Is mainstream feminism broken? | An interview with Prof Alison Phipps on MeToo and white feminism

Are there deep-rooted problems with mainstream feminism? Does the curtain need to be pulled back on #MeToo and other campaigns against sexual violence? A recently published new book by Prof Alison Phipps, Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex, tries to answer some of these difficult questions. Here, in an interview with student Digital Media Guru Joshua McLaughlin, Prof Phipps delves into her new book, “Me, Not You”, arguing that mainstream feminism is broken as it’s dominated by white privileged voices. A subject sure to spark conversation.

#feminism #metoo #sussexuni

[invernessfan]

I support equality for women. Women deserve equal rights to men.
I am against domestic abuse.
We need to give women equality.

[Philroy]

Very interesting, and worthwhile. Picking up on the term heteropatriarchy- it would be worthwhile at some stage-- and i hope it's there in the book, to reach out to men who are subjugated by this intrinsically hostile and competitive element of the capitalist world system. It may be necessary to do more than broaden feminist concerns to include all women-- rather, could we include all people? There's a lot of work on the ground being done by men in small groups, meeting as men sometimes and aiming to take responsibility for their versions of masculinity. Whether that's an element of 'political whiteness' that needs the same work doing as you're highlighting around the feminist movement, I don't really know.

[radioactivegorgon]

These lenses can get somewhere though I think the underlying mechanism may be attached to the longstanding 'blood libel' impulse wherein fantasies of grievance distort the ability to infer reality through a horrid emotional pull. People resent 'the Golem' which investigates and seeks a justice embodied in the world rather than compelling narrative. I've faced assault and men who threaten it, it is a real problem that deserves more than reactionary behaviors which are always shared with Fascism and it deserves more than arbitrary skepticism. But this social-world's insecure structures makes arriving at such a path quite difficult.

In the past few months I've been researching actors of the Satanic Panic and what its Carceral Feminism enacted via Gloria Steinem and the like... as well as its very existing legacy and actors who are still trying to redeem it under the banner of the "MeToo Movement." I'm honestly scared of how it is unfolding again. And given my history I was drawn into this model of the world and its false promise of righteousness and correcting wrongs done to me. I know of its pull and the affirmation of victimhood among those Wronged. But if I want a Golem's Justice I know I need to seek better than that.

[pharma]

Listening to the phrase "Privileged White...." keeps popping up in a very negative way.
This sounds incredibly divisive, and internally destructive.

I have listened to many assertions, but have yet to see any of these individuals being Socratic.

It's undeniable that everyone, including those at the bottom.... live lives much better than those of 100 years ago. What we would call "disenfranchised" today.... would have been called privileged in 1850.

Instead of promoting class warfare, why don't we look at what certain groups are doing disproportionately that effect them negatively, and make social changes that bring them into the fold.

Currently, Asian (not white) is the most privileged group in the United states, and Europe. It's a cultural difference with school and family being of the utmost importance.

That's something to think about instead of all of this divisiveness, and guilt.