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This isn’t a general essay, more the upshot of the ongoing intra-philosophical spats, so it might not be of interest to all of you.. So, anyway, someone calling themselves Dr Specious (ho ho), possibly one of our philosophical colleagues in disguise, turned up and pass-agg pointed me and Kathleen and Holly at this paper, which […]
“Intersectionality shows us that everyone could do better; that every attempt at rolling back discrimination could work harder and be more inclusive. But it should also remind us that people themselves are more than a simple label: “white feminist”; “middle-class man”; “posh boy”; “Twitter bully”. Here are some of the things I know that the kind of feminists regularly decried for their privilege have had to deal with, in private: eating disorder relapses; rape; the stalking of their children; redundancy; clinical depression; the sectioning of a family member; an anxiety disorder that made every train ride and theatre trip an agony. (Yes, one of those descriptions is me.)
None of this is to say that feminism shouldn’t be open to criticism. When Caroline Crampton and I got together our bloggers last year for a New Statesman debate about feminism, the response was . . . well, there were two responses. There was criticism that was constructive: for example, the deviously persuasive Karen Ingala Smith managed to parlay her disappointment that we didn’t talk enough about rape into making me join the board of her VAWG charity. And there was criticism that was destructive, aimed at wounding us for not representing every possible permutation of womanhood. (I laughed when one particularly enthusiastic deconstructor, when asked: “Well, how can you possibly make a six-person panel totally representative of half of humanity?”, came back with, “Oh, that’s why I don’t believe in panel discussions.”)”
“EDMONTON—Police are investigating after members of a local Islamophobic group entered the Al Rashid Mosque in north Edmonton on Friday.
Noor Al-Henedy, a spokesperson for the mosque, said members of the Wolves of Odin group asked pointed questions in a clear attempt to “provoke” worshippers.”
Is there anything more frustrating that having a passel of white dudes – just asking questions – that they don’t want to hear the answer to? Important male opinion is at stake and these brave douches warriors are taking the front lines and JAQing off at a local mosque.
“She said two men entered the mosque on Friday, the day Muslims gather to worship in public. The men were wearing toques that said “Kafir” in Arabic, which translates to infidel or non-believer. Other members of the group are pictured in a Facebook video standing directly outside the mosque and asking members questions about Islam.
Al-Henedy said it looked like the two men who entered the mosque were “surveilling” the building.”
I know we here in Alberta have the reputation as being ‘Texas North’ but for once, just once can we not live up to the reputation of being false populist loving, narrow minded, gerbil brained xenophobes (pretty please)?
“In messages over Facebook, Hunt said he was the man wearing the infidel toque inside the mosque, and said he also has the word tattooed on his neck. He denied being Islamophobic, and said he is against all religions. He said his activities are not affiliated with any specific group, though his page features a number of images related to the groups Canadian Infidels and Wolves of Odin, and he said he used to be a member of Soldiers of Odin.
He said he went inside the mosque to use the bathroom, and the reason he went to the property Friday was “to catch real Muslims walking in to possibly answer questions.”
This is not the spirit of debate in a free society. This is a calculated malevolent action testing the waters to see if further bullshite will fly under the radar of society. Will update the story as it continues to develop.
Source – The Edmonton Journal, Al Rashid FB page.
Wow, Ms.Burchill just doesn’t have time for the bullshite that woke-intersectionalists have turned into a squalid art from here in 2019. Five years ago she was calling bullshite on the current empire of cud (‘intersectional’ queer theory) that is currently bolllocking up effective feminist action.
From a 2014 article titled Don’t You Dare Tell me to Check my Privilege –
“Suzanne’s crime, it transpired, was to be ‘cis-gendered’ as opposed to transgendered (that is, she was born female) and not to have ‘checked her privilege’ — what passes for a battle cry in certain ever-decreasing circles these dog days. It’s hardly ‘No pasarán!’ — rather, it declares an intention that it is better to be nagged to death on one’s knees rather than stand by one’s principles on one’s feet. Consider how lucky you are, born women, before you raise your voice above that of a trans-sister! — that veritable cornucopian horn of plenty which we lucky breed fortunate enough to be born to a sensory smorgasbord of periods, PMT, the menopause, HRT and being bothered ceaselessly for sex by random male strangers since puberty take such flagrant delight in revelling in, shameless hussies that we are. Add to this that Suzanne was, like myself, born into the English working class, and therefore marginally less likely to have beaten the odds than a dancing dog or busker’s cat to have become a public figure, and I was buggered (not being homophobic, there) if I was going to put up with a bunch of middle-class seat-sniffers, educated beyond all instinct and honesty, laying into my girl.
But it wasn’t just that. It was an instinctive desire to defend the socialism of my dead father. Because intersectionality is actually the opposite of socialism! Intersectionality believes that there is ‘no such thing as society’ — just various special interests.
In my opinion, we only become truly brave, truly above self-interest, when fighting for people different from ourselves. My hero as a kid was Jack Ashley — a deaf MP who became the champion of rape victims. These days, the likes of those who went after Suzanne would probably dismiss him as a self-loathing cis-ableist. Intersectionality, like identity politics before it, is pure narcissism.
Though it reminds us ceaselessly to ‘check our privilege’, intersectionality is the silliest privilege of them all, a gang of tools and twats tiptoeing around others’ finer feelings rather than getting stuck in, mucking in, like proper mates — the ultimate privilege, which is to serve each other with collective love and action. The most recently inter-species ruckus happened when the Deirdre Spart impersonator Laurie Penny wrote a passionate defence of the pixie cut in the New Statesman, only to get it in the sleekly shaved neck from women who accused her of not taking the different behaviour of African hair into consideration. When I asked a supporter of this lunacy whether she thought that every subject of interest to women should have every type of woman weighing in with her written opinion, she answered that yes, she did. Seriously? I don’t think my heart can stand the excitement of a weekly Staggers the size of a telephone directory.
I personally can understand black women occasionally getting teed off with their apparently carefree Wash’n’Go white stepsisters. But the most recent and reactionary development within this hissy-fitting hothouse — the insistence of intersectional feminists on the right of transsexuals not to be offended — tells you all you need to know about the essential stupidity of the movement.
The idea that a person can chose their gender — in a world where millions of people, especially ‘cis-gendered’ women, are not free to choose who they marry, what they eat or whether or not their genitals are cut off and sewn up with barbed wire when they are still babies — and have their major beautification operations paid for by the National Health Service seems the ultimate privilege, so don’t tell me to check mine. Here’s hoping that the in-fighting in-crowd of intersectionality disappear up their own intersection really soon, so the rest of us can resume creating a tolerant and united socialism.”
I have a heck of a time making the image work inside wp comments, but it is an accurate summation of my initial feelings after reading a post amiably suggested to me by a good blog friend. :>
Inspired by this fascinating link.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
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