In 2013, on International Women’s Day, Laura Bates was interviewed by Andrew Neil for The Daily Politics – here (video, 10:21). Dr Catherine Hakim was also on the programme, sadly wasting an opportunity to destroy Special Snowflake with rational arguments.
About three hours ago a woman posted the following comments on the video, putting her in contention for a Gormless Feminist of the Month award. Particularly gormless comments emphasised with bold text:
The fact that half of men also said they felt discriminated against is exactly the evidence for why feminism IS needed! Feminism deals with inequality against both men and women. There seems to be a lot of anger towards the movement which I struggle to understand. It fights for men and women to be able to lead the lives they want, free from discrimination. It’s a positive thing and is needed so that women can go on the tube without feeling afraid, men can be open with their emotions, women do not have to experience FGM, and so we generally recognise that society has constructed many of the differences we see between men and women that lead to discrimination. The comments seem to have a lot of hate for Laura Bates, who in my opinion is making completely valid points. Neither men or women in particular are to blame for this, it’s a societal problem so let’s fix it together.
We then had a brief exchange of comments:
ME: <Name redacted>, thanks for your comments. I’d like to post them on our blog http://j4mb.org.uk, may I use your real name? Anyone who looks at this comments stream will see it anyway. Thanks.
SHE: What will the comments be used for, just out of interest??
ME: For me to comment on.
SHE: Having just had a look at your blog, I don’t feel comfortable with you doing that so no I’d rather you didn’t, sorry!
Well, I wouldn’t want to be the cause of a woman feeling uncomfortable, would I?