The misogynist left

[catduckgoose]

I'm on the left and have been all my life, but I've been thinking a lot recently about the misogynist strand of leftist politics and how it is that their views cluster around so many women-hating beliefs, such as:

1. TWAW and gender ideology - seeing male desires as more important than the needs of women and girls.
2. Glorifying sex work - disregarding the physical and mental harm to women, in favour of what best supports male lechery.
3. Uncritical support of Islam - ignoring the inherent misogyny and violence of men against women, and using oppression narratives to excuse this.

The last one there has been a huge amount of in the past few days in context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, I made the mistake of watching war footage of Hamas' brutality, particularly towards women (Shani Louk video is absolutely horrifying), and then I see people on the left, mostly men, defending all this as a just cause and crying 'Islamophobia' to anyone disagreeing.

The frustrating thing is those who promote these views don't even recognise their misogyny and sometimes even try to twist it to paint anyone criticising these views as misogynist!

Anyway I just wanted to open a conversation about this and was wondering if anyone else feels the same and has other examples of similar beliefs amongst the misogynist left.

100% agree OP.
But you'll probably be buried under whataboutery...

You can also look at some of the similar treatment of women as workers in Maoist China, which has some similar features. Women who were doing important work for the party or state could be forced to have abortion after abortion, because that was seen as more important than being mothers, and the children could be left alone or with relatives because the role of mother wasn't valued.

It's not actually that different than what we see in the sort of mixed socialism you see in the west except that is mediated through independent capitalist employers, but the lack of value of caring roles and the externalization of female biology is very similar. Which is one reason why the left wing parties can often be so big on socialized childcare. They aren't "forcing" women int the workforce that way but it soon becomes economically unfeasable for anyone but the wealthy to take care of their own kids rather than working and using the free or low cost childcare.

I think this is one of the primary divides between left and right wing feminism, and part of the reason why the right has resisted gender ideology much more successfully. They never really bought into the argument that women needed to suppress their biological functions to have substantive equality. The left which has put much more emphasis on equity made it something of a linchpin.

I'm actually taking a social media break partially because of this and partially because all the sadness and violence at the moment is just too much.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, after all we've seen happen to women just standing up for their rights in this country. But this is a whole other level of sick and I guess the answer to "Where do they draw the line?" is "They don't."

@catduckgoose The fact that anyone can think what Hamas did is justifiable in any way, shape or form is beyond me. It's sickening.

This ties in with the idea you can be 'untoward about peodophiles' and that safeguarding kids is unimportant.

I completely agree with you @catduckgoose

I feel the same.

As a gender critical Jew, the left isn't the most welcoming place to be.

Totally agree @catduckgoose . I find the support for Hamas on the far left, even now, particularly dreadful. It was only a few years ago that the entire Labour conference room was draped in Palestinian flags. It's a 'pet' cause, not based in a real understanding of the conflict. I left the Labour Party at that point and joined the Jewish Labour Movement in solidarity as an ally. Labour is getting better but I'm not sure I can forgive them yet.

Point one & two I agree.
Third one, you are keaving decades of history and how Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians.

I do think your title was an good topic, but past few days have just been too gilled with people wishing Palestinians harm and death and denying Israels oppression of Palestinians. And indeed, Islamophobia (no idea why you used apostrophe).

The far Left's enthusiasm for radical Islam has always puzzled me.

On the one hand, all should be equal.

On the other hand, it's okay to oppress women, throw gay men off buildings and expel your entire Jewish community.

It's worth remembering at the moment that a large proportion of Israel's population descends from Sephardi Jews chucked out of Iraq, Yemen, Syria etc.

@LongLizStridesAgain what you say makes sense. I 100% agree about the lack of knowledge: I had a huge row with BIL a few years ago during which it became obvious that he was utterly clueless about the history and couldn't see why Jewish people might find Corbyn a bit of a problem.

However, Al-Husseini did happily align himself with Hitler (visit to Berlin etc) which you would have hoped would have given the Left pause for thought.

There's a lot of folk who quietly align themselves a certain way, not because they've thought through the issues with anything approaching intellectual rigour, but because 'my enemy's enemy is my friend', and they hate 'the evil capitalist West'

Very true, and not just the evil West. My Iranian female friends, part of the diaspora after the ‘79 revolution, are markedly pro-Israel. They want their (secular, liberal) country back and see only one country standing up to the uncivilized Islamists in charge.

The 'everyones a nazi' mob are strangel quiet in the face of people literally calling for Jews to be gassed.

@EdithStourton

It's worth remembering at the moment that a large proportion of Israel's population descends from Sephardi Jews chucked out of Iraq, Yemen, Syria etc.

A couple of other points I would make:

No Palestinian state ever existed.

The previous sovereign of the territory ceased to exist, and has no claim on the land.

Israel was created under international law in the same way as other Middle Eastern countries, with the difference being that the process got screwed up by Arab aggression.

So when the Middle East got carved up, a small amount of land was given to Jews and it functions as a safe country for one Middle Eastern population. Yes there was also immigration from other places, but I think generally they will have Middle Eastern ethnic heritage also, but I'm not claiming to have the best knowledge of genetics here.

The "Palestinians" will also to some degree have origins in different parts of the Middle East.

Hamas openly admits that their side stole the land in religious warfare, and that's their justification for violence now.

There's a lot of folk who quietly align themselves a certain way, not because they've thought through the issues with anything approaching intellectual rigour, but because 'my enemy's enemy is my friend', and they hate 'the evil capitalist West'.
Yep.
And as you say, if they had to live in one of the alternatives, they might not like it very much.

As a woman, as a homosexual, as a disabled person, as a mother, the left is not a safe or friendly place to be.

It's bloody sad. But I had a friend as I went through school who was very clever, desperately passionate about left politics and wanted to be an MP, and change things for the better. I remember how devastated she was when her dream came true, she got work experience with a Labour MP of the time, and met several of her heroes. Who looked at her tits and then said 'make us a cup of tea love' as they turned away.

That was the 80s. Nothing's changed. We still have men who regard women as walking therapeutic/sex aids for men, and as public property, and who think it's more important for a man to express himself freely, for reasons they can't really explain, than for a woman not to be physically and mentally injured by him.

I think this is why the left sicken me so much. They identify as being All That and having all this superiority and value for all - and the reality of the lies and hypocrisy is so stark. Give me a misogynist who actually owns it, rather than one who insists he identifies as a feminist and identifies as your oppression not happening while he looks you in the eye and oppresses you. Both are bastards, but at least the first is going to be honest about it.

I think the Left's attachment to defending Islam stems from the rabid hatred of zionism, which they perceive as imperialist oppression; also because the Left's hatred of everything American ( ironic now given its embrace of american campus theories). Israel was founded with the support of both the hated yanks and the hated British establishment. The Left hates the West, including Britain.

Marx wrote reams of anti-semitic text ( even though jewish himself). The Left sees jews as being inextricably linked with capital/money/banking - all of which they hate.So, they support Muslims as an oppressed minority. Oppressed by the state of Israel, and by Jews.

Very much agree

I think the Left's attachment to defending Islam stems from the rabid hatred of zionism

I think they also see themselves as being "anti racist" to defend it.

In theory, they would have to admit that you are allowed to be critical of a religion.

In practice, if anyone does get critical with the ideology, it's more like, "you're saying that they're all terrorists, they're not all terrorists you bigot".

They may also see them as a voting block for the left, although that could backfire as they may be more socially conservative, like with the recent Canadian protests.

Is it me? but reading your post and coupling that with what's happening culturally it seems that Far Left and especially the Progressive Far Left are trying to turn women into men, and turn men into women.
Swap the gender roles around by sex. They want women to treat sex disposably like the worst of the men, and they want men to become women, both in role and literally via medical transition.
Not just to destroy the family unit but to invert it, pull it inside out. Maybe that why there is so much MtF transition, they see that as the new patriarchy where all the power will reside. You may not have much productive to offer society, but as long as you can play the victim loudly your voice counts for more.