Re: Man-Boy Love and Feminism (Thorstad)

There is absolutely no feminism or feminist today who would agree with the phrase you highlight. The optimism of 1980/1981 about the feminist movement has indeed proved misplaced. It was possible for Thorstad to say what he said in 1980/1981 because at that time there were still feminist voices (e.g. Cindy Patton) that were on our side; though even at the time the signs were ominious (as Patton herself noted). Surely, we need to take into account what has happened since 1980. Whenever you say that we should 'listen to women', my first thought has been 'do we have a choice?'. 'Women' speak louder now than ever before, and no narrative opposed to the feminism they proclaim is permitted to circulate in the mainstream woke media (sometimes the BBC news homepage is just the latest 'Feminist News' or 'Sex Abuse News'). I suspect that what you mean by 'listen to women' is 'accept what they say as true, since they are the authorities on their own experiences' - and this means ignoring the layers of ideology and societal interpretation of experience that have arisen since 1980. It means taking women's reports at their face value. So are we to accept Vanessa Springora's account of her relationship to Matzneff? Do we side with our persecutors? Contemporary women are not any less free than men from any kind of societal oppression. What battles are there left to fight? Well, the feminist movement that is now mainstream has given us the answer loud and clear - it lies in MeToo, in the demonising of male sexuality, in the hounding of an earlier generation of men like Matzneff. Do you imagine that this movement will suddenly spring back to what it was in 1980, and admit that the whole direction of movement over the last 45 years has been a mistake? We cannot ignore the overwhelming influence of the hegemonic narrative on contemporary women's interpretation of their experiences. Talk of the 'expertise' of women concerning their supposed victimhood is a justification for modern persecutions, and I am not prepared to persecute wonderfully civilised men like Matzneff. It is no longer 1980. The time for hoping that feminism could be an ally has passed. Don't let us side with our persecutors.