Will The Real Feminism Please Stand-Up?

Editor’s Note: The author is Vice Chair and Branch Secretary – UKIP North London Branch

Feminism.  Used to be such a good and positive word. Especially for young women growing up in the 60’s and 70’s. We were excited by it. We knew it meant freedom  – to get an education, to get a good job, to have our own bank accounts, own our own homes, make our own choices. Even to leave a bad or abusive marriage if we needed to and not be judged. It was revolutionary! Burn your bra! Go on the pill! Travel the world. Be yourself.

It had benefits for the world too, intelligent women from all backgrounds had the opportunity to move into important jobs – society would have double the amount of talented people to choose from. And it was great for a long time. We had so much to dream about. It changed our lives for the better. Everyone felt the benefit of it. We were all equal now. Same opportunities, same rights. And we now live in a fairer and kinder society. Many changes that came about from that era we would never want to reverse or get rid of, and thank goodness. That’s another ism –sexism – out of the way! We didn’t all want to be Germaine Greer or camp on Greenham Common but we appreciated the freedom to be able to make that choice.

But has it now gone too far? Why do we now hear the word Feminazi bandied around? How come now even the original feminist herself – Germaine – is not considered acceptable by the so called feminazis?? Have we lost the plot? If you mention the word feminist now you see men looking at you sideways wondering what they are going to be accused of next. Is that what we wanted? Not my generation for sure. We loved men, appreciated their strength and their qualities.

Loved our fathers and the role they held in our families, and the place they had in our hearts. . We didn’t want to destroy them, we just wanted to have the same opportunities, and our fathers were proud to see their girls going out into the world. How has it become so twisted, who are these radical militants trying to turn something good into something so negative and bullying

True feminism played a huge part in the last century, it changed all our lives for the better in many ways, and came in many guises; the Suffragettes, Female Emancipation, Women’s Lib, Women’s Rights, Feminism… It brought with it the right to vote, equal pay, equal opportunities, equal education, the right to choose, contraception, the first female Prime Minister and so on, and even women’s refuges from domestic abuse and rape crisis centers. All good so far.

But when do we reach the point where we can look back and say OK we have done the job? Now we can let go of the past and enjoy what we have! It’s as if certain factions want to keep searching for more and more injustices to the point where we can no longer accept each other’s differences, each other’s choice of a role, that every statement or point of view must be examined to see if it is biased towards a male point of view, even back to some hazy idea of the past.

The answer, of course, lies in the fact that as with so many good causes it has been taken over and taken advantage of by those wishing to push an extreme agenda. No longer about women’s (or anyone else’s for that matter) rights but in pushing the destruction of the traditional family (or any sort of family in the long term) and of our society – our wonderful family-oriented Western society based on Judeo Christian values that has served us so well for so long and made us such a successful nation, to the point where it seems like the whole world wants to live here! The society we have taken for granted for too long and that we are verging on the point of losing – probably in the next generation or two if we don’t wake up (soon)!

Our young boys and men are trailing behind, lost in the confusion of seeing no real role for them in the family or society, undermined and criticised for things they haven’t even done. Is this what we wanted? Some sort of bitter retribution? No! Even at the beginning of the last century, most men (except the very rich) were just as much a ‘victim’ of the class system as women.

Women wanted and needed equality, but not by denigrating men surely?

Real feminism doesn’t want to trample men underfoot in order to succeed. That isn’t what any struggle for equality should be about.All good things have to be nurtured, appreciated and taken care of, and if we don’t do that cultural Marxism is ready and waiting. The natural, nurturing role of the family in caring for our children and older people is being undermined, anyone who cannot take care of themselves being shoved into an institution – for nothing must stand in the way of us working longer and longer hours and wasting more and more money on things we don’t need (just look in the nearest ocean for the debris).

Real feminism did a fantastic job, I view it with huge, huge gratitude, but the word itself is now being twisted and manipulated by extremists to facilitate the destruction of our society. What is happening now is not what we wanted.

I look back fondly to the feminism of my youth. But it’s now time to draw a line and wake up before it’s too late.