Dear organisers of the WOW event,

Dear organisers of the WOW event,

We, as members, supporters, and allies of the CUSU Women’s Campaign, are
writing to you to express our disappointment at the invitation of Caroline Criado-
Perez to speak at WOW Festival. While Caroline Criado- Perez has faced real and
damaging online bullying, especially from misogynist trolls, this does not place her
somehow above criticism. We, along with many others, believe her to hold views
that harm and exclude trans people, especially women. This, along with her
repeated refusal to use an intersectional model of feminism, make her a totally
inappropriate and offensive candidate to speak at a festival that claims to be
“committed to celebrating women of all kinds”.

We feel that the message sent out by the event, especially by including Criado-
Perez on the bill, is that you deem the safety and comfort of particular groups of
women to be above those of others in our community. It is ironic and painful that
someone invited to speak on the topic of ‘online harassment’ has persistently
attacked trans people and other feminists online, including members of the
Women’s Campaign.

Over the past year, Caroline Criado-Perez, through her own writings and her
alliance with other public figures who share her views, has demonstrated that she
actively excludes trans women from her feminist politics. In one publication of hers
she rejects the term ‘cis’, a word simply meaning ‘not trans’. Thorough critiques of
her rejection of this useful term can be found here and here.

Beyond this, Caroline Criado-Perez has shown a consistent disregard for
acknowledging ideas and theories that stray from her limited and narrow-minded
understanding of what it means to be a woman under patriarchy. Her politics are
grounded in an outmoded and exclusionary attitude whereby cis women are given
a privileged voice, and where women who engage in sex-work, pornography, or
any other behavior that could be deemed ‘anti-feminist’ renege the right to
protection or solidarity from their female peers. She has consistently shown that she
believes allowing trans women into female spaces would be putting women at risk
of ‘male violence’.

Her track record on talking about issues of race is similarly dismal. When appearing
on Woman’s Hour in December 2013, she interrupted Reni Eddo-Lodge speaking on
the issue of intersectionality and the acknowledgement of feminism’s historic
legacy of racism and exclusion. Criado-Perez claimed: “It’s right that white women
obviously recognise that their voices are heard more than women from minority
communities. But certain people are using intersectionality as a cloak to abuse
other women”.

Criado-Perez hijacks key theoretical terms in order to strawman crucial and
important parts of feminist politics, including in her comments on the term ‘cis’. Her
misrepresentation of what it means to be cisgender, along with her unwillingness to
apologise for the hurt and distress her comments have caused, show her refusal to
consider trans women as equals - deserving of feminist support and solidarity. The
Women’s Campaign strives to include and support all trans people, especially
women, in our community - we see no benefit to liberation activism that does not
work to free all people from oppression.

We, as members and allies of the CUSU Women’s Campaign, find it rather bizarre
that our Campaign was not given any representation at the WOW event, especially
given the close involvement of our own university in its hosting and organisation.
Members of the Women’s Campaign are constantly fighting for women’s rights and
an end to gender oppression within our community, often pioneering schemes or
ideas that the University gains public approval from. To see dedicated feminist
activists within the University ignored while a damaging and exclusionary figure like
Caroline Criado-Perez is given a platform is very worrying indeed. We urge you to
distance yourselves from Caroline Criado-Perez and her transphobic beliefs.

Signed: Chris Page, Schools Liaison Officer, St
Catharine's College
Amelia Horgan, CUSU Women’s Officer. Jan Reyes
Nina De Paula Hanika, CUSU Women’s Waverly March (former Newnham JCR
Campaign campaign manager Women's Officer)
Daisy Hughes, CUSU Women’s Campaign Audrey Sebatindira (BME Women's Rep for the
campaign manager CUSU Women's Campaign)
Bethan Kitchen, CUSU Women’s Campaign Amy Reddington
campaign manager Lizzy Johnstone, PhD student
Marjam Idriss, CUSU Women’s Campaign Liska Fell
international women’s officer Miriam Franklin, Women's Campaign
Jessica Wing, CUSU Women’s Campaign Supporter and Alumni
disabled women’s officer Isabella Luta CUSU LGBT+ Women's Rep
Jenny Harris, CUSU Women’s Campaign Alice Merrill
graduate women’s officer Pippa Jones, Newnham JCR Welfare Officer
Sarah Brown, former Cambridge City Ben Platt
Councillor and trans equality campaigner Rosa- Johan Uddoh
Gareth Erskine Meredith Ford
Tristan Roberts Martha L
Seth Kruger Ross Higman, Cambridge alumnus and
Jasmine Hackett Cambridge University Press employee
Elizabeth Smith Rachel Tookey - Women's Officer for the
Jessi Lloyd Cambridge Union
Daisy Hughes, Women's Campaign Exec Alex Brett (Trinity Hall 2008)
Member Indi Pritchard
Alexander Rider - Anglia Ruskin University Abigail Bankay, CUSU LGBT+ Campaigns
Disabled Students Society President, Disabled Officer
Students Rep-Elect Corey Gilmore
Caitlín Doherty, University of Cambridge PhD Alex OBT
Candidate Morgan Powell
Orla Polten, PhD student at St John's College
Zoe O'Connell

Louise Banable
Em Travis
Madeleine Pepe
Heloise Ungless
Frances Haynes
Alice Nutting, bi/pan rep at Oxford University
LGBTQ Society
Rowland Goodbody (CUSU LGBT+ College
Reps Coordinator)
Alice Kelly
Jake Choules, Fitzwilliam College LGBT+
representative
Hannah Walker
John Jarman
Amy Clark
Charlie Jeffries
Sean Collins, PhD Student, University of
Cambridge
Sophie Draper (Jesus College member and
committee member of 3 societies)
Hesham Mashhour (Trinity LGBT+ W/O, Get
Real. Chief Editor)
Sarah Gibson, former CUSU LGBT+ trans and
intersex rep
Martha Perotto-Wills
Grace Anderson
Han Tame, Peterhouse LGBT+ Officer
Alice Clark (alumni)
Mark G
Jeff Lockhart, Postgraduate student
Robin Cumming
Chris Hitchcock, King's College
Amardeep, student
Aisling Gallagher, NUS Disabled Students
Campaign
Sabine (trans sex worker)
Anna Lee
Jack
Grace McKenzie
Erin Muscillo
Soniya Ambadkar
Sarah Noble, Co-ordinator at Leeds University
Union Feminist Society
Katie Henry
X, a sex worker at Cambridge