Image: Paul Wilkinson Hey everybody, this is a feminism party and everybody's invited! Accept you. Oh and it appears feminism is holding this party all wrong. First of all everybody knows feminists don't have parties - unless it's political party, which probably explains the lack of paper cups round here. Second of all it looks like you feminists are concentrating on all the wrong things. You should be only concerning yourselves with one thing at a time - your pretty little heads are only able to hold one cause at a time, so let's prioritise and see what Michael White says Barbara Castle would do (I'm getting WMWSBCWD on a wristband so's I can always remember and I suggest you do the same) because you are all getting over excited and hysterical. No more pop for you feminists.
I wrote about Lord Rennard and the absence of an apology recently, as did many other people - male and female. However I was wasting my time it turns out. Rather than discuss the importance of how we react and deal with allegations sexual harassment whether or not they turn out to be true using the House of Lords as a jumping off point, Michael White thinks we should settle. In fact he thinks we deserve a slap on the wrist and to be told we don't know we're born.
"...old folk like Williams (and me) feel unsettled when some of the allegations about "the intellectual sexist culture and endemic sleazy culture" of contemporary Westminster being made - by Nick Clegg's ex-aide, Bridget Harris - about the Rennard affair and beyond. "Nothing's changed for women in 50 years," I heard an ex-MP, now a peer, say at a women's event in the Commons last year...Preposterous nonsense! As a fellow panellist that day, I got cross. Westminster has been greatly feminised since the 70s, not least by family-friendly working hours, which often empties the building by 8pm, though not at the Lords end, where they still meet later and often sit later, despite advancing years."
What? Someone employed the use of bombast to get a point across while speaking at an event? Well, hanging's too good for them.
"...old folk like Williams (and me) feel unsettled when some of the allegations about "the intellectual sexist culture and endemic sleazy culture" of contemporary Westminster being made - by Nick Clegg's ex-aide, Bridget Harris - about the Rennard affair and beyond. "Nothing's changed for women in 50 years," I heard an ex-MP, now a peer, say at a women's event in the Commons last year...Preposterous nonsense! As a fellow panellist that day, I got cross. Westminster has been greatly feminised since the 70s, not least by family-friendly working hours, which often empties the building by 8pm, though not at the Lords end, where they still meet later and often sit later, despite advancing years."
What? Someone employed the use of bombast to get a point across while speaking at an event? Well, hanging's too good for them.
| Not to digress but let's jump back to the Twitter of last week when Russell Brand tweeted a photo of himself holding up a No More Page 3 T-shirt. A gesture he can afford to make now he is no longer on the payroll of The Sun but apparently a gesture he now makes thanks to the love of a good woman. Not those crappy women who were loving him before. | If we aren't striving for perfection then what the bare tit are we striving for? |
The Twittersphere that identifies itself as feminist is incredibly wide-ranging. Some happily retweeted Brand as a new recruit (we recruit) while others pointed out that this was Brand continuing to be inconsistent (if such a thing is possible) and the manner in which he'd presented this change of heart was patronising. Those in support of Brand argued for progress not perfection.
You know what? Usually my motto is 'Good Enough' but when it comes to feminism, to rights, to representation there is no time for indulging Good Enough. For calling it progress and then not moving on. If we aren't striving for perfection then what the bare tit are we striving for?
There is nothing more infuriating than being told there are more important things to worry about. This is true, but if we all constantly applied it to life, if we all began to get dressed of a morning then thought 'but there are children starving in Africa' before concluding we might as well go outside naked rather than decide between shirts we would be cold and those children would continue to starve.
To say things were crappier in my day in some kind of suffering top trumps and therefore anyone who didn't experience the levels of difficulty I did should shh! is just folding. We should never be frightened to say we can do better. In fact it is vital we insist we can do better. We can do better than to dismiss all complaints as just moaning. "I don't know precisely what Rennard is alleged to have done to the complainants, let alone whether he did. "Large, but unmenacing" would have been my verdict on him before all this blew up. What do I know?"
NOTHING! You don't know ANYTHING Michael White because you aren't one of those making the allegations and you aren't the cuddly bear that is Lord Rennard. How can you possibly have the experience a younger woman has working with Rennard, how can you possibly know the irritation and impotence felt when a person in authority brushes past inappropriately and how can you possibly know the damage that is done when you are told 'oh that's just his way, ignore him, he's harmless'?
Even if I'm just dancing on my own I am going to have this effing feminist party. I hope you all RSVP.
Squeamish Kate
You know what? Usually my motto is 'Good Enough' but when it comes to feminism, to rights, to representation there is no time for indulging Good Enough. For calling it progress and then not moving on. If we aren't striving for perfection then what the bare tit are we striving for?
There is nothing more infuriating than being told there are more important things to worry about. This is true, but if we all constantly applied it to life, if we all began to get dressed of a morning then thought 'but there are children starving in Africa' before concluding we might as well go outside naked rather than decide between shirts we would be cold and those children would continue to starve.
To say things were crappier in my day in some kind of suffering top trumps and therefore anyone who didn't experience the levels of difficulty I did should shh! is just folding. We should never be frightened to say we can do better. In fact it is vital we insist we can do better. We can do better than to dismiss all complaints as just moaning. "I don't know precisely what Rennard is alleged to have done to the complainants, let alone whether he did. "Large, but unmenacing" would have been my verdict on him before all this blew up. What do I know?"
NOTHING! You don't know ANYTHING Michael White because you aren't one of those making the allegations and you aren't the cuddly bear that is Lord Rennard. How can you possibly have the experience a younger woman has working with Rennard, how can you possibly know the irritation and impotence felt when a person in authority brushes past inappropriately and how can you possibly know the damage that is done when you are told 'oh that's just his way, ignore him, he's harmless'?
Even if I'm just dancing on my own I am going to have this effing feminist party. I hope you all RSVP.
Squeamish Kate
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