World War I, Women and the White Feather Campaign

Submitted by Broadsword on Mon, 2011-09-19 16:05

Article here. Excerpt:

'When the war began, recruitment was massive and enthusiastic as millions of young men responded to Lord Kitchener’s poster appeal: ‘Your country needs you’. But not every man rushed to join the colours, so girls brandishing white feathers were organised by a retired sailor, Admiral Charles Fitzgerald, to shame ‘slackers’ into joining up

The first foray of his Order of the White Feather was on the seafront at Folkestone, where 30 of the women pounced on any man not in uniform.

‘Are you deaf or indifferent to your country’s needs?’ the girls demanded to know, before reminding the men that British soldiers were fighting and dying while they took their leisure.

‘Here’s a gift for a brave soldier,’ they said sarcastically as they handed out the feathers. Fuelled by newspaper reports, the movement quickly spread.

...
But the abuse went unabated. In the East End of London, girls added insult to injury by using feathers plucked from chickens’ bottoms and letting the recipients know where they had come from. Similar sentiments drove the Active Service League, founded by the formidable Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Its 20,000 female members pledged not to be seen in the company of any man who had not answered ‘his country’s call’. A small ad in The Times read: ‘Jack, If you are not in khaki by the 20th, I shall cut you dead - Ethel M.’

Who were the women goading men in this way? Some may have been suffragettes. They found their voice campaigning for votes for women and now brandished their girl-power on other matters. Others were war widows and mothers with sons at the front aggrieved that other young men were out of harm’s way.

But it is hard to resist the conclusion that a large contingent were young women enjoying a sense of empowerment the war brought.'

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Comments

Women have come a long way, but one thing is the same for men one century later: the humiliation, shaming, and put-downs coming from women. Thank God for the Internet, where those few of us MRAs can communicate and realize that this behavior on the part of women is coercive and manipulative, where we can support each other in standing up to women being used as unwitting puppets of the state. The men back then, in WWI, and the men now, should realize that what they are being shamed into doing (register for the draft; get married if it's your kid; pay for dinner on a date; whatever) is setting them up to become financial slaves and beholden to both women and the state. There is no such thing as "doing what a man's got to do" except in propaganda and myth. It's time for men to say "no," without feeling the slightest bit affected by these attempts at humiliation, shaming and put-downs. We can do it, if we understand the immorality and manipulation that are behind campaigns like the white feather campaign. Thanks to the administrators of this site for helping to empower men to say no to campaigns such as the white feather campaign.

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Submitted by redwoodwriter on Tue, 2011-09-20 03:03

I remember the White Feather brigade being discussed here years ago; I think it was when mensactivism ran on the old software (before 2006 I think).

We need to remember this story, not only because it challenges that old myth about men being the sole cause of all wars but because it demonstrates the very subtle power women can exercise over men, and the damage to men that can result.

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Submitted by sirprince on Wed, 2011-09-21 14:10