I can't, in all honesty, blame a woman for staying silent on this issue. Look at the state of the abuse JK Rowling has had!
I am more furious about those who try to maintain the pretence that they are standing up for women or feminism while keeping their dainty hands clean by failing to mention JK Rowling's name. The fact that very influential, well known people see fit to criticise the Sun's front page - demonstrating that they know full well this debate is going on, and the fine detail - while still staying silent on the matter of JK's historic abuse, and the current abuse she's on the receiving end of, is pretty eloquent.
They have stood by in tacit approval while JK has been subject to a deluge of rape & death threats.
They condemn the Sun, a pretty safe target, but have not given a whisper of support to JK Rowling or any of the other women who have spoken out after their experiences of dv, abuse, or intimidation. They have shown their true colours, in my view. Willing to speak out in the abstract, parrot any idiotic mantra you like if it has no effect on them. Not willing to lend a word of support to a woman who is brave enough to share her history.
It stinks of the usual stigmatising of women who are on the receiving end of violence. Desperate justifications for how the women are complicit. Desperate explanations of how they deserve the abuse.
I suppose in their view, a woman's really asking for it, if she dares to voice a wrong opinion, isn't she? I mean, women have been trying to raise these issues for years and have had bomb threats, rape threats, death threats, punches, attacks. None of these attacks have been condemned, because the narrative is that the women's views are so apparently abhorrent they don't deserve to be safe.
Women's Place is 'a hate group', therefore it's perfectly acceptable to thump the windows of their meeting room and terrorise the women inside. Julie Bindel is a T*, therefore it's perfectly acceptable to try and physically attack her. Karen White was an anomaly it's really hateful to even raise the subject of. How many other women have been hounded out of jobs, off social media, out of publishing? Has anybody ever asked what women in prison might think about these things? Would anybody listen? What about schoolgirls who are not allowed to question a male-bodied child sharing their changing room? Female rugby players who get 'folded like a deckchair'? Nah, these are all just bigots, aren't they. They don't deserve to be allowed to speak. They don't deserve to be safe.
DOES ANYBODY SEE THE PATTERN YET?
Women in the past few years, who have had the temerity to want to meet up to even discuss these issues have had to DO IT IN SECRET. FFS. If that doesn't tell you something about the state of the debate, then you are lost.