Julie Bindel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Julie Bindel
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Bindel in 2015
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| Born | 20 July 1962 Darlington, County Durham, England
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| Occupation | Journalist, writer, cultural critic |
| Organization | Co-founder of Justice for Women |
| Known for | Law reform, advocacy journalism |
| Movement | Radical feminism, lesbian feminism |
| Partner(s) | Harriet Wistrich |
Julie Bindel (born 20 July 1962) is an English radical feminist writer. She is also co-founder of the law reform group Justice for Women.
A former visiting researcher at the University of Lincoln (2014–2017), and former assistant director of the Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University, much of Bindel's work concerns male violence against women and children, particularly with regard to stalking and religious fundamentalism.
Bindel has written or co-written over 30 book chapters and five books, including Straight Expectations (2014). She is also the editor, with her partner Harriet Wistrich, of The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (2003). She has written regularly for The Guardian, the New Statesman, The Spectator, The Sunday Telegraph magazine, and Standpoint.
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Early life
Bindel and her two brothers (one older, one younger) grew up on a council estate in Darlington, north east England, after moving there from a terraced house that had coal fires and no indoor toilet. She is of mixed Catholic and Jewish heritage. She attended Branksome Comprehensive School from 1973 to 1978, leaving a year early without anyone noticing, she wrote. She came out as a lesbian in 1977 when she was 15. While growing up, Bindel wrote in 2009, the thought of heterosexual conformity was totally unappealing.
When she was 17, Bindel moved to Leeds and joined the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group.
Research and activism
Academic positions
Bindel has served as the assistant director of the Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University (1990s), researcher at the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University (2000s), Visiting Journalist at Brunel University London (2013–2014), and Visiting Researcher at the University of Lincoln (2014–2017).
Justice for Women
Bindel's research into violence against women in domestic and personal relationships has been a central feature of her work. Together with her partner, Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor, and Hilary McCollum, Bindel co-founded Justice for Women (JFW), a feminist law-reform group that campaigns against laws that discriminate against women in cases involving male violence against partners. E. Jane Dickson wrote in The Independent in 1995 that the group was being run by Bindel, Wistrich and their dog, Peggy, out of their North London home.
JFW was created in 1991. One of JFW's earliest cases was that of Emma Humphreys. Humphreys died three years later. Bindel, Wistrich and Humphreys had become friends. They co-edited a book based on her notes about her life, The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (2003). They also award the annual Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize to women and groups that raise awareness about violence against women and children.
In 2008, an issue Bindel had campaigned on for over a decade became the focus of government legislation. JFW and Southall Black Sisters had sought to change a law that protected men and penalised women. The campaign to change the law sought to resist the mitigation that men could appeal to when partners were murdered, and allow the sustained violence to which women could be subjected to act as a mitigating factor. Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, was of a similar mind on this issue, and legislation was proposed that would change the law to this effect.
Opinion journalism and interviews
Overview
Bindel writes for The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph magazine, the New Statesman, Truthdig and Standpoint, and is often interviewed by the BBC and Sky News. She began writing for newspapers in November 1998, while she was working at Leeds Metropolitan University, when The Independent published her article about the Leeds Kerb Crawlers Re-education Programme.
In 2001, she was given an occasional column in The Guardian, with more frequent contributions from 2003.
Lesbianism, marriage
Bindel refers to herself as a political lesbian feminist. In 2010, she entered The Independent's "Pink List" as no. 98 of the top 101 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain. She began writing about lesbian issues in 1996. Her work for The Guardian has included articles about lesbian chic, the cosmetics industry, and cosmetic surgery for women. In January 2009, she wrote about the radical lesbian feminism of the 1970s and 1980s, and her desire to return to those values. Her lesbianism is "intrinsically bound up" with her feminism.
Bindel does not support the idea of marriage, which she calls a "patriarchal and outdated tradition" stemming from a time that women were viewed as the property of their fathers, then of their husbands. The taking of a husband's name she calls "branding". She extends the same criticism to same-sex marriage; marriage should be rejected, not reclaimed. "Dress it up, subvert it, deny it all you want," she said in 2016. "Marriage is an institution that has curtailed women's freedom for centuries ... It can never be a feminist act." She argues that the state should instead regulate civil partnerships for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
Feminism
A critic of identity politics and what she calls "the emergence of feminist preciousness", Bindel argued in 2014 that call-out culture had replaced political activism. She cited, as successful feminist campaigns, Justice for Women's work to change the law so that "nagging" was no longer a defence for husbands who killed their wives. Instead of fighting these institutional battles, feminists were focusing now on shaming individuals. "Petitions have taken over politics," she wrote. She is critical of the practice of no-platforming, arguing that "censorship is the new normal".
Gender, bisexuality
Bindel argues that gender is a product of socialisation, and that gender roles reinforce women's oppression. She would like to see an end to gender entirely. She wrote in 2008 that gender-reassignment surgery reinforces gender stereotypes, and that the diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID) is built upon outdated views about how females and males should behave. "It is precisely this idea that certain distinct behaviours are appropriate for males and females," she wrote, "that underlies feminist criticism of the phenomenon of 'transgenderism.'"
A 2004 column by Bindel titled "Gender Benders, beware" printed in The Guardian caused the paper to receive more than two hundred letters of complaint from transgender people, doctors, therapists, academics and others. Trans rights advocacy group Press for Change cited this article as an example of "discriminatory writing" about transgender people in the press. Complaints focused on the title, "Gender benders, beware", the cartoon accompanying the piece, and the disparaging tone. Bindel later apologized for the article's 'offensive' tone.
In a 2010 opinion piece in The Guardian, C. L. Minou asserted that Julie Bindel had a "long record of public transphobia". When Bindel was nominated in 2008 for Stonewall's "Journalist of the year" award, transgender activists picketed the ceremony. The London Feminist Network staged a counter-demonstration in Bindel's support. Because of her views, she has been no-platformed by several student unions, including that of the University of Manchester in 2015, where she had been invited to discuss: "From liberation to censorship: does modern feminism have a problem with free speech?".
Aspley Library
In June 2022, a talk by Bindel at Aspley Library, Nottingham, was cancelled by Nottingham City Council. The talk took place outside the library instead.
The council later released a statement:
"This was a private booking at Aspley Library by the 'Nottingham Women for Change' group and all ticket sales and marketing of the event had been undertaken independently with no input from the council.
"While it was known that the event was going to be from a feminist perspective, no information around the speaker's views on transgender rights was brought to the Library Service's attention.
"Once we became aware of this, we took the decision to cancel the booking. Nottingham is an inclusive city and as a council we support our LGBT community and have committed to supporting trans rights as human rights through Stonewall. We did not want the use of one of our library buildings for this event, taking place during Pride month, to be seen as implicit support for views held by the speaker which fly in the face of our position on transgender rights."
On 27 June, Bindel said that she would be talking to lawyers the next day about taking legal action against the council.
On 7 October 2022, Nottingham City Council issued an apology to Bindel:
"Nottingham City Council now accepts that its decision to cancel the event was procedurally unlawful. Nottingham City Council apologises to Ms Bindel and Nottingham Women for Change for cancelling the event in this way and for the inconvenience caused as a result of this decision."
Along with the apology, the council agreed to make a payment to Bindel, Nottingham Women for Change, and the ticket holders, and agreed to handle any future booking requests on a lawful basis.
Personal life
Bindel identifies as a political lesbian.
