Mary Beard and "white feminism"

[CeciledeVolanges]

I've been following the Mary Beard row on Twitter and I keep seeing "white feminism" being used as an insult and "said from a position of privilege" used to invalidate what she said.

What are your thoughts on this, please? Why are "white feminists" seemingly (not necessarily, happy to be proved wrong) getting it in the neck along with Oxfam etc and not the white men who have actually done what they have done here?

By the way, I just want to make it utterly clear that what was done by those who took advantage of their position to abuse vulnerably women was utterly despicable. Does this have to undermine the whole position of aid, Oxfam and anyone who argues for the continuation of those institutions? By analogy, could you say that vicious and inhuman war crimes were committed by some of the Allied forces in WWII. Should we just have stopped fighting when they were discovered? Sorry re Godwin's Law etc. Please help me understand this.

Yes, but this is a very 'permission-giving' belief, especially in a context where abusive men may be deliberately exploiting the extreme circumstances and their impact on survivors in order to abuse.

I guess that’s where clear rules and consequences come in - and strong leadership. Society and what is acceptable is forever changing - we can only hope that expectations on behaviour and what is (and what’s not) acceptable gets dicussed and hopefully put into practice.

But deep down you have to think did the good done by the likes of Oxfam - and the aid workers -outweigh the bad. If aid groups shut down because of this - will it be worth it.

It would be interesting to focus on the folk who do this work though - and their motivations.

MB gets more than her share of abuse because of misogynistic ideals of what a woman should be and look like. I disagree with her comment on this but from the pile on anyone would think she had sexually abused vulnerable females in Haiti.

I hate the “white feminism” narrative. I do agree there is a place for recognising that white middle class women do not face all of the issues which poor or BME women face, and that the latter often have less of a voice. It’s important to ensure that their concerns aren’t overlooked because of focus on women in boardrooms etc

But why is it either/or? Why can’t women support each other in their various struggles given that discrimination permeates all areas of society? ‘White feminism’ sniping minimises issues which many women face, case in point being Rose McGowan cant talk about her rape without criticism because she should be talking about what she is doing for eg transwomen

I disagreed with her tweet and it annoyed me. However, I hate these pile-ons. There are so many people on Twitter clamouring to destroy someone for speaking the merest bit out of turn. I don't think MB is a racist at all. She is privileged in many ways, but so are many of the other academics who are lambasting her. If you disagree with her, by all means write a blog post or even respond in the press, but to go all out and publicly vilify someone is not on and can cause untold damage.

I saw that one reply brought up MB's apparent support for TERFs. Dr Priya Gopal who is leading the onslaught replied with something along the lines of 'that doesn't surprise me'. Another twitter commenter likened MB's 'white feminist tears' to Rose McGowan 'abusing her power in B&N'. That's when I lost my sympathy. The whole point was that Rose McG has had her power stripped away from her and then she was publicly heckled by a pedophilic sex offender and expected to keep her composure. But obviously none of this matters because she is white and so is MB. But this totally ignores that so are the Oxfam workers in Haiti, and so is the disgusting pervert who heckled Rose. Yet again, women are expected to take the blame.

I do sympathise with Dr Gopal because Cambridge is an antiquated place steeped in ridiculous traditions and snobbery. It must be tough to work there if your 'face doesn't fit'. But this could have been done in a much more constructive fashion- maybe even a public debate or something. Not an all-out vicious attack on social media that MB will probably not read anyway.

As an employee of an NGO who has been involved in working with men who prostitute women I can assure you that this activity is enthusiastically engaged in by local employees of the NGOs as well as the expats.

1st rule of misogyny: Women are responsible for what men do.
The white feminism accusation is another silencing tactic men are using to divide and conquer women in solidarity. The women's march scared the bejeepers put of the predators so the 4chan and Russian bots are working overtime.

DARVO is the tactic of the abuser that we should all be alert to.

Thanks so much everyone for your responses, really interesting and thought-provoking, I need to read and digest and respond properly!

mouth that is depressing but unsurprising.

I hate the “white feminism” narrative. I do agree there is a place for recognising that white middle class women do not face all of the issues which poor or BME women face, and that the latter often have less of a voice. It’s important to ensure that their concerns aren’t overlooked because of focus on women in boardrooms etc

There are also levels of complexity. Not all white skinned women are of the middle class. Not all middle-class women are white skinned.

@yetanotherspartacus

I completely agree. Intersectionality is a very blunt tool which overlooks the circumstances of the individual. I think it is helpful to have its ideas in mind, but only up to a point.