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<\/p>\n Courtesy of\u00a0Women Against Feminism<\/em> and\u00a0Godless Indian Feminists,\u00a0<\/em>respectively.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think both of these pictures are important and true, and it’s something that those of us, myself included, who wince at the word ‘feminism’ need to be clear about.<\/p>\n This may come as a surprise, but the reason that many people, myself included, think of ‘feminism’ as a bad word is not because we want to return to the days when a woman could be confined to a mental hospital for falling pregnant outside of marriage, when domestic abuse was treated as a private matter, or when it was standard practice to tell a woman buying a car or whatever “Here’s where you sign, and here’s where you get the signature of your father or husband”.<\/p>\n That was real, those things happened, and people have no right to forget. \u00a0Michelle Smith<\/a>, writing in\u00a0The Independent,<\/em> makes these points with some force.<\/p>\n However, with all due respect to Ms Smith, she is missing the point. \u00a0The fact that there were bad things\u00a0fifty years ago<\/em> that were opposed by what feminism meant\u00a0fifty years ago<\/em>, does\u00a0not<\/em> mean that what feminism means\u00a0right now<\/em> is the same thing.<\/p>\n What those of us who feel poorly disposed towards feminism object to are things like the political hackwork that claims that one in five women at American Universities are sexually assaulted. \u00a0Heather MacDonald tears this piece of nonsense apart here<\/a>\u00a0– something people should know is that in the original study this came from 73% of women did not classify their experience as rape, and 42% voluntarily slept with the ‘rapist’ again. \u00a0We also don’t care for the idea that rampant promiscuity is the same thing as ’empowerment’, nor do we like terms like ‘rape culture’ being used to say that all men are rapists, or of the blanket dismissal of any fear of false rape accusations. \u00a0Or we don’t like feminists saying that women who were born in the wrong kind of body just have a weird sexual fetish<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the developed West – I’ll come back to this point – there is no rape culture <\/a>directed against women, but there very much is one directed against men. \u00a0Jokes about men getting raped in prison are so acceptable that they appear in television ads directed intended for children<\/a>, and comics can laugh about boys being taken advantage of by women teachers<\/a>. (To give Western feminism full credit, that last link is from Jezebel<\/i>).<\/p>\n For me, my annoyance with Western feminism is that it is completely useless when it comes down to\u00a0actually doing anything \u00a0for women’s emancipation<\/em>.<\/p>\n This is where that second picture comes in. \u00a0Covering the jihad-beat for the last eight years, I have been wearily accustomed to seeing feminists stare out the window and whistle ‘Dixie’ <\/a>when we could use them. \u00a0I’ve noticed, Ayaan Hirsi Al<\/a>i’s noticed, Anne Marie Waters<\/a>\u00a0noticed, Phyllis Chesler’s written a whole book on the damn phenomenon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Think I’m exaggerating? \u00a0 Here’s\u00a0The Feminist Wire<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The stereotype that Islam justifies violence against women, or that Muslims uniquely hate women, is unfounded, dangerous,\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here’s Germaine Greer defending FGM<\/a>\u00a0and saying that there was\u00a0no rape<\/em> at all<\/em> in the Bangladesh genocid<\/a>e.<\/p>\n Here’s Naomi Wolf getting all hot for the Burqa<\/a>.<\/p>\n Try finding anything on Jezebel<\/i>, or\u00a0Feministing<\/em> that bothers to confront Islamic misogyny. \u00a0What you’ll end up with is a bunch of posts complaining that those of us who do speak up are\u00a0waaaycist<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n But the problem isn’t just with Islam. \u00a0As we have seen, there’s a big struggle going on in India, and there are reform movements in Christian Africa too.<\/p>\n You don’t need to go that far though. \u00a0One of the major disasters that resulted from the sexual revolution, particularly in Britain, is\u00a0skyrocketing violence against women<\/a>.<\/p>\n I just do not see what on earth feminism has to do with addressing\u00a0any<\/em> of these issues. \u00a0It seems an exclusive club for angry, hateful middle- and upper-class women, usually based in a university somewhere. \u00a0It’s about self-congratulation and making life miserable for others. \u00a0It’s not about women’s emancipation.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n