Women are supposed to cave in
Julie Bindel underlines that the bullying of Kathleen Stock is intended as a warning to all of us.
Claims that Stock is a ‘transphobe’ are not only unfounded but wilfully misguided. Stock is being punished not for her views on transgender issues, but for standing her ground in the face of persistent and sadistic bullying over sex-based rights, and a belief in the immutability of biology.
In other words she was supposed to take it all back, and she refused, so she had to be made an example.
Women are supposed to cave in. Patriarchy works not by all men holding a gun to the heads of all women, but by public displays of male power, such as the treatment of Stock over the past three years. What has happened to her and others in the public eye is so terrible it serves as a lesson to others. For every Kathleen Stock there are hundreds, or even thousands of women, that will be terrified to raise their heads above the parapet on trans issues.
And then there are the students.
I hear from countless young women who tell me they want to be taught about feminism in university, and all they get is an endless sop of ‘sex work is work’ and ‘trans women are women’.
The Greta Christina version of feminism – not feminism at all but neo-liberal individualistic choosy-choice horseshit.
You hit paste twice in the first blockquote.
Oops! Thank you.
‘endless sop’ – which is not, alas, a new thing. I remember – oh, hundreds of years ago, when I was in my early twenties – going and staying in Paris with a French acquaintance who, though only slightly older than me, was some sort of lecturer at the Sorbonne. It was an interesting visit, not least because it was the anniversary of some big Communist success (I can’t remember which), and I was taken to the Halle de la Mutualité, where there was a big celebration with delegations from Communist countries, including the North Vietnamese but lacking, as I recall, the Russians – there was some sort of ideological quarrel then on between the Soviet Communist Party & the French one – again, as I recall. Lots of long speeches, and the singing of the Internationale with great vigour. Outside, not a cop in sight. I remarked on this to be told that if there were any of ‘les flics’ about, they’d get tossed into the Seine, and knew it. Heady stuff! I also went to hear a ‘lecture’ by my acquaintance in a large crowded room at the Sorbonne. It was basically an unintelligent and unilluminating diatribe against the Anglo-Americans, which came across more as French nationalism than anything to do with Communism, and was warmly welcomed by the students, who had fresh in their memories stories abut the heroic sixties. I had never been to university, having refused to do so, and spent much of my youth working on farms and building sites and in factories, so this was somewhat of an eye-opener. I had expected something intellectually challenging, something from which one might learn – but no: it was ‘sop’. It was nothing like the thoughtful and stimulating books of Raymond Williams (for, of course, I never heard any of his lectures). ‘sop’ has been around for a long time at universities, but now, with the proliferation of all sorts of courses – a proliferation that has more to do with the desire of universities to take in as many students as they can rather than from any desire for educational excellence – so that ‘sop’ is sloshing about more than ever before; though there are of course plenty of responsibly taught courses from which students can learn things that are genuine and important – for I am certainly not putting down universities.