To be fair your personal Facebook page should be a place where you can be free to moan about lockdowns and facemasks. It's shit. It's hard. I don't think she's campaigning or advocating these things shouldn't exist.
If you think no one should be free to moan about it on Facebook then perhaps just unfriend her rather than moan about her.
Wolf has been mixing with extremely dodgy cults since 2010 and possibly before then.
I have witnessed many women get involved with "yoni massage" / "body psychotherapy" / tantric sex cults and subsequently get drawn into a paranoid world of conspiracy theories, pseudo-science, quackery and magical thinking. Also, not uncommonly prostitution, drugs (referred to euphemistically as "plant healers") and other concerning things.
Readers unfamiliar with Wolf's "journey" into batshittery may find the linked article below enlightening
I can’t read your link hoodathunkit, but her Wikipedia entry section on “Other Views” is interesting. Men have been calling her out as a hysterical conspiracy theorist for years and years. Annoyingly enough, apart from the “hysterical” bit, they’ve been proved right. But Sarah Ditum’s quote in the attached photo is great. I found The Beauty Myth very powerful when I read it on first publication, but I was struck at the time by how explicitly it framed the patriarchy/capitalism as a deliberate and sinister conspiracy. It was really full-on.
I had a look at your link hoodathunkit. It's a depressing read and once I'd finished it the word "squalid" came to mind. For example:
Mike explained that many of his clients had been sexually abused as girls and the after-effects ranged from a deep rage against men that manifested sexually, to an inability to feel deeply or to be orgasmic; sex with him — he used manipulation for the most part — helped them, he claimed, heal their rage and depression.
I noticed the name Mike Lousada, did a bit of googling and see he's married to Louise Mazanti. I've seen her interviewed on youtube, she gives me the heebie-jeebies. The number of gurus with esoteric life-solving philosophies on youtube is alarming. People are finding life more difficult to handle, they cry out for help, and it comes in the form of these manipulative charlatans. Grim.
Interesting that everyone seems to think she's unwell and needs help.
There are thousands of people like her on social media, and nobody thinks they are suffering, they just get called dangerous idiots.
That’s because unlike most of them she has written intelligent, lucid books in the past.
I have disagreed with a lot of what she’s written since The Beauty Myth but it’s not idiotic.
I think it is fair enough to have a different point of view about covid, the pandemic and the measures taken to deal with it.
After all this is a totally new disease and there is no written rule book for how to deal with it.
For example, here in Mexico we only had one extreme lockdown for a couple of months, but children are only just going back to school after a year and three months, whereas in the UK and Canada you've had much more extreme lockdowns but with children in school.
So I object to facebook and twitter acting as if there is some truth set in stone about covid and its treatment.
Different view on whether current government policies on lockdown are optimal - fine. Radical views that current restrictions on personal liberty are unacceptable regardless of the medical benefits - fine. Both are alternative viewpoints with which you may personally disagree but should not be suppressed out of hand.
Anthony Fauci is Satan and in the pay of the Israeli government/Vaccination causes people to give off hormones which cause unvaccinated people to get sick/Apple is working with Microsoft to implement time travel through vaccination ?!? Not fine. The latter two in particular are suggestive of a mind which has got badly lost.
Anthony Fauci is Satan and in the pay of the Israeli government/Vaccination causes people to give off hormones which cause unvaccinated people to get sick/Apple is working with Microsoft to implement time travel through vaccination ?!? Not fine. The latter two in particular are suggestive of a mind which has got badly lost
For what it's worth, I agree, but I think that the suppressing discussion only feeds into conspiracy theories.
Treating adults as if we were children who need to be defended from hearing dangerous ideas is a bit weird.
@GNCQ - thank you for spectacularly missing the point!
I wasn't moaning, I was pointing out that her views on this issue made me question why I had liked the way she talks and writes about GC issues.
And also, she uses her facebook page to promote her politics and who she is next going to interview or rub shoulders with in some select place or another.
Seriously, not sure about you, but I dont share anything personal on facebook and nonw of my facebook "friends" do! What is shared is primarily feminist, not just the trans issue, but ageism, economics, etc..
And as an aside, having now become a facebook "friend" of quite a few published feminists, I am astonished how uninformed many of them are. And how they are only too happy to ask others to supply them with information and references for them to include in some new book or article that they will then get paid for. This was another revelation to me that women could be this blatant about hoovering up other people's ideas and work and presenting it as their own.
I used to sometimes suggest reading specific threads on FWR and then I thought no, really if they think they are competent to write a book or article, let them work it out for themselves. (Looking forward to the day when the "Best of Mumsnet FWR" is published!)
So just because you use facebook to exchange personal info doesn't mean everyone else does.
Just adding to this thread although originally on Feminist Current is down. Its now back up. And seems that MM has done / is doing a bit of a PP.
Quote: .... The reason I am a target is because I come from the left and have long identified as a feminist (though I have begun to distance myself from such labels, preferring free thought and to identify myself as someone who advocates for women’s rights, so as to wrest myself from ideological conformity and limitations on my free speech and independent thought). ....
And we throught it was trans activists limiting feminists speech but seems feminists are idelogical conformists and limiting free speech and independent thought!
That’s because unlike most of them she has written intelligent, lucid books in the past.
I have disagreed with a lot of what she’s written since The Beauty Myth but it’s not idiotic.
I’m not sure about the “intelligent” part. Naomi Wolf is a fluent, expressive user of language, which is, more than anything else, the standard trait used by people to determine the apparent intelligence of others. But, looking back over her published work, even going back to “The Beauty Myth”, there are serious issues in terms of her ability to interpret, understand, and use what she sees as her facts. I know that “Outrages” gets the criticism in this area, but a lack of substantive thought is an issue that has run through all of her work.
I noticed the name Mike Lousada, did a bit of googling and see he's married to Louise Mazanti. I've seen her interviewed on youtube, she gives me the heebie-jeebies. The number of gurus with esoteric life-solving philosophies on youtube is alarming. People are finding life more difficult to handle, they cry out for help, and it comes in the form of these manipulative charlatans. Grim.
It really is much more grim than people realise
This kind of abusive and manipulative behaviour by various psychotherapists and new age healers is extremely widespread.
I'll post some more soon on a different thread soon but if anyone is interested in learning more about the activities of Mike Lousada and Louise Mazanti there is an informative archive article (advertorial really) here archive.is/Y1NJq
Oh, come on JohnRokesmith. You don’t have to consider Wolf one of the great intellectuals of her age to admit that there is a huge gulf between her coherent, publishable, often highly successful books and the incomprehensible bollocks she is coming out with on Twitter. The Beauty Myth was derivative and can be critiqued on a number of counts but it made a heck of a lot more sense than nanopatticles.
Oh, come on JohnRokesmith. You don’t have to consider Wolf one of the great intellectuals of her age to admit that there is a huge gulf between her coherent, publishable, often highly successful books and the incomprehensible bollocks she is coming out with on Twitter. The Beauty Myth was derivative and can be critiqued on a number of counts but it made a heck of a lot more sense than nanopatticles.
Actually, yes, I don't consider that there is all that much of a gulf between her books and her twitter ramblings, and the main differences are driven by form, and by the fact that her books have (or, given the quality of "Outrages", used to have) editors. When writing in long form, she has a lot more polish, which disguises how vacuous she is, but she has always been an incredibly shallow thinker, driven by a particular conspiratorial world view.
What I'm starting to see many of these charlatans promote hoodathunkit is psychedelic drugs. These would seem to be the present day Philosopher's Stone.
If there's one thing the new age gurus love it's ways to break down people's personal boundaries.
Twitter has lots of conspiracy theorists; posters who make repeated threats against women, and paedophilia supporters. Yet they ban a high profile woman for wrongthink. I do worry that she is unwell but I don't think she is the biggest threat to science on Twitter atm. She's not even the most prolific Covid denier.
Twitter's banning decisions are arbitrary, pseudo-political, misogynistic nonsense. Furries can send death threats to women but get a pass because they're in the gaming community. Twitter removed sex from the list of protected characteristics so it could hide its misogyny problem. Wolf's ban is as arbitrary as all the rest. I don't see it as something to celebrate.
What I'm starting to see many of these charlatans promote hoodathunkit is psychedelic drugs. These would seem to be the present day Philosopher's Stone.
Well spotted nauticant
They love their "plant healers” / “teacher plants” / "plant medicines”.
It is very easy to get inside someone’s mind and inside their pants when they are in an altered state.
I should state my personal beliefs in respect of psychedelic drugs before commenting further.
In my 20s and 30s I experimented extensively with psychedelic and entheogenic drugs, largely in an attempt to deal with multiple appallingly traumatic experiences. I have no doubt that psychedelic and entheogenic drugs can be used in a therapeutic manner and can help some people who are deeply troubled and traumatised, at least some of the time. I first took LSD as a minor and, as a deeply traumatised, extremely unhappy teen, I found it to be immensely therapeutic and helpful. However….
Just because I found LSD to be therapeutic does not mean that it would be helpful for others. Some drugs that help some people are very harmful for others. I have had extremely adverse reactions to prescribed painkillers and anti-depressants that many people find very helpful. I am also neuro-atypical. We are all different. What helps one may harm another. I do not recommend that people randomly attempt to self-medicate for trauma or other mental health problems by using hallucinogenic drugs.
The other very obvious issue is that mind altering drugs have been used since antiquity to influence and incapacitate vulnerable people. It is important to understand that politicians, royalty and other persons of influence all have vulnerabilities and are like to be approached by mountebanks and charlatans of this kind. The fate of former President Park of South Korea and of the Russian Imperial family illustrates destructive such influence can be.
Sexual predators and other criminals who spike people's drinks to take advantage of them are known and discussed as a threat, but people are far less aware of the slow drip drip of brainwashing that arises from repeatedly placing a vulnerable person in an altered state, as can happen in a therapy cult or religious cult.
Also therapy movements that started as an attempt to challenge some of the abuses of psychiatry via the use of LSD and other drugs (see RD Laing) can evolve into abusive and possibly cultic / criminal groups.
Some of the worst criminals actually enjoy tormenting their victims using a combination of gaslighting and drugs or other mind altering activities.
I don’t know if you have seen the BBC drama series The Serpent about the serial killer Charles Sobrhaj? It is incredibly disturbing and definitely not a series to watch while eating, however it does portray very well the mindset and activities of a ruthless, psychopathic / sociopathic, predatory criminal who enjoys isolating victims from their loved ones, gaslighting them, drugging them and either recruiting and exploiting them or murdering them.
Many of the crimes depicted in The Serpent are a very accurate depiction of Sobrhaj’s crimes. The depictions of his relationships with his lovers are questionable, as the women in his life were both victims and perpetrators (as often happens with cults) and their complicity, or lack thereof, is disputed and may never be fully understood.
Other criminals who have used psychotropic drugs to influence vulnerable people include Charles Mason, Anne Hamilton Byrne, Benjamin Field, “Bhagwan" Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho) and associates, and various cult leaders and criminals throughout time. Sadly I think that much of this kind of crime goes on unnoticed.
If there's one thing the new age gurus love it's ways to break down people's personal boundaries.
Absolutely. One of the central identifying themes of such cults is that they seek to erode and even destroy people’s sense of self and personal boundaries and integrity. Important, loving relationships with others are undermined and destroyed. The only relationships permitted are those defined by the Leader.
Cults and criminals using this MO love to use certain words and phrases that indicate this, including but not limited to; oneness, limitless, lost borders, without boundaries, without limits, multiple, etc. Some of the most dangerous cults are motivated to undermine the boundaries not only of people but of nation states.
The below documentary details the crimes of Anne Hamilton Byrne, an Australian cult leader who used a variety of brainwashing techniques, including psychedelic drugs, to gaslight her victims and to commit appalling crimes.
Understanding Hamilton Byrne’s MO is important for anyone who wants to understand about statutory capture. She recruited police, psychiatrists, social workers and other people of influence into her cult and used them as accomplices.
In this video, a wonderful gyneacologist, Dr Wasim Zahid, rebukes Durek Verret a fraudulent new age plastic shaman for his claims that he can clear harmful "imprints" that pollute the vaginas of "women who had had too many sexual partners".
Naoimi Wolf's vagina guru Mike Lousada also promotes similar batshit, mysogynist theories. Wolf also promotes bizarre pseudo-scientific theories about the female sex organs in her much criticised book Vagina.
The notorious serial rapist and cult leader Guru Jara claimed to be able to cure women of "hooks" (invisible supernatural parasites) in their vaginas left by bad sex with former partners. His "cure" was to rape them violently.
News report in Czech language
So before we are too hard on Naomi Wolf I think it is important to understand that she has very likely been on a "spiritual journey" (prolonged perois of gaslighting and brainwashing) and is likely unwell or at best extremely vulnerable.
Back to "Shaman" Durek.
Readers might wonder who would be sufficiently naive and / or foolish to fall for his bullshit.
It will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that Durek is an associate of Gwyneth Paltrow. Readers may be surprised to learn that Durek is engages to Princess Martha Louise of Norway, much to the distress of her family.
Interview with Princess Martha Louise and "Shaman" (lol) Durek interviewed about their relationship here (interview in English language, intro in Norwegian)
