Thursday 18 December 2014

The End of Feminism?

Forty-four years on from The Female Eunuch, and behold, the fast-tracking of the monarch's appointees as Church of England bishops into seats in the House of Lords.

By the Tories.

By an Old Etonian Prime Minister.

The revolution has been televised from start to finish, and that finish is upon us. The end has come, not with a bang, nor even with a whimper, but with a rousing chorus of God Save The Queen. And it is not God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols.

More broadly, so to speak, the redoubt of feminism may be about to fall. I refer to American academia, the powerhouse of the global movement.

The published works of radical feminist academics might very well be found to have contributed to the wrongful suspension or expulsion of young men accused of sexual assault and disciplined on the extremely low burden of proof mandated by the federal government in public institutions, or adopted voluntarily in private ones, well below that which would be required for a criminal conviction.

The frat boys can afford any lawyer that they want, and they are in any case unlikely to need to pay, since attorneys from the very top drawer would do this for free, being pledged for life to the band of brothers. The respondents' last hope would a Supreme Court that it is almost certainly two thirds Greek.

It is easy to look at this and to see no dog in the fight. However, the plaintiffs' more or less guaranteed, and not necessarily undeserved, victories could usefully be framed in class terms. Thus forcing the Left and the Democratic Party back to issues of economic inequality, and to the celebration of past achievements in addressing those issues.

1 comment:

  1. I'd have loved to have seen you in Parliament, the only MP to vote against the Lords Spiritual (Women) Bill because their role should be to model the patriarchy that requires and created old school Labourism.

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