As seen in The Spectator Australia
“Pick a side,” writes feminist cult leader exhibitionist, Clementine Ford.
What she means is pick my side, because if you aren’t with me, you’re probably a rape sympathizer; and that’s as nuanced as the issue is – or so Ford might have you believe.
Each time I read this brand of write-up, I find myself shuddering at the core, misandrist message of third-wave feminist doctrine: when all else fails, blame men.
This week, Ford has naturally used the death of a young woman in Melbourne to stoke the fires of hostility between the sexes in Australia.
About men she writes, “It doesn’t mean you are all responsible for it [violence/sexism], but as you exist in a class of people who maintain these rights and privileges over others it is up to you to be active in destroying that.”
That’s the old chestnut, isn’t it?
Men and their “rights” and “privileges” that women don’t have.
Men and this society built around them that will never benefit women.
And, of course, feminists and their insistence that men are always the problem and can be the solution if they just stop being such vile, misogynistic pigs.
Sitting down to write this, I considered drawing comparisons between all the violence women have enacted since the start of the year. Things that blipped across the news cycle before disappearing from existence. Things you might have read for a fleeting moment but couldn’t remember if asked.
Maybe I could address how the court system is failing our fathers – many whose ex-partners refuse to let them see their children, not because of any failed skills as a dad, but only for spite.
Perhaps I could reiterate the tremendous number of false rape allegations reported annually by women, or the number of men who have been victimized, abused and sexually assaulted by women. Men who have been laughed out of police stations and dismissed by those who scream “believe victims!”
Who knows? Maybe I could have tallied the sky-rocketing rates of male suicide, the huge over-representation of men among the homeless population, or the overwhelming number of male deaths in workplaces. Presumably all part of the feathered nest the patriarchy has constructed for itself?
But in the end, it feeds this cycle. It furthers the tit-for-tat game of “who has it worse”, when what we should really be focusing on is, “how do we make each other better?”
Instead, let’s call a spade a spade. Feminists don’t want that. They don’t want to fix this growing divide between men and women. Not only are they are the people encouraging it, but they appear to be using it as a basis for a career as a talking, if not screaming head. Dumbed-down, gesture and narrative obsessed academia, the ABC and the bits of what was once called Fairfax (and that led to that once great company’s demise) lap their shtick up.
Those like Ford often can’t look past their vitriol to see that the majority of Australian men are decent, loving, honest people.
It is ironic, considering she was also quick to defend migrant communities in her confused article.
Interesting, though, I have never seen her write about the women who are stoned to death for adultery.
Or, the women who are honour-killed.
The women sitting in prison awaiting a death sentence for failing to produce four male witnesses to prove that they were raped.
The tens of thousands of women mutilated by acid attacks.
Or, any of the women who are subjugated, brutalized and oppressed in our own Western countries by people who subscribe to horrific, archaic ideologies.
These are the women who need feminism.
No, you won’t hear pampered, third-wave feminists say a word about these cultures and ideas – that would force them to go against their “white men are the problem” narrative.
So, they attack Australian men instead – the same men who are instilled with a sense of respect and honour for the females in their lives and around them.
These men are the first to decry violence. They stand against the disgusting things done to others and will stand between their loved ones and harm.
These aren’t the men who need to pick a side. They already have.
Our men and boys have chosen to love the women in their lives – to honour them, treat them with respect. They have already chosen to step in when they see inappropriate behaviour, to shield women from violence where they can.
These are not the monsters who stalk the streets looking for victims on which to prey.
The ideals of equality and mutual respect between the sexes will never permeate the minds of the predators to which Ford refers.
But that will never be enough for the feminist movement.
Because, at the core of their belief system, being masculine, being male, is wrong. And it is the cause of all the ills in our society.
I pity anyone who thinks this way. It shows that it is easier for them to construct an enemy in their mind and hate it, than it is to realise an ally, to work together with them towards a common good.
Nobody argues that there aren’t terrible people in our society. But they aren’t exclusively men.
And until people start opening up the discussion to the double standards between the sexes, we won’t even get close to equilibrium.
This perpetual campaign to brand men, collectively, as either violent tormentors of women, or, at the very least, ambivalent towards misogyny, shows how tribalistic the dialogue has become.
In truth though, most Australian men would risk their lives to protect a woman from rape or murder.
So, to collectively blame the many, in any small way, for the crime of an individual is either blatantly misandrist, or wilfully ignorant of the fact that most Australian men and women already stand together.
Vilifying half the population, though, does nothing but highlight how far from the reality of tackling sexism sexists like Clementine Ford have strayed.