Feminism And The Culture Of Shut Up
Robin Urback writes at the NatPo of Canada about the silencing of those who don't speak the approved feminist party line:
Professor Janice Fiamengo had planned to speak on men's issues and rape culture as part of a talk organized by the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE). The lecture, called "What's Equality Got To Do With It? Men's Issues and Feminism's Double Standards," was intended to dispel the notion of rape culture, according to Fiamengo, as well as discuss issues such as suicide by young men and custody rights after divorce. But some student activists decided Fiamengo's lecture was not appropriate, so they took it upon themselves to shut it down.The entire display is chronicled in a 50-minute YouTube video that shows protesters booing, yelling and blowing a vuvuzela throughout Fiamengo's attempted address. The lecture organizer tried to reason with protesters, but it didn't work. Campus security tried to intervene, with little success. Finally, the event moved to another room, but shortly after, the fire alarm went off.
This is thuggery. As I've written before, the answer to speech you deplore is more speech, not shutting speech down.
The notion that shutting down speech is the way to go is becoming more and more prevalent. Mark Steyn gives a number of recent examples, and then explains at the Spectator/UK:
What all the above stories have in common, whether nominally about Israel, gay marriage, climate change, Islam, or even freedom of the press, is that one side has cheerfully swapped that apocryphal Voltaire quote about disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it for the pithier Ring Lardner line: '"Shut up," he explained.'A generation ago, progressive opinion at least felt obliged to pay lip service to the Voltaire shtick. These days, nobody's asking you to defend yourself to the death: a mildly supportive retweet would do. But even that's further than most of those in the academy, the arts, the media are prepared to go. As Erin Ching, a student at 60-grand-a-year Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, put it in her college newspaper the other day: 'What really bothered me is the whole idea that at a liberal arts college we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion.' Yeah, who needs that? There speaks the voice of a generation: celebrate diversity by enforcing conformity.
...As it happens, the biggest 'safe space' on the planet is the Muslim world. For a millennium, Islamic scholars have insisted, as firmly as a climate scientist or an American sophomore, that there's nothing to debate. And what happened? As the United Nations Human Development Programme's famous 2002 report blandly noted, more books are translated in Spain in a single year than have been translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years. Free speech and a dynamic, innovative society are intimately connected: a culture that can't bear a dissenting word on race or religion or gender fluidity or carbon offsets is a society that will cease to innovate, and then stagnate, and then decline, very fast.
As American universities, British playwrights and Australian judges once understood, the 'safe space' is where cultures go to die.
via @marcorandazza
"As American universities, British playwrights and Australian judges once understood, the 'safe space' is where cultures go to die."
Give the lady both ears, and the tail!
phunctor at April 17, 2014 7:45 AM
Finally, the proggies have let the mask slip. Maybe there is enough time to do something about it?
I R A Darth Aggie at April 17, 2014 9:11 AM
I read/heard one a few months ago about a woman that was basically drummed out of the feminist circles because she was willing to support a 20 week limit on abortions, instead of full-term abortions. She was labeled as right wing for that position.
The left has a tendency to hang a label on anything that they don't believe in and then condemn it. Just like the "bossy" argument a few weeks ago.
Jim P. at April 17, 2014 9:37 AM
'What really bothered me is the whole idea that at a liberal arts college we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion..."
I think she thinks that a liberal arts college is a "liberal, arts college."
ahw at April 17, 2014 9:50 AM
These extreme feminists of late are giving the rest of us a bad name. The idea of CHOICE has gone out the window. It’s not about ‘Choice’; it’s about following the script. If other women don’t behave in the way that’s expected of a “feminist” or share the same views on hot button items, we’re traitors to our gender. We’re ignorant. We’re spewing bullshit. If you don’t toe the line, you’re clearly brainwashed by the (name the political party here).
It all comes down to this:
When it comes to feminism, you’re entitled to your opinion, until it disagrees with mine.
What these feminazi women want is to be treated special, because they are women. That we should be held up on pedestals just for having vagays is ridiculous. These ladies live in a world where women can do what they want and say what they want, regardless of actual skill and there are no consequences for their choices. They don’t want equality, they want to be coddled.
Sabrina at April 17, 2014 12:34 PM
@ahw - true, dat. I can't imagine anyone slagging Hemingway or Gauguin as being not-of-the-arts, but hardly 'liberal' in terms of their views of women and relationships.
Trying to imagine how long either would last on a campus these days; I'm guessing one or two semesters, tops.
Less if they were teaching.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at April 17, 2014 12:49 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/04/17/feminism_and_th.html#comment-4503273">comment from Sabrinait’s about following the script. If other women don’t behave in the way that’s expected of a “feminist” or share the same views on hot button items, we’re traitors to our gender.
Exactly, Sabrina.
Amy Alkon
at April 17, 2014 1:05 PM
This is a form of Puritanism - there are the righteous over here and the unrighteous over there, the elect and the reprobate, and we are the righteous ones. And we will have no traffic with the unrighteous.
These people truly think they are on the children of the light and the rest of us just need to fall into line. This is really just theocracy, very often in atheist drag.
There really is just no place for this kind of thing in a civilized and free society.
Jim at April 17, 2014 1:59 PM
I think they proved her point pretty well.
Sosij at April 17, 2014 2:15 PM
"Finally, the event moved to another room, but shortly after, the fire alarm went off"
According to the University of Ottawa's standards of student conduct, engaging in or inciting others to engage in conduct that disturbs the peace of the University, involves a significant disruption of University activity, or impedes reasonable freedom or movement of other members of the University community or its guests, not to mention the misuse of fire alarms, leads to mandatory disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion:
http://ottawa.smartcatalogiq.com/current/Catalog/Academic-Affairs/Standards-of-Student-Conduct
For me the most depressing aspect of these outbursts of Stalinism on campus is the craven gutlessness of administrators who let it happen.
Martin at April 17, 2014 2:47 PM
Come now Martin. There is no gutlessness from the administrators. They approve of this action. If you did the same thing when Al Gore was talking you would be expelled post haste.
Ben at April 17, 2014 4:21 PM
Come now, Amy! You wouldn't want to be caught on the "wrong side of history" would you? Look at the trend. In Europe, a law is in the works which will make "sexism" a CRIME. Aren't the delicate little flowers of American womanhood entitled to the same protection from nasty masculine proclivities? It's just a matter of time before being an anti-feminist will be illegal.
Jay R at April 18, 2014 12:04 PM
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