What is going on?

I think the sense that it’s bad today is because a lot of 40 year olds and younger preferred to believe that they didn’t need to be feminists.

Just to add further detail: I also grew up in the 70s too. Went to a Catholic school. In the North of England. In a pretty poor town. Both boys and girls did woodwork, metalwork, needlework and cookery. My dad taught me how to sew. He was born into poverty in the 1920s. He cooked too.

Sorry but it’s always been this bad. I grew up in the 1970s. Girls did cooking and sewing; boys did technical drawing.

Guess which skill makes you more money?

In many ways it’s better. If you’re openly feminist in the workplace you don’t get called a “man-hating lezzer” any morethetes maternity leave.

There’s lip service to sex pay equality. I can remember the court hearing which brought in equal pay.

You don’t have to resign from the civil service or teaching if you get married.

You don’t have to have your father with you when you open a bank account at age 18. Yes that happened to me.

I could go on.

spfasurfingsally I'm so glad u agree because sometimes I feel like I am fuckong talking to myself about this. Any suggestion of this and one is deemed a frothing, man hating feminist.
Which is certainly a part of me, but we wouldn't be so angry of we were listened to.

The resurgence of fundamentalist religion and its creep into political life. Its power to influence policy making and education are the root of this backward slide in the freedoms and advancement t of womens lives.
Austerity and an overall conservative right swing also disproportionately impact women.
I don't know if more women in political positions will change much, I think grass roots campaigning will force things. Political life is so corrupted that even the best intentioned MP is compromised by party infighting and business interests having way more influence than is fair or observable. Behidnthe scene chicanery.
The polarised parties means there can be no consensus on anything that might enhance women and children. Such policies are nothing more than window dressing

@FreeFreesia No that's fair enough, you didn't say everything was fine now. But I simply chategorically disagree that things are better for us now than they were in the past and the reason I get so emotional about this is because films, books and tv dramas lie about women's history and lead women to believe this is the best we've ever had it, and the reason this lie annoys me so much is because men ( and women) very often say we've got nothing to complain about, especially as western women.
I'm so sick of anti feminists pointing to women in Bangladesh or wherever and saying "see how good you've got it, see how many rights you have today, see how far women have come" when the truth is we have lost so much

@twicemummy Please do not put words in my mouth or twist what I say. Did you miss the first paragraph where I said "there are still many equality battles to be won & plenty of mindless fools out there trying to turn back clocks" and I finished with "there is still lots to strive for". Would I be on this board if I thought we were all equal now?

Sorry. Posted twice. Interestingly, Greek and Roman society were male dominated too

Romans and Greeks produced a lot of porn. I'd rather be a woman ow than 1700 or 1800...but every revolution has promised women greater freedoms in work, marriage and contraception only to renege onbit all. French. Russian. The 60s. The 1916 rising also made noises about womens equality and we all know where that went thanks to the church getting its claws in. The state sanctioned murder of women and children still goes unpunished.

Porn is not modern. The Greeks and Roman's were big fans.

When it's normal for young women to have to shave off all their pubic hair and take it up the bum, it does make you wonder doesn't it.

I agree that this is not a good time to be a woman op, and a lot of it is related to massive over-sexualisation in our culture. For all that we're supposed to be living in a more feminist age it seems that in actual practice no one is allowed to deny any male sexual whim. Much of modern male sexuality is linked directly into violence and domination too. Both are obviously directly in conflict with women's rights. I don't like this confusion between what happens in practice and the lies we are supposed to tell either. Everything seems to be co-opted: you are not allowed to tell the truth about men committing most violence without being accused of sexism. Employment rights and regulation are being taken away.

I recently read about some tribe or society where women are revered.

At puberty boys are taught how to serve (in a mutually beneficial way) and pleasure women and crimes of sexual assault and rape are near as dammit zero.

Imagine that.

@FreeFreesia So We're all equal now, nothing to see here, nothing left to fight for.

What if this is a patriarchal reversal and the truth is they've taken everything away from us: our land, our skills, our professions ( no - the oldest profession isn't prostitution, it's midwifery), birth and health.

Today, porn and prostitution is "work". Men control and dominate the food industry. They dominate medicine. It never used to be like this. The witchcraze was a watershed

Germany and France were the worst hit during the witchcraze. When Germany medicalizes birth they opened birth houses that women were supposed to go to to have their babies. The maternal death rate in these houses were abysmal. Women would commit suicide before having to birth their babies in there

@lolaflores
Women were brewers. Weavers. Sold cloth. Traded. Bought and sold livestock. Women were independent in the early and late middle ages.

Yes, women invented beer! Also their knowledge of healing and herbs ( many herbs that no longer exist) died with their bodies

Also, let's imagine a world where pornography didn't exist because that's the type of world women and children used to live in. Feminists know there is a link between pornography viewing and sex crimes against women and children. Countries like Russia where Porn proliferates have higher incidents of rape.

When they tortured the witches the torture was sexualized. Men drew pictures of the torture they inflicted on the witches and this became the first pornography

Totally agree too much violence against women on screens. Vote with your money on netflix/prime. lwlies.com/articles/new-films-by-female-directors-2018/

www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Cross-Bones-Graveyard/

The Bishop of Winchester ran prostitution on the Southbank. The women were known as 'Winchester Geese'. Two thousands of them and their children are buried in Crossbones Cemetery, Southwark.

Look at drama on TV. Most of it is based on male violence to children and women. Watched and enjoyed by the oppressed! Including me! It's like being turned on by your own abuse! I've noticed a significant increase in women getting slapped and punched across the face in drama, as if it's now acceptable to show it, not just suggest it.

Women were brewers. Weavers. Sold cloth. Traded. Bought and sold livestock. Women were independent in the early and late middle ages. Some women did particularly well after the GREAT plague.
In Celtic society women had access to everything. The law. Leadership. Medicine. Study.
The view if women as dependent is something that emerges after the reformation and into the industrial revolution.
The catholic church certainly didnt help matters. Actively oppressed women.

libcom.org/files/Caliban%20and%20the%20Witch.pdf

Caliban and the Witch.

Pursuit and eradication of so-called witches wasn't just about specific heretical witch-hunting. It was also about the masculinisation of the medical profession, cutting out much of the folk wisdom that was vitally important at the time for women's health, particularly during pregnancy and birth.