Erin Pizzey's work with Refuges

Wendy McElroy founded iFeminism, which apparently is a "new" form of feminism, a feminism of individualism. In other words it undermines the fundamental basis of feminism which is the analysis that women are oppressed and mistreated as a group or a class.

That's not feminism, that's just stealing its name to further the interests of anti-feminism.

Sigmund, are you Erin Pizzey ?

I claim my five pounds

They're the ones that promote anti-feminism. Wendy McElroy and Christina Hoff Summers (who is the other one who pops up in these sorts of discussions) are paid to preach anti-feminism as feminism. It's not a secret.

Why do you think that Wendy McElroy is a feminist?

Interesting comment Nyac. How can you tell which feminists are anti-feminists?
Are they the ones that don't quite follow your opinions?

It's so irritating when anti-feminists call themselves feminists. It's dishonest too.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197550,00.html

Thought I might add a little balance to this interestingly one sided discussion. This article was written by a feminist, so you're safe to look at it.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197550,00.html

She's also pretty unique amongst well known feminists who address male violence against women to take such an unwavering victim blaming line. In fact I think she's on her own with that one.

it takes a special type of stubborn contrariness, to insist that there's no difference between self-harming and hurting someone else. talk about wilful refusal to engage with common sense

About Erin

My favourite bit:

[Reporter]: So women are as violent as men?

[Pizzey] "Well, we tend to implode, our violence is turned in on ourselves or is covert - men explode and hurt others."

[Reporter]: So it's not exactly the same?

"It's violence," Pizzey says stubbornly

Quite a lot of people who become very public 'faces' of activist movements turn out to have serious feet of clay, because to be that driven in the first place you're generally a bit fucked up. I think Pizzey did do some good work and contributed to some good work being done but also has said and done some stupid and harmful things.

She also has a gang of MRAs who support her.

It's quite likely that she wrote the content of the Wiki page herself. Most folks do that!

Well, as Doomcats said above, it sounds as if there are issues within her own personal life that may have led her to the particular actions and views that she chose. However, that is no excuse for the way she has chosen to push those views and block the efforts of others to help abused women and children stay safe and get their lives back together. Understanding isn't the same as excusing.

Ah Spare Rib. I think it folded nearly 20 years ago. Sadly Everywoman Magazine followed it into oblivion soon after (more or less following implosion of the collective.) There's been a sad, sad gap in accessible feminist publications until now when thankfully, there are lots of interesting e-magazines and blogs.

Blimey, I didn't realise she was such a rotter! I was 17 at the time the Chiswick refuge was set up and thought she was wonderful; I never knew all the other stuff about her, and her strange way of looking at things. That'll teach me to do more research!

My mum was involved in the women's refuge movement, and gave me 'Scream quietly or the neighbours will hear' to read when I was about 12. Kind of odd as she had been a battered wife and at that point was also being physically abused by my stepdad...

Anyway, Erin Pizzey - like many very charismatic individuals who achieve great things - did go slightly strange and drunk on her individual power. I can't agree with almost anything she's written post 1976. BUT she did a wonderful thing setting up the Chiswick refuge, no doubt about it.

I remember Spare Rib very well - I have a pile of old copies at home! My mum used to give it to me to read, and later my dp and a number of my friends were on the collective...

Don't think spare rib is still going, but they have back copies in the women's library

Didn't she grace us with her presence on here once? Or someone claiming to be her?

There was a thread about her here, which contains some quotes from her book:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/974790-Women-who-return-to-abusive-partners

She took tea with a man who had brutally sexually tortured his wife and said what a nice man he was. She was less complementary about his victim however.

She had a man (her partner) in their refuge and also used to invite abusers in to confront their female victims there. She seemed to think this was important. It's all outlined in a book she wrote about it.

She also hates feminists and has written about that in the Daily Mail.

I remember reading something she wrote about why women went back to their abusers, and serially dated abusers, which had the same gist as KRITIQ's last paragraph. It made me very angry.

there aren't any feminists who believe all men are rapists, finally, the only people who believe that are rapists themselves and rape apologists.