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Original poster

Women policing women

208 replies

therealposieparker · 12/06/2018 07:31

Why do women do this?

Why do women, particularly left wing women, police each other's language and actions so much worse than men?

Even Germaine Greer is being hailed as no feminist for a few comments, despite the incredible work she's done in the past.

Feminists are pretty awful at this call out culture, I think men on the left do it to women but not to each other. I have a feeling this is why women are more likely to be religiously observant too, but that may be a different conversation. However I instinctively think it all feeds from the same conditioning, women "to be seen to be" XXX in order to compete with other women.

As of late I've noticed more odious behaviour from supposed feminists and it's made friends of mine abandon that label.

OP posts:
Writersblock2 · 12/06/2018 07:52

It’s partly about power. We have so little of it ourselves, collectively and individually as women, that it manifests where it’s possible. This usually means race to the top with other women. You’d think in a movement such as this there would be more self-awareness and women would want to hold each other’s successes up as something to be applauded, by sadly it doesn’t always work that way. I think it’s abot socialisation, again, unfortunately.

Offred · 12/06/2018 07:50

It’s one of the reasons GG was so influential TBH, as a libertarian.

Offred · 12/06/2018 07:48

I don’t think it’s recent.

Women have always struggled to rid themselves of the idea, which comes from patriarchy and is a tool of oppression, that an individual woman is collectively responsible in all the choices that she makes about her own life. There has always been ‘you should do’ in feminist rhetoric.

Original poster
therealposieparker · 12/06/2018 07:46

Calling out, piling on and silencing is weird. The same freezing out that happens to girls in schools, which we call bullying, happens to adult women by women all the time.

OP posts:
Shampooeeee · 12/06/2018 07:42

There has been a definitely culture shift recently. I haven't thought enough about the women policing women aspect to comment yet but I'm very alarmed by this new regime in which you must condemn someone for having a slightly different opinion. It should be possible for a woman (or man) to like and respect GG without having to agree with every word she utters. Even if you staunchly disagree, why can't you open your mind to the debate? Camilla Long wrote a good piece in the Times about the feminists rounding on Germaine.

Offred · 12/06/2018 07:39

I agree posie.

I’ve come away from some threads feeling ashamed to be associated with it.

SoddingUnicorns · 12/06/2018 07:37

Even Germaine Greer is being hailed as no feminist for a few comments

Minimising rape isn’t “a few comments” though, is it? She actively and deliberately minimised rape. Which is hardly the action of a feminist.

No idea about the rest of it, I’ve been told I can’t be a feminist because I’m a SAHM, but the reality is I have no choice. Out of school hours care is patchy here, and with my children having ASD diagnoses it’s all but impossible.

Picassospaintbrush · 12/06/2018 07:36

Women don't have much power over men. If they want to exercise power they can do it more easily with women.

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