Brendan O'Neill - Spiked

[TonTonMacoute]

Another article here

This. Brendan O'Neill is no friend to feminism. He and the LM/Spiked crew are cut from the same contrarian cloth, weirdly, as both Trumpism and Queer Theory - populist Lords of Misrule who will say or do anything they perceive to be transgressive or 'disruptive' because they know that ultimately, the groups whose interests they support will benefit more from chaos than stability. That's why, in the case of Spiked, there's so much confusion about whether they are on the left or the right.

And I very much agree with Arabella, in as much as you can generally dislike a person, but find an article they've written to be very powerful and entirely on point.

Despite the facial feminisation surgery, the plucked eyebrow and the makeup, Mulvaney is still obviously, recognisably male.

Spiked are a funny lot with an odd backstory. Now I've heard gender critical pieces mocked because they appear in the Daily Mail or on GB news but my question is, if the part of the spectrum one normally disagrees with is just about the only one talking sanity, what does that say about the part of the spectrum you agree with.

If the "progessive"/left shut down anything but affirmation, where are you supposed to go?

PS, @Tarragone - I couldn’t actually read your link because I’m not a subscriber - are you?

Did you read The Spectator article you shared or did you just find a headline that suited your aim of trashing O’Neill?

I looked to see if a non-paywall copy of it had been archived, nope.

So I tried a Google search for ‘Feminism Islamism Brendan O’Neill’

Still no joy.

But I did find other bits and pieces that O’Neill had written on those subjects, from a ten year time span:

2013:
brendanoneill.co.uk/post/57274982403/you-know-which-other-countries-cover-up-lads-mags/

2015: brendanoneill.co.uk/post/130326326709/let-yourself-be-offended-its-good-for-you/

And here is a 2021 podcast episode:

‘Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Brendan O’Neill discuss how migration without integration has eroded women’s rights’

www.spiked-online.com/podcast-episode/multiculturalism-has-failed-women/

Here’s a very recent one: www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/08/the-shameful-silence-on-the-talibans-war-on-women/

so it seems to me (and remember, I cannot read your supplied link) that Brendan’s 2015 critique of feminism is likely to be of it’s tendency towards being censorious, to shut down speech and curtail choice rather than stand up and make a positive case for the opposite.

And ten years on from when O’Neill said that feminism was behaving like islamism, when the name of Feminism has been thoroughly hijacked by the sex work is work pro pimp lobby, by men who claim to be women telling us not to mention our female biology because it isn’t ‘inclusive’, when women’s speech has been interrupted by ‘intersectional feminist activists’ banging on windows, when women have been hounded out of their jobs, when they’ve been forced out of rape crisis support groups (supposedly run by feminists for women) for daring to ask for a female only option…

Don’t you think that, in hindsight, Brendan O’Neill might’ve had a bloody good point?

So tell me, please, did you actually read the article you linked to?

Bonus: I even found a 2015 tweet for the link you posted, it only has one comment… ironically, the lone commentator is a male comedian… who now identifies as non binary!

i think you go hard on resisting the idea that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. And you look at anyone who’s teaming you with a very clear eye.

it’s shit though, I agree. I think lots of us are feeling lonely at an existential level. I know I am.

That's why, in the case of Spiked, there's so much confusion about whether they are on the left or the right

Why does a publication with multiple contributors NEED to be one or the other?

Spiked’s big thing is free speech absolutism.

For a free speech website to be all left wing or all right wing would be nonsensical.

Jokes on you, I’m not a feminist. In fact if I post my political opinions here your head would explode.

I just don’t want men compelling my language, watching me pee, showing me their penis and demanding it becomes law I validate their delusion OR ELSE.

Oh, and the small matter of undermining children’s boundaries and safety.

O’Neill has platformed plenty of women on his podcast in relation to trans activism over the last couple of years. He’s a good interviewer and allows his guests to say what they want to say. I don’t see why someone like him shouldn’t be genuinely interested in something that strongly impacts on free speech (which is his primary focus). I actually think that it has dawned on him that misogyny is alive and kicking.

there's so much confusion about whether they are on the left or the right

It's almost like sometimes people can't be neatly separated into boxes marked 'left' and 'right'.

I'm starting to think 'politically homeless' is a very rational position for more reasons than just 'genderism'.

Weird isn't it. Sex that most binary of things is now on a spectrum. And politics a very spectrum type thing from far right to far left and everything in between, and then they only see a binary.

Go figure!

I feel exactly the same way.

And it’s fucking bonkers that here in 2023, a woman’s right to free speech, free association and not seeing a stranger’s cock in a female only space aren’t things that automatically reside under the Feminism header.

This is an interesting thread and I love reading mumsnetters thoughts and benefitting from their knowledge. On a much more mundane level, I thought the photo in the article was a before as that's very clearly a man's face.

Yes, Mulvaney is a caricature of women.

I honestly don't understand how anyone takes Dylan seriously.
All the girlhood bullshit makes me queasy when you realise he's a 26 year old male filming himself doing cartwheels in high heels squealing.

The permanent inane grin and wide eyes is as scary as it is fake.

That Jeffrey chap is worse - he has the serial killer vibe about him.

He’s proper child-catchery.

mach2 · Today 15:55

Spiked are a funny lot with an odd backstory. Now I've heard gender critical pieces mocked because they appear in the Daily Mail or on GB news...

I tend to agree with that, because as has been said here and elsewhere, ad nauseam,^ if the Guardian and New Statesmen are choosing not to report these stories, or twisting them into grotesque parodies of what's actually happening, what should we do? Ignore the Mail, Spiked and Telegraph?

There is little other choice, is there?

Anyway, I've asked several times but those of you who are keen that we don't read Bren haven't any suggestions for who we can read. Because the left has abandoned women.

Further, as regards his past around feminist articles, including one linked to, I don't see any problem with it. He's perfectly entitled to say that the reaction to those ads was censorious, if he wants. It's a point of view. It is possible, I think, to believe that ads like that should be allowed to exist and also that women are a legitimate closed group with shared interests.

Horrible man slags off horrible man

AND OF COURSE IT'S THE WOMEN'S FAULT

More of the shoot the messenger, but not the message.

Time and time again people struggle to find anything to argue against in these articles, so instead must attack the person in an attempt to invalidate the argument.

I was just discussing yon one with a pal yesterday and she said exactly the same thing about the serial killer vibe - "there's real cold hate in those eyes" were her words.

I've always found Jeffrey to be much more upsetting/enraging but couldn't articulate why, but I can now...

That guy is going to one where we all go. "Really? Him? You do shock me!🙄"

I remember the Revolutionary Comminist Tendency from the 70s. They were certainly weird. They struck me as very narcissistic and elitist. But people can grow up. O'Neill is what he is. Unless you believe in some Manichaean almighty struggle between absolute good and absolute evil, it's possible to read something for just what it says. It's a good article.

I don't really understand the need to warn us about someone who may have other views we don't agree with, is all.

I read his article, enjoy it and appreciate the insight. I'm not planning to elope with him, or run off and join the Church of Brandon O Neill, or post him my firstborn.

So why the grave injunctions? What is the risk? Someone might recklessly take out a subscription to Spiked?

Oh, and Jeffrwhatsit. Yes. No sparkly eyeshadow in the world can disguise how scary that man is.