The trans versus feminist culture war has a new battleground: the Guardian newsroom. Owen Jones has been leading the fight for self-defining trans people – those who identify as women without any medical change to their gender – to be allowed onto Labour’s all-women shortlists. This viewpoint is extremely unpopular with many non-millennial feminists, who have serious concerns about whether it really advances gender equality. There is increasing angst among feminist journalists at the Guardian who believe that Owen and other men on the trans side are mansplaining all-women shortlists to them. When Owen gloated on Tuesday that feminists had “overplayed their hand”, a few hours later Guardian writer and feminist Hadley Freeman sent what King’s Place colleagues are calling two epic subtweets:

A senior Labour figure told me one of the main reasons the party has updated their position on trans rights is because of the anti-trans backlash.

In other words anti-trans activists overplayed their hand so much, they made Labour *more* pro-trans rightshttps://t.co/POrWr6VZPN

— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 6, 2018

Love the idea of Labour punishing women for speaking out about an issue that affects them. What a great tactic to win votes among women!

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) March 6, 2018

But really, thank heavens for all the men schooling us silly ladies about how all women’s shortlists should work. How would we cope without your manly guidance?

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) March 6, 2018

Several female Guardianistas believe Owen’s influence and platform pushing the trans issue is causing large numbers of feminists to regard the Guardian as anti-women. They have been sharing Mumsnet chats which show Owen’s campaigning is immensely unpopular among female Guardian readers (Mumsnet, founded by Justine Roberts, the wife of Ian Katz, is at the centre of the Guardianista world). They are noting that this week’s Spectator carries a piece from Judith Green, one of the co-founders of Woman’s Place UK, making the feminist case on all-women’s shortlists. Several Guardian feminists have been arguing internally this week that: “Even the Spectator is more feminist than us”. Owen’s trick of calling feminists who disagree with him bigots is hardly repairing relations with Guardian women who feel feminists are finding it easier to get a platform in the Spectator than the Guardian…