Can men pronounce on which are the "right" feminists?

[ArcheryAnnie]

So, this morning @thelindywest (a US performer and Jezebel writer with ~39 thousand followers) retweeted a post by @SarahDitum (a UK columnist with ~8 thousand followers). This post was about domestic violence.

Within a very short time, a "progressive" man, @badassperger (about ~1000 followers), had tweeted how "sad" he was that someone had tweeted Sarah Ditum into his TL, and then, with some handwringing about how he shouldn't tell Lindy West "how to feminism", he then proceeded to tell her exactly that, and that she was retweeting a "known TERF". Her immediate response was to unretweet.

Because what women need is men thoughtpolicing women about which women are acceptable to read and listen to, even on issues which are not in any way related to trans issues. Because god forbid a woman talk about domestic violence without a man's approval of which other feminists she references.

Women pointing out that it wasn't a very "ally" thing to do for a man to police which women other women retweet were then labelled with the same "bigot" nonsense. Same happened to women who pointed out that if a man's first response to a tweet about domestic violence was to claim that the woman tweeting it was "bad" in some way (rather than addressing the subject of men's violence in the home) then he was probably not an ally.

Sarah has written the incident up: sarahditum.com/2014/07/28/how-terf-works/

Honestly, I don't know how she sticks it out online - I'd have given up with that amount of casual hostility from strangers long ago. More power to her elbow.

[Keepithidden]

It seems perverse to mitigate privilege with a sort of inverse-privilege power scale based on class oppression

Why? I am interested in an answer, because I've always supported positive discrimination in relation to a whole range of -isms based on the underlying privilege associated with those who are being discriminated against positively.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Yes, why is it 'perverse'?

You're basically saying it seems odd to want to do anything about unfairness, aren't you?

[ArcheryAnnie]

There's now something called a "TERF tracker" webpage, where women who have transgressed in whatever mysterious way can be denounced. I'm totally sure that the McCartheyite women-haters people setting up this stalker's database useful site have thought through the implications of a place where women are listed, without reason, evidence or right of reply, and set up as Bad Women who it's totally ok, indeed righteous, to abuse without restraint.

There's a very good article here about it: feministsunknown.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/tracking-the-terfs/

[SolidGoldBrass]

I did blog. It got a bit big so I will have to have another go...

[ABlandAndDeadlyCourtesy]

Thanks SGB.

[AskBasil]

Of course men can pronounce on who the right feminists are.

In fact, thank goodness they're there to tell us.

I would never know which feminist to read or listen to if the wise men didn't tell me.

[Curwen]

Monty, privilege is a given in an unequal society. It is inescapable. You can discuss ways of making society less unequal, by eroding certain privileges over time. The equal pay act is an example of that.

I don't know how you can have a dialog between men and feminists without playing privilege top-trumps though. It's a bit like the unions trying to negotiate with a Tory government - mistrust on both sides.

[CaptChaos]

It's difficult for women to win a game of privilege top trumps with men though, sadly. They hold all the winning cards.

[Curwen]

As if my point need any further proof

[CaptChaos]

Oh! My sides!

[Curwen]

Don't you see the irony though? Monty asked me (previous page) if a discussion on equality is possible without a reverse-privilege hierarchy. I said no. You then pointed out that men hold all the privileges, which just seemed a little Pavlovian.

[CaptChaos]

That was a really interesting article When thanks for posting. It's all really 'Emperor's New Clothes' isn't it?

[AskBasil]

Oh jesus.

Flame me but Jesus Lindy West, just get a T-shirt with HANDMAIDEN emblazoned across it.

FFS

"Man told me I'm doing feminism wrong, so I've untweeted. Sorry menz, please forgive me."

FFS FFS FFS FFS.

Put me on the fucking TERF list as fast as you can because I'd rather be at a party with Stepford Wives than with craven arseholes like that.

[AskBasil]

At least the Stepford Wives would give me cleaning tips.

[CaptChaos]

The other thing that I got from that article is that women, especially feminists are supposed to immediately disown anyone accused of being a TERF and to disavow any thoughts or writings the accuser says they might have had. MRAs don't even need to try anymore, they have women policing each other now, it's a gift for them.

[ArcheryAnnie]

Ha! Exactly, AskBasil. Her stance since then has been "LALALA didn't happen. Nothing to see here."