The Strauss-Kahn moment: has feminism gone too far?

[pjani]

The Australian version of the BBC (yes, the ABC) has an opinion website called The Drum. Someone, I don't know who, gave the green light to this piece, by an otherwise reputable left-wing speechwriter and scriptwriter Bob Ellis.

My jaw hit the floor. Happily I discovered that abomination through this.

That SMH article by John Birmingham is fabulous.

I love the bit where he describes Bob Ellis's article as "an attack on the dangers of uppity women" and a "deranged ramble".

The part where he says "But mate, you set back the cause for the rest of us; for every bloke who ever decided to keep his pants on, and his hands to himself; for every bloke who took seriously the admonition that it wasn't all about him and his one-eyed little friend ...
Man up, Bob. I don't know if you're better than this. But the rest of us are trying to be."

is a damn good summation of why feminism is actually something that is good for both men and women, not something that is anti men.

(I cut out a fair bit, hence the ellipse. My typing is very slow.)

'Gordon Brown, a Labour prime minister, calls correctly, a bigoted woman "a...sort of bigoted woman" in private and loses office.'

because that was the only reason he lost the election?

It was dangerous, hurtful bullshit of the worst kind. It didn't set women's rights back by years or decades or even five lousy minutes, because these days women don't hold their rights at the whim of fools who think assault, harassment and betrayal are no big deal. Women are stronger than that and we are all better for it.
But mate, you set back the cause for the rest us; for every bloke who ever decided to keep his pants on, and his hands to himself; for every bloke who took seriously the admonition that it wasn't all about him and his one-eyed little friend. That crap you filed yesterday, sure, it insulted women. But it insulted men on a much deeper level. It implied we can never change, we can never get better. And hell, maybe, as a gender, we can't. But as individuals we can and do every day. And the first step is not making excuses for our bad behaviour or shifting the blame onto women as a whole, or on to some ill-defined political construct.
Man up, Bob. I don't know if you're better than this. But the rest of us are trying to be.

I felt I just had to copy and paste this......this bloke has himself a new fan.

Yes, it really is a deranged ramble.

Crapola, thanks for typing the rest of it- I loved that bit.

Note to self: If I'm ever sexually assaulted I must remember to keep quiet; I wouldn't want to ruin my assailant's career - poor love.