I am having a menopausal bout of insomnia. Zoe's article annoyed me so much felt I had to summarise it paragraph by paragraph since I can't sleep!
TLDR; the purpose of feminism is women helping other people, like duh, obvious. Women could get a lot done if they stopped squabbling. Therefore feminists must stop arguing against attempts to change the definition of woman. Be kinder to men and keep your irritating opinions to yourselves ladies.
Headline:
Feminist solidarity is a good thing so stop arguing when you are told that "woman" has a new definition which includes men.
Sub-heading
Feminism is about women helping other people. Women should tackle misogyny by being kinder and doing as they are told.
Main article:
Seven years ago Zoe felt it obvious that the purpose of the feminist movement was to work out who in the world is most oppressed and then all the women go help them. Zoe noticed that some feminists disagreed with her and were quite insistent that feminism is about women, specifically women as defined by biology. She assumed they'd eventually come round to her way of thinking so she ignored the silly moos.
A trans activist explained to Zoe how the media keep undermining trans ideology. Mainly by implying that only fraudsters would claim humans can actually change sex. In the past people were good-humoured about trans people. Not any more. This change is associated with press coverage of predators identifying as trans and the idea of "the trans movement as deliberately poisoning the young"
Bigots can't laugh at disabled people or burn gays and witches any more but because they are bigots they need someone to hate on so "the very idea of a trans person became its great release. All this pent up feeling exploded on to this one group".
Now that feminists have finished the battle against sexism it seems obvious to Zoe that they should help trans people fight such blatent bigotry.
Seven years ago, Zoe thought this logic reasonable: "having gone nowhere near definitions, biology or absolutes". She was looking forward to a big friendly civil rights movement with marches, friendships and love.
Unfortunately for Zoe's wannabe Greenham Common dreams "That is not how it played out. Women on the other side of this row were apoplectic" Zoe says the women were apoplectic because they believed trans allies were "calling them uncompassionate" which is the worst thing a feminist can be. Zoe thought: "I am never going anywhere near this again, which was cowardly; I regret it."
Now Zoe is back in the mix. You see there is growing consensus that transactivists are hounding out “real” feminists from the debate. Zoe says this is incorrect. What is really happening is that the feminists won't shut up about sex-segregated spaces and they repeatedly dismiss other arguments as irrelevant.
"The core issues have been whittled down to such a sharp, conflicted point – do cis biological women need protected status?"
Zoe notes that the existence of transmen makes that question extra difficult. Zoe has noticed that transmen are always ignored. Zoe does not mention them again.
Being a trans ally feminist is totally the mainstream but is also sidelined.
Some people want "to maintain the fiction that this is a generational battle between old and young feminists." Zoe knows that the young are not all naive idiots and "Just because you are middle aged does not mean you agree with Germaine Greer." Mind you, Zoe notes those stereotypes are handy because it is convenient to grab any excuse for avoiding the debate, "because the conflict runs so high."
She has now decided running away is "not a sufficient response" because too much is at stake. Women might not be generous!
Zoe feels "It is astonishing that the idea of the “women-only space” is being touted as a fundamental pillar of the movement" Zoe reminds us that women have needed those spaces throughout history because of male predators.
Well actually she notes that women needed women-only spaces to "talk" about the predators. She points out that talking about predators is done with vocal chords not ovaries and so she "can’t imagine the mindset that would exclude a" male who says he is a woman who then demands to come in. She calls him a trans-sister.
Zoe is frustrated that feminists keep banging on about vulnerability and strength. She feels it is a sign of bigotry to focus on such "operational reasons" for not accepting trans people as actually being their opposite sex. It is a bit like apartheid.
Zoe has noticed that "much of the live combat happens on Twitter. This is not to call it irrelevant (I love Twitter), but might be cause to reflect." Zoe reflects that women should stop arguing because "There is so much else we could be doing." She suggests "climate strikes and the women’s marches" which could be the big friendly group movements she pines for.
Zoe has noticed misogyny is on the rise "We are witnessing an explosion of misogyny at the highest levels of public life. We have seen explicitly misogynistic terrorist acts – indeed, hatred of women is the through line that connects Isis to incels, that unites acts of violence globally – all while state-sponsored oppression of women has ascended to new levels of impunity. We have never needed unity more, yet, by wild coincidence, at exactly this moment, suddenly there is this obstacle that we can’t get past."
This obstacle to unity is women's refusal to agree that some men are women if they say so.
Zoe finds it a wild coincidence that in a time of heightened misogyny women are being told that being a women is mainly about being stereotypically feminine and this should be enshrined in law.
Zoe notes that one side has to win: "one side can’t prevail until the other is destroyed" There is no precedent for such a social situation! Nope she knows of no win-lose situation in any rights issue ever in all of history. This is modern. Unprecedented.
No, hang on a minute Zoe has thought of a precedent! Think of those big ideas that have divided society, the ones you hear people split on all the time, no not Brexit, she means "Are all men rapists?" and "Is all sex servitude?" and "Is lesbianism a political act?" Zoe notes we have been able to settle these questions without science. Partly because we got bored.
Zoe thinks that when people agree with each other then life gets better. Although the debates are more boring, which is a problem but she can get past it. Solidarity is good!
Zoe thinks that a feminist group best develops solidarity by letting anyone join and by avoiding being pedantic about what a woman is.
Upon reflection Zoe still feels that the purpose of feminism is for women to be kinder and to help other people. Zoe feels that this "is its lifeblood."
Zoe writes that this all explains why transwomen are actually women not males. We can call them womxn if we want.
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
She wishes she was a punk rocker with flowers in her hair. Probably.