My perspective as a very openminded liberal male who lives in a very liberal area, raised by strong women and with decades of great relationships behind me:
My family were not feminists. They became feminists in the 1980s thanks to the womens rights movement.
By the 1990s I was deeply imbued with feminist ideas, pushing them on simpler men, sexist men and men who did not want to listen to women.
By the 2010s, I was aghast at the views of radical feminists, particularly if they cited Judith Butler, Catherine McKinnon or Andrea Dworkin.
By 2020, I noted two things, in my students and social circle: most of the women were committed to feminism and equality, naturally. Most of the men too. All good.
But then I noticed a tiny minority of loud women were barraging all of us with these insanely entitled (try espousing them outside of a western democracy), utopian (we all know where utopian thought leads us), and selfserving (they'd never read Kant, white male and all) ideas about sex, gender and biology.
The saddest part of it all is, we were/are going in the right direction. They are pulling us back. They are giving the Right electoral wins. They are, and this is the strangest part, enabling a younger generation of conservative, sexist males (and females!) who will reject progressive, rights based ideas.
Its just absurd. Shut them up, all of them. Thanks for this.
Thanks. I'd say thats besides the point. Trump, DeSantos, Putin, how do we label them? Does it matter. We know the effects of their ideas.
Butler is the goddess of Gender Performativity, the radical critique of Binary Gender Norms, Gender Subversion and where intersectionality meets (strangely only white, male) power. If that is not the Communist Manifesto for this movement I don't know what is.
Marx wasnt a Marxist. Jesus wasn't a Christian. Darwin wasn't a Darwinist: its the use of ideas, not what they are/were. She is culpable. And unreadable.
Small correction. Matt W has a twitter following of 2.3M, which is a lot, but not in the same ballpark as 140M!!
Btw I listen to his podcast regularly. He makes me laugh and I agree with 90% of his takes. That's pretty good considering he's a right-wing Catholic and I'm a left-wing feminist. Turns out that most societal issues are non-partisan.
One of the few positives about the identity politics madness is that it has broken down the barriers between left & right & illustrated to many of us that these are no longer meaningful definitions. This has led to more cross discussion & united problem solving which has the potential for better politics. Left wing purity politics is out of date, controlling & obstructive
Great piece. Thanks.
My perspective as a very openminded liberal male who lives in a very liberal area, raised by strong women and with decades of great relationships behind me:
My family were not feminists. They became feminists in the 1980s thanks to the womens rights movement.
By the 1990s I was deeply imbued with feminist ideas, pushing them on simpler men, sexist men and men who did not want to listen to women.
By the 2010s, I was aghast at the views of radical feminists, particularly if they cited Judith Butler, Catherine McKinnon or Andrea Dworkin.
By 2020, I noted two things, in my students and social circle: most of the women were committed to feminism and equality, naturally. Most of the men too. All good.
But then I noticed a tiny minority of loud women were barraging all of us with these insanely entitled (try espousing them outside of a western democracy), utopian (we all know where utopian thought leads us), and selfserving (they'd never read Kant, white male and all) ideas about sex, gender and biology.
The saddest part of it all is, we were/are going in the right direction. They are pulling us back. They are giving the Right electoral wins. They are, and this is the strangest part, enabling a younger generation of conservative, sexist males (and females!) who will reject progressive, rights based ideas.
Its just absurd. Shut them up, all of them. Thanks for this.
Judith Butler is not a radical feminist! Her writings have nothing to do with the writings of Andrea Dworkin or of Catherine McKinnon's legal work.
Thanks. I'd say thats besides the point. Trump, DeSantos, Putin, how do we label them? Does it matter. We know the effects of their ideas.
Butler is the goddess of Gender Performativity, the radical critique of Binary Gender Norms, Gender Subversion and where intersectionality meets (strangely only white, male) power. If that is not the Communist Manifesto for this movement I don't know what is.
Marx wasnt a Marxist. Jesus wasn't a Christian. Darwin wasn't a Darwinist: its the use of ideas, not what they are/were. She is culpable. And unreadable.
Small correction. Matt W has a twitter following of 2.3M, which is a lot, but not in the same ballpark as 140M!!
Btw I listen to his podcast regularly. He makes me laugh and I agree with 90% of his takes. That's pretty good considering he's a right-wing Catholic and I'm a left-wing feminist. Turns out that most societal issues are non-partisan.
One of the few positives about the identity politics madness is that it has broken down the barriers between left & right & illustrated to many of us that these are no longer meaningful definitions. This has led to more cross discussion & united problem solving which has the potential for better politics. Left wing purity politics is out of date, controlling & obstructive