Category: Political Equality

Does Pardoning Britain’s Suffragettes for Lawbreaking Really Honor Their Efforts? 

~ mcequality

Of course, there are the opponents with laws-are-laws arguments; “Instinctively I can see where that campaign is coming from so I will take a look and see if there is a proposal that I can take more seriously,” home secretary Amber Rudd told Good Morning Britain. “But in terms of pardoning for arson, for violence like that … that is a little trickier.”

But there are other objections, too. Before the announcement, historian Fern Riddell—who’s got an intriguing book out in April about the radical activist Kitty Marion—wrote a piece for the Guardian about how the women’s suffrage movement in Britain encompassed both peaceful protests and more controversial direct action

via Does Pardoning Britain’s Suffragettes for Lawbreaking Really Honor Their Efforts? 

MeToo feminism is victim culture, not courage | Comment | The Times

~ mcequality

Moreover, modern feminism has put the Victorian sexual double standard into reverse. Tearing up the old sexual order, women liberated themselves to behave with as much sexual licence as men. Yet when men now misinterpret the signals because there are no longer any rules, women accuse them of failing to treat them with sufficient respect. And even when men grossly misbehave or even attack them, some women choose to remain silent and use such men for their own advantage.

Female emancipation was all about giving women control over their own destinies. Now they have that control, they are presenting themselves once again as powerless victims of male oppression, even while benefiting from being presented as sexual objects. In 1995, Thurman was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history, in 2004 she featured in Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100” and in 2013 was named one of the “100 Hottest Women of the 21st Century” by GQ magazine.

Millicent Fawcett and even Emmeline Pankhurst would surely not have said to Thurman: “me too”. They would have said: “not in our name”.

via MeToo feminism is victim culture, not courage | Comment | The Times

Unused ticket: The suffragette story in seven objects – BBC News

~ mcequality

Under the slogan “deeds not words”, some activists smashed windows, threw stones and burned buildings. Once imprisoned, they would go on hunger strike.
Their refusal to eat led to force-feeding – where a tube was forced up a striker’s nose and down the throat before food was poured in. Sometimes the feeding pipe was put in incorrectly and food would be forced into the lungs, which can be fatal.
Force feeding attracted public disapproval – and eventually the government brought in a bill known as the Cat and Mouse Act, which allowed seriously ill hunger strikers to be released until they regained their strength, when they would be re-arrested and jailed again.

via Unused ticket: The suffragette story in seven objects – BBC News