Foot soldiers
Katie Bamber of Liberty notes the relationship between universal human rights and women’s rights, via Suffragette.
It’s been said countless times, but it bears ceaseless repeating, that we owe so much to those brave women. Many of them, names long forgotten, were working-class foot soldiers – like Maud – who suffered social exclusion, destitution, lost their incomes and their families, for the cause. Others, most famously Emily Wilding Davison, paid the ultimate price.
Forget all that, the important thing is to attack them for not being 21st century anti-racism campaigners.
A century on, we’re still far from true parity. Gender injustice remains the most entrenched on our planet. Even here in the UK, it’s so embedded in our day-to-day existence that it becomes white noise and we stop seeing it.
Just this week we’ve heard that female MPs have been put on a rota to walk around the Conservative conference with the Prime Minister – perhaps to disguise the fact that a pitiful 68 of the party’s 330 MPs are women. That Suffragette’s selection for the London Film Festival’s gala screening made headlines because of the novelty of its all-female director-writer team shows how far we have to go.
Its all female director-writer team? Don’t you mean all cis female director-writer team? If it were an all trans female director-writer team then we could celebrate.
The progression of universal human rights law is our best hope for achieving true gender equality around the world. A dark irony, then, that the (still overwhelmingly male) Conservative leadership are on the brink of dismantling our Human Rights Act and, in the process, taking a monumental step backwards.
If we allow the powerful to erode the universality of human rights, the vulnerable will be hardest hit – and, as history shows, the most vulnerable are often women. Many human rights issues still disproportionately affect women: modern slavery, domestic and sexual violence, trafficking, pay inequality and lack of public representation.
But they have the immense privilege of being cis. Compared to that, everything else is insignificant.
Don’t worry, “progressives” have made sure that the film won’t even be seen by many of them, and any shot it had at any major awards has been compromised.
Don’t just attack them for failing to be perfect–make up shit about them to make them seem worse than they were. Spread around a dubious quote dubiously attributed to Emmaline Pankhurst. Spread lies about Margaret Sanger.
Do the same job on 2nd Wave feminism.
And whatever you do, don’t give the same treatment to other rights movements. Don’t note their failures to be perfect allies to women.
Because women must apologize for the world’s ills, and never, ever, put themselves first. Familiar refrain, isn’t it?
Sorry. I wasn’t trying to spread lies about Margaret Sanger! Are you referencing what I wrote in the other thread? I should have been more clear. I don’t think Sanger was working against people of colour. I am a second wave feminist and I do value the work women have done to get us where we are – even if we still have a long way to go.
I’m horrified to think I left that impression.
SamBarge, oh no, I wasn’t referring to you or to what you wrote on the other thread. No worries there!
Right-wingers and anti-choicers have spread lies about Sanger, and those lies have trickled down to “progressive” sorts. I’ve seen them all over. That’s why I posted the link the last time.
And Sanger is just one example. I’m seeing the same casual disregard for history and context when people discuss 2nd Wave feminists, as well.
Oh, good. I was posting without a lot of time and wasn’t explaining myself well. I was dissatisfied with both of my posts on the subject. When I’m pressed for time, I just shouldn’t post.
In any case, I know there is a lot of talk about science illiteracy but, as an historian, I’m shocked and appalled at the historical illiteracy that gets tossed around.
This whole debate is a perfect example. On the other hand, this demo at the London premiere was spot on:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/07/feminist-protesters-storm-red-carpet-at-london-premiere-of-suffragette
Protesters used the premiere to protest cuts to social services and programs that help women. It was, as Helena Bonham-Carter said, the perfect response to the film: Women protesting against systemic oppression. And, in keeping with the UK’s post-war immigration, the group was ethnically and racially diverse.