UK: How a feminist debate was derailed by asking all men to leave

Submitted by Mastodon on Wed, 2012-12-05 18:45

Article here. Excerpt:

'The opening night of the London Feminist Film Festival last Friday seemed like a huge success: Myriam Fougère's Lesbiana – A Parallel Revolution, about lesbian separatist communities in North America in the 1980s, was originally going to be screened at one of the smaller screens at the Hackney Picturehouse, but was moved to the biggest one after it sold out, and then sold out again. Unfortunately, the film didn't end up in the centre of the event. Chair Femi Otitoju managed to introduce the panellists – director Fougère, politician and activist Linda Bellos and anti-porn activist and academic Julia Long. But even before the floor was opened for questions, Long raised her hand and asked all the men in the audience to leave.

There was an instant uproar: lots of clapping, but also lots of booing. Many men and women got up and left, visibly disgruntled. Long then elaborated on her point, saying how "politically disastrous" it had been to allow men to attend feminist events and conferences in recent years (although she did not specify what the harm actually was). She made some further controversial claims, such as that heterosexuality can be a death sentence (no, that's conflating it with abuse), or that in the face of "off the scale" sexual violence and misogyny, there's nothing more threatening than women withdrawing from men completely (how very progressive and change-inspiring).'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

I'm glad she showed her true colors. And I am sure indeed there were women in the audience after the men left who were genuinely upset at the request, though I am sure for various reasons. But really, I don't give a crap what those who stayed behind think. I am not out to change their minds since that is not even on the radar of possibilities. If a feminist suddenly comes to his or her senses, they do so by their own experiences. Rational arguments by and large have zero effect. So actually, I say it's good this happened. Maybe those people, men and women both, who decided to leave the room had the scales fall from their eyes enough to see and get what is happening here: feminism is about power, not about justice. And the power it is about is meant exclusively for feminist women. Like the lesbian separatist groups shown in the movie, there is no room for men in a "feminist utopia". All women are feminist, and lesbian, ideally, and if not, they are nonetheless somehow fine to live life without men around. And that is just the plain truth.

Somewhere, at some point, I am sure some kind of movie about "white separatist" or "black separatist" groups has been made. And I imagine it has been screened. Now I wonder if anyone on the panel of speakers at the screening asked all people in the audience who were not of the "preferred skin color" to just leave now. Wouldn't that be racist? Well, the whole scene would be kind of racist, wouldn't it? But let's say it was more of an academic conference, a screening of the film for critique by academics. Now add the "Will all the _____ people leave now, please." Would that not be a patently unacceptable request? Sure it would. So all it takes to see the level of outrageousness displayed by feminists such as these is a solid analogy -- as if the typical reader of MANN couldn't see it already! ;)

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2012-12-06 02:08

I think the woman has a deep hatred for men in a mental illness sort of way.

I am not sure why they're calling the evening a "debate", sounds like it was a screening of a film and a lifestyle discussion. I'm glad a good portion of the crowd called her out for making the men leave.

It's ironic that she would call heterosexuality a death sentence because it is actually the 'all lesbian' society that would eventually die out.

I also notice that when asked about how long women lived in these total lesbian separatists communities and how they funded their lifestyle, she mentioned that some of them worked outside the community and the longest they lived there was about 2 years. Sounds about right. Two years is about the max a woman can go without some sort of situation that would require modern medicine, technology or whatever before things get really hard.

PS- if you read the article, be careful what links you click on. I some how ended up in a bunch of lesbian porn (damn! not my type)

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Kris on Thu, 2012-12-06 06:16

Kind of hard to have a debate when you eject most people who may have an opposing view, making clear to those left they're objections won't be tolerated.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Kratch on Thu, 2012-12-06 17:01