Julie Bindel

Julie Bindel (born 20 July 1962) is an English radical feminist writer. She co-founded Justice for Women, which helps women who have been prosecuted for assaulting or killing violent male partners.

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 prostitution, stalking, religious fundamentalism, and human trafficking.

Bindel has written or co-written over 30 book chapters and five books, including Straight Expectations (2014) and The Pimping of Prostitution (2017). 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.

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.

Police, women and murderers at large When she was 17, Bindel moved to Leeds and joined the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group, which was campaigning against pornography. Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, was still at large; mainly in the Leeds and Bradford area from 1975 to 1980, he is known to have murdered 13 women, some working as prostitutes, and attacked seven more, leaving them for dead. It was Bindel's anger about the Sutcliffe murders that drove her to campaign to end sexual violence against women. She wrote in 2005 that the police investigation only became focused when the first "non-prostitute" was murdered.

Bindel describes being followed home one night in November 1980 by a man of medium height with a dark beard and wiry hair. She ran into a pub to escape from him and reported what had happened to the police, who either asked her to complete a photofit or dismissed her account because her pursuer had a Yorkshire accent. The following day or following week the body of Sutcliffe's final victim, a 20-year-old student, Jacqueline Hill, was found less than from where the man had followed Bindel. When Sutcliffe's photograph was published after his arrest the following year, Bindel realised the photofit she had assisted in compiling looked almost exactly like him as well as resembling the version provided by Marilyn Moore, one of Sutcliffe's victims who survived.

Bindel took part in feminist protests against the killings, including flyposting fake police posters in Leeds advising men to stay off the streets:

The Big Brothel report was criticised by 27 academics and other researchers involved in research into prostitution, who complained that the study had been conducted without ethical approval or acknowledgement of existing sources, and had been co-written by a researcher with anti-prostitution views. The POPPY Project responded that the report was one they had produced independently, that they were not an academic institution, and that it was important to provide a counterbalance to the positive focus on the sex industry found in the media.

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. Topics have included child abuse, cyberstalking, the failure to prosecute sex offenders and the consequences of that failure, and biological theories about what drives sex offenders. She has also covered gender-neutral toilets, "Why I hate vegetarians", Barbie and Ken—"a 1950s pre-feminist monstrosity, resplendent in her passivity" and "a drippy, pathetic man who appeared to have no penis" —and Arsenal football club—"I went to bed with a smile on my face. Why? The most arrogant team in England was given its comeuppance."

Rape Bindel is critical of the difficulties endured by many women who report rape. She argues that the investigative and legal process treats women more as offenders than victims, and that people think it is more important to safeguard the rights of men who might be accused maliciously. Her writings on rape have appeared in newspapers in Kuwait and India. She wrote in 2006 that she would not report rape herself: "We may as well forget about the criminal justice system and train groups of vigilantes to exact revenge and, hopefully, deter attacks. Because if I were raped, I would rather take my chances as a defendant in court, than as a complainant in a system that seems bent on proving that rape is a figment of malicious women's imagination."

Lesbianism, marriage

Bindel refers to herself as a political lesbian feminist. In 2010, she entered The Independents "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, lesbian child-bearing, the cosmetics industry, cosmetic surgery for women, and scientific theories about sexuality. 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 and campaigning to oppose sexual violence. She described her horror when she was younger at the idea of settling down with a local boy:

bq|I was ... struck by the drudgery on display. While men were out drinking, embarking on fishing trips and generally enjoying their freedom, women were stuck cooking for them, cleaning for them, and running around after children. For women, heterosexuality seemed a total con. She argues that the state should instead regulate civil partnerships for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

Bindel is the co-founder, with Kathleen Stock, of the Lesbian Project, which describes itself as "an organisation dedicated to representing the rights and interests of lesbians in the UK".

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, and the efforts devoted to outlawing marital rape. 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". For instance, in 2016 she said that banning Roosh V from entering the UK (who had said that if rape were legalised, women would be "more careful" with their bodies) would not change the fact that every year in England and Wales around 400,000 women are sexually assaulted. She believes that no-platforming merely leaves people uninformed about other people's views. She wrote in 2008 that gender-reassignment surgery reinforces gender stereotypes, and that the diagnosis of gender identity disorder 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.'" 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, such as "Think about a world inhabited just by transgender people. It would look like the set of Grease" and "I don't have a problem with men disposing of their genitals, but it does not make them women, in the same way that shoving a bit of vacuum hose down your 501s [jeans] does not make you a man." Bindel later apologized for the article's "offensive" tone. 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?".

In July 2020, Bindel sued PinkNews and its editor Benjamin Cohen for libel in relation to an article concerning gender-critical feminism that she argued defamed her. In October 2021, the case was settled out of court with PinkNews publishing a joint statement with Bindel stating "The [original] article made a number of serious allegations of misconduct and PinkNews accepts that if the allegations were understood to refer to Julie, they would be wholly untrue."

Bisexuality In 2012, Bindel condemned female bisexuality as a "fashionable trend" caused by "sexual hedonism", and broached the question of whether bisexuality even exists: "isexuality is sold to heterosexual women as some type of recreational activity far from their 'natural home' of straight sex. It is seen as 'temporary lesbianism'"—having a girlfriend, for a straight woman, is like having "the latest Prada handbag". A long-active lesbian feminist, she expressed discomfort with the inclusion of sexuality- and gender-variant communities into the expanding LGBT "rainbow alliance": "The mantra now at 'gay' meetings is a tongue-twisting LGBTQQI. It is all a bit of an unholy alliance. We have been put in a room together and told to play nicely."

Men and heterosexuality In a 2015 interview with Radfem Collective, Bindel – in what she later said was a joke – advocated for the internment of all males, as well as the abolition of heterosexuality. When asked about whether or not heterosexuality will survive women's liberation, she said: It won't, not unless men get their act together, have their power taken from them and behave themselves. I mean, I would actually put them all in some kind of camp where they can all drive around in quad bikes, or bicycles, or white vans. I would give them a choice of vehicles to drive around with, give them no porn, they wouldn't be able to fight – we would have wardens, of course! Women who want to see their sons or male loved ones would be able to go and visit, or take them out like a library book, and then bring them back. I hope heterosexuality doesn't survive, actually. I would like to see a truce on heterosexuality. I would like an amnesty on heterosexuality until we have sorted ourselves out. Because under patriarchy it's shit.

She later said this was satire and that she has nothing against those who choose heterosexual relationships, men, or their sexuality, stating everyone is an individual and criticising the idea that men are "born rapists".

In a 2025 opinion piece for the Telegraph, Bindel nevertheless argued that because of the risk of sex abuse, transgender women as well as cisgender men should be forbidden from working with young children.

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 apologised for their unlawful action & paid for losses incurred.

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.

Publications

Books

(2003). Bindel and Harriet Wistrich. The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys, London: Astraia. (2014). Roger Matthews, Helen Easton, Lisa Young, and Bindel. Exiting Prostitution: A Study in Female Desistance. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (2014). Bindel. Straight Expectations. London: Guardian. (2017). Bindel. The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (2021). Bindel. Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation. London: Constable & Robinson.

Reports, book chapters

(1996), with Liz Kelly, et al. Domestic Violence Matters: An Evaluation of a Development Project . London: Home Office. (1996). "Women Overcoming Violence and Abuse: Information Pack on Topics Covered at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Women's Citizenship", Bradford: University of Bradford, Research Unit on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations. (1996). "Neither an Ism nor a Chasm: Maintaining a Radical-Feminist Agenda in Broad-Based Coalitions" in Lynne Harne, Elaine Miller (eds.), All the Rage: Reasserting Radical Lesbian Feminism, London: Women's Press. (2003), with Liz Kelly. "A Critical Examination of Responses to Prostitution in Four Countries: Victoria, Australia; Ireland; the Netherlands; and Sweden", Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University. (2004). Profitable Exploits! Lap Dancing in the UK, London Metropolitan University, (2006). "Press for Change": A Guide for Journalists Reporting on the Prostitution and Trafficking of Women, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. (2008), with Helen Atkins. . London: The POPPY Project, Eaves Housing for Women (2009), with Melissa Farley and Jacqueline M. Golding. Men Who Buy Sex: Who They Buy and What They Know, Eaves Housing for Women (London) / Prostitution Research & Education (San Francisco).