Feminism, Misanthropy and Alienating People

Labourlist has been "Celebrating International Women's Day...by kicking Draper out of the editor's seat." Kicking Draper out of the editor's seat for that particular site can only be a good thing, and the posts on feminism have at least been a breath of fresh air after the endless fucking attack posts banging on about the Tories. That said, the quality of the writing has been variable to say the least.

For example, this post sets my teeth on edge. And I had to think long and hard why it winds me up. See, I agree with a lot of the content. It is naive to claim that misogyny is not still rampant within society. I have seen discrimination based on gender at work many, many times. The rape stats are horrifying for a supposedly civilised society. And any attempts to restrict abortion in this country should be resisted wholeheartedly. Sex education really does need to be urgently improved. Nonetheless, there is something about the sentiments in that article that jars with me. And I think I have figured it out. Take a look at this lengthy quote:

In the playground, in the workplace and in the home, women are expected to constantly look sexually available, but never to actually be so. This intensely feminine paradox is deeply enmeshed with the big-spending New Labour paradigm, and many young women like myself, still prepubescent in 1997, have grown up knowing nothing else. We live in a world oozing with sexuality, but we are not allowed to take our share from it – instead we are taught that, in order to be adults, we have to give incessantly for the gratification of male sexuality. Combined with a woeful lack of education about sex and contraception in schools – sex education that, like our teenage pregnancy rates, is just about the worst in Europe - the damage that has been done to British women sexually since the feminist backlash of the early 1990s makes it surprising that more teenage girls don't get pregnant.

What are the messages we pick up, as young girls? Our human worth is stamped on our bodies, on our faces and between our legs. Whatever we achieve at school or at work will be meaningless if we are not also sexually appealing to men. If we get raped – and one in four of us will be raped - it's our fault. If we have sex, we're sluts; if we don't, we're frigid bitches. If we have babies, we're wasting our lives and being a drain on the state; if we have an abortion, we are walking moral abomination. If we slave all day to look like Paris Hilton then our college grades are of no importance; if we don't, we're ugly and therefore valueless. Being a prostitute or a stripper is a valuable and fulfilling career. Most of our role models are professional wearers of skimpy outfits, where our brothers' role models play international sports, work on gene theory or run the country. If we choose to work for money, we will be constantly exhausted and unfulfilled; but if we choose to raise children instead, we have failed morally, personally and financially. No wonder the kids are confused.

Here's what I'm not going to do - I'm not going to do a line by line fisking, I'm not going to assume things on behalf of the author, and I'm not (for once) resort trite name-calling and sarcastic comments. I am going to point out the problem with that article - it is the assumptions that the author makes on behalf of just about everyone.

Let's look at some examples. Women aren't expected to "constantly look sexually available" - some workplaces actually demand the opposite. And there is a difference between people (both male and female) making themselves look attractive and people making themselves look sexually available. Sure, some people will make themselves look sexually available, others might be making themselves look professional, or generally attractive, or just like taking pride in their appearance. Laurie Penny seems to make the assumption that every female is trying to make themselves look sexually available; I don't think this is the case.

Likewise, some women may feel that they can't enjoy a world oozing with sexuality. Others would disagree with that; they very much enjoy this world. Penny is proclaiming how every woman feels, yet I don't think that her thoughts actually reflect reality.

The phrase "Our human worth is stamped on our bodies, on our faces and between our legs." Really? Is that the case? Because I don't perceive the worth of anyone - male or female - is about their bodies, their faces or what is between their legs. It is far more important what they are like as people. I know some good looking males and females; what makes them good people (or not as the case maybe) is what they act like as people rather than what they see when they look in the mirror.

And I don't know anyone who genuinely believes that, if a woman is raped, it is her fault. The idea is abhorrent to me, and to those close to me. No doubt there are those who do have this monstrous view; I resent their views, just as I resent Penny's implication that everyone in the world holds those views.

That is the point - that is the very fucking nub of the problem. Whether or not she believes in what she writes, the way Penny writes comes across as she has some sort of divine telepathy, an ability to see into the thoughts and minds of everyone else in the known world. Of course, she doesn't. And the assumptions she makes on behalf of others reveals more insights into her own misanthropic mindset than it does of the mindsets of everyone else out there.

There is a danger that feminism - and other focussed attempts to attack one form of discrimination - is that it misses the point that there are other forms of discrimnation out there. Forms of discrimination that can be just as devastating as sexism. I know there is discrimnation across society based on gender. There is also discrimination based on race, on sexual orientation, on age, on class. Hell, there are even those who would discriminate based on where you went to school. All these forms of discrimination need to be combatted.

I guess the point is this; in order to succeed in their aims, the likes of Penny need fellow travellers who want to end discrimination as whole, even if they are not militant feminists themselves. The nature of Penny's post - the arrogant tone, the burning desire to damn the beliefs and mindsets of others - will end up alienating potential supporters.