond what I see mentioned.
(And why is the reference to the “leader” of the FemSoc in scare quotes?)
When I first saw the headline on Facebook that her show had been cancelled due to a security threat I assumed there were going to be MRAs there who had threatened death or rape against her or her audience. Flabbergasted to see that this is about a feminist society who want to picket a show *by a feminist* over an issue that she isn’t even going to be talking about.
If this is purely the fault of the security officials, now they have cancelled the show, presumably the FemSoc are now sending conciliatory emails saying ‘Oh sorry, no we didn’t want you to go that far, we just want to protest quietly, we won’t cause trouble. Please reinstate her show’?
And now the Comedy Society is saying, essentially, the picket made it not worth the hassle. No mention of security concerns, just low ticket sales. Not sure if that indicates crossed wires, or the Comedy Society just don’t want to comment on it, or what.
Well, apparently Smurthwaite considers it to be ass-covering rather than crossed wires. (Two subsequent tweets following that one – don’t want to trip the spam filter by linking them:)
Seems a lot of conflicting information going about, no one on Twitter seems to know about any planned picket, including the femsoc she said was tweeting about it. Which is weird as you’d think sex worker activists would have heard about it. Only person confirmed to have said there was going to be a picket is Smurthwaite herself to the comedy lot. https://twitter.com/gsmithscomedy/status/562218007397933056
Seems less of a no-platform and more of an opportunistic bit of freeze peach PR. Harder to argue people not buying tickets to your show is “no platforming” you. Not that it matters, too late now and the meanie sex workers have silenced a brave anti-sex work feminist. That’s the narrative now.
The balance of intimidation and cowardice has been played out in all sorts of venues, and for completely contradictory causes, since Valentine’s Day of 1989.
Cringing in front of claims of ‘offence’ is NOT adequately described by terms like ‘PC.’ The preservation of a bland, fake, neutrality, is a core value of a culture of denial and euphemism.
I get that, but sometimes the 1% should be hashed out and discussed rather than dealt with peremptorily. Of course though people’s mileage varies on what’s a deal-breaker and what isn’t…
Sure, me too. But it wasn’t sex workers who were planning to protest. (I support the students’ right to protest too, even if I think their reason for it was poor. What I don’t support is cancelling the show because some students might’ve protested.)
That’s pretty much my view too, and I’m disturbed by how the focus seems to be on how ridiculous it is for university students who find a speaker’s views odious to protest and picket her appearance, rather than on how chickenshit it is for the university to say, well, people might protest your speech, so you can’t make it. The narrative I’m seeing is “FemSoc got her banned”, when the evidence appears to support “ComSoc and/or security are weaselly cowards”.