The estimable Helen Andrews recently gave a NatCon speech which went viral, as we now say, or famous, as we used to say, since many people a) disagreed with it, b) felt obliged to disagree with it, c) felt extremely apologetic about agreeing with it (like Freddy Sayers of Unherd, who said, ‘I am glad you are saying this, not me’), or, alas, and this is where the ironic laughter should come in, d) boisterously and aggressively agreed with it. Well, good. For, to some extent, 'asked and answered'. One only has to ask the question to dimly sense that the answer has inevitability about it.
Are women responsible for wokery?
Yes.
The only thing is that, as philosophers – I trust that, here, we are all philosophers (Kathleen Stock is listening) – one has to be exact. It is not women, any particular women, or even women as a sex, who are responsible. It is, rather, female codes. Some years ago a book was published entitled The Bro Code. And what I want to suggest is that the idea of there being such a thing as a “Bro Code” – and a 'Broligarchy' – only occurred to humourists like Neil Patrick Harris, Carole Cadwalladr, Judith Butler and the rest because something that we should probably call the Sis Code has become absolutely, staggeringly dominant in the last half century.
What is the Sis Code?
No, not Cis. Sis.
It has several elements which elsewhere people will talk about responsibly. But I want to
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And what does his wife think? (If he’s got a wife.) And his daughters? (If he’s got daughters).
My Grandmother could never understand feminism she used to say “why do women want all this “equality” we rule men anyway?!”
Lol! Many a true word spoken in jest!
The incongruity of women stating that women will never be equal until there is a female American President, yet they are quite comfortable with the gender imbalance in the less glamorous manual jobs like bin collections, bricklaying etc.
We do have some female forerunners in the military, firefighting and the police.
As a former cop in the early 80’s I remember when the exemption to the equality legislation was removed. We were told the inclusion of more women in the police will bring “a less confrontational style’ to dealing with conflict, ending violent situations through calm negotiation.”
How’s that working out for you? Would you feel safer in a potentially violent situation if a couple of five foot nothing female officers came to your aid? My wife is a police officer and even she looks questioningly at some of the recruits who have less body mass than our eleven year old. Even worse they tend to flee street patrol front line service the minute they complete their probationary period.
Perhaps the most sinister evidence of the ‘Sis code’ is in influential ‘back office’ functions like HR. I’ve worked in two different police forces and two local authorities and I have… Read more »
”The feminisation of our society has removed any instinct to compete, to strive to succeed.
They are predominantly male traits. Turning white males into second class citizens has not decreased aggression or violence within society. In some ways it’s decreased the effectiveness of the ‘protectors’. How common is it nowadays to see ‘the bystander effect’, no one wants to get involved. ”
But who is responsible for the alleged ”feminization of the nation”, because nobody seems very forthcoming with an answer to this question? All I see is finger-pointing, based solely on hostility and resentment towards the female sex, with zero accompanying evidence. How many female PMs has England had versus male ones in your lifetime? How do men reconcile the facts as they stand with their irrational bitterness towards women? Because this is all I see: a reluctance to place the blame where it rightfully belongs, and so lots and lots of resentment and animosity ensues.
Personally, I’m all for abolishing the dreaded DEI and adhering strictly to meritocracy. This is ‘equal opportunities’ in and of itself because there should always be just the one set of entry criteria for any organization that applicants are required to meet, irrespective of… Read more »
Soon be a thing of the past when demographic change is fulfilled.
In 1959 Marie Louise von Franz observed, ““Over the last fifty or sixty years physical welfare has gradually become an important concern of the State, and with that it has by degrees become more and more the carrier of the projection of the mother, and less so of the father image. We are slowly and without noticing it gliding into a matriarchal situation.” .. 1959.
Actually Von Franz was neither for a patriarchy nor a matriarchy, but what she was for was empowering women to reach their full potential. Much like Margaret Thatcher, she was not supportive of feminism either, but instead recognized the damage done to women by the societal constraints and limitations placed upon them;
”Marie-Louise von Franz viewed women’s roles through a Jungian lens, focusing on the psychological integration of both feminine and masculine aspects ( the anima and animus ) rather than rigid social roles. She noted the dangers of traditional roles that limited women to passive, altruistic, and sacrificial functions, which can be detrimental to their psychological wholeness and lead to the suppression of their own inner strength and the negative projection of these traits onto men. She argued that true psychological maturity for women involved developing a strong, integrated animus to navigate the male-dominated world, find their inner strength, and balance emotions with reason.
Traditional views often confined women to roles of self-sacrifice and supporting men, which could be a source of psychological stagnation. She recognized that suppressing the individual feminine identity in favor of a purely collective, group-oriented identity was damaging. She believed that the unbalanced nature of societal roles could… Read more »
Here, here. The feminisation of our societies is destroying us.
Even Helen Andrews, the lady who came up with her theory (which is less theory and more accurate observations), occasionally makes comments about her finding it uncomfortable to realise that feminisation is damaging.
Women have no place in manly pursuits and control of the external world. The idea of them having control of the intimate is, I think, a good one. And we must take away their right to vote (for socialist ideas and policies) and remove them from all positions of power. Otherwise, we are doomed.
Stated like the misogynist you blatantly are. Again.
”…and remove them from all positions of power.” Tell me, is Liz Truss responsible for this supposed ‘feminization of the nation’? Theresa May? If not, then who? Because the way I see it, it’s the Prime Minister who has overall responsibility for all policies and decisions the government passes, as well as hiring and firing his appointed Ministers. And how many men have you had running the country in your lifetime as opposed to women?
Only sad little men with a perpetual axe to grind and an inbuilt hostility towards the opposite sex can’t see past their own insecurities and feelings of inadequacy in order to apportion blame where it rightfully belongs.
Excellent.
Missed of Sis Code is destruction of the nuclear family.
Yeah well does this leave us any further forward? I don’t think it does. What’s your suggested next step, Professor?
And people exclaim just how many and how ineffective committees are. You could make a good argument that the last few decades of global liberal consensus have been one large distributed committee.
We can have all of that long list of stuff and more – as long as it pays for itself.
”Are women responsible for wokery?” No, obviously not exclusively, they are not. James Alexander is remiss in excluding the definition, the origins and the evolution of the ‘woke’ movement, but that’s what happens when you are propelled by an obvious bias;
”We can define “woke” as a movement advocating for social justice from a radical leftist perspective, focusing on issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, environmentalism, and vegetarianism, among others. It involves an active and militant fight against all forms of discrimination, implying a break with the past to create a new culture and, consequently, the elimination of any dissenting voices.
Woke is, therefore, a fundamentalist movement aimed at raising awareness of alleged past and present racial and social injustices. Originating in the African-American community, it stems from the concept of being “awake” or vigilant, which then extends to society at large, where all groups allegedly subjected to discrimination identify with the dichotomous logic of oppressor/oppressed, dominator/dominated, exploiter/exploited. From the notion of being “awake” (woke), it transitions to the punitive concept of “cancel culture,” which is inherently linked: if we are awake to discrimination, we must cancel (ban) those who discriminate.
Ultimately, wokeism seeks to change the civilizational and… Read more »
‘Wokeism’ expert, James Lindsay, has been writing extensively and giving talks on this very subject for years. I see no divisive ‘blame game’ approach when it comes to his comprehensive analyses;
”In this essay, I hope to outline a few factors that I think offer a partial analysis of how this societal virus escaped the university lab. I don’t really mean to be so narrow, though, as to insist that the university is the only relevant “lab” or to imply that the media and activists were merely vectors, as we shall see. Reaching back even into the 1960s, radical leftist thinkers, notably including the very famous Herbert Marcuse, were writing that a fusion between the radical outsiders, racial minorities, and leftist intelligentsia (itself a loaded and important term) were to form the vanguard movement to change Western culture from within and prepare the way for what has ultimately become the Woke movement and whatever horrors might follow it, if it is not put to a stop.
On May 25, 2020, Western civilization was set ablaze with the Woke ideology, which was offered as the explanation and remedy (through the usual, thus thoughtless, Marxian-utopian alchemical magick) to a completely misdiagnosed societal sickness.… Read more »
“… a movement advocating for social justice from a radical leftist perspective, focusing on issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, environmentalism, and vegetarianism, among others.”
As invented by women who are terribly concerned about “social” justice which is “justice” for the favoured, poor, wee victimised few, by inflicting injustice on the perpetrator many.
Wokeism stems from Communism, Marxism and Critical Race Theory. Are all Communists and Marxists female? Obviously not. Is it only females who have introduced CRT into the education system with which to indoctrinate the malleable minds of youngsters? Certainly not. But please do feel free to share your supporting evidence for your ”As invented by women” claim.
Women are to misogynists what Jews are to the antisemites: society’s scapegoats. Because god forbid men such as yourself should wish to scratch the surface and scrutinize the inner narrative you live by. Once you acknowledge the reality which contradicts your innate grievance mentality, and you cease the tedious and constant self-victimisation that has now become pathological, you’ll see your assertion disintegrate like a house of cards. Best carry on with the denialism and live in delusion, eh? Facts are always the enemy of the fantasist.
“Wokeness is a fusion of the critical theory school of neo-Marxism, which is a form of identity politics, and radical activism that has a very particular worldview that separates the world into liberationists versus oppressors or oppressed versus oppressors,” James Lindsay
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/wokeness-based-communism-heres-why-you-should-worry-166129
And still no supporting evidence for your assertion forthcoming. Worra surprise!🤥😏
My dreadfully woke Stepdaughter called me a “CIS” Male.
I told her not to misgender me.
That shut her up.
These days Latin pronunciation has been revised.
Caesar didn’t veni, vidi, vici, it was a case of weni, wedi, wiki.
So Cis is in fact Kis… as in cis my male ‘arris.
James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome said it best…
This is a man’s world, but it would mean nothing – NOTHING! – without a woman or a girl.
All epitomised by the sham of the “Lionesses” of football, cricket and rugby – performance at the level of a youths’ under-15 side lauded as if it were the real thing.
Downvote not mine but I do disagree. Agreed that women’s sports are just not as entertaining as men’s, obviously. But that doesn’t make women playing against women a sham.
And we can call them lionesses. Are we the men not called lions?
Not mine either though I am a recent convert (that most dangerous of things) to watching women’s rugby. Both England and Scotland turned in some wonderfully entertaining games recently.
Ellie Kildunne, in particular, was stellar as was Francesca McGhie for Scotland.
Marcus, I think Art is referring to an under15 boys team beating the US Soccer World Cup winners:
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/a-dallas-fc-under-15-boys-squad-beat-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/
I was aware of Art’s reference. It should come as no surprise to anyone that a practically professional team of 14 year old boys can beat the national women’s team. But this fact doesn’t make women’s sport a sham, nor does it make the women any less deserving of success. This isn’t me being woke or sis, it’s just common sense.
Very true.
The sham is perhaps in all the manufactured media hype around very ordinary sports performances.
That said, it goes to show that a population can be manipulated into being enthusiastic about almost anything.
And that goes for professional men’s sport too. The attention and hype is totally self reinforcing.
Agreed
I love sport and physical activity but now more than ever as I enter my 60s I spend dozens of hours a week doing it and a tenth of that time watching it- usually just small snippets from YouTube to remind myself what outstanding talent and dedication can produce
It’s manipulative, like blacks in ads, trying to change reality.
It is ironic that whilst it’s OK for women to colonise men’s sports, men in frocks can’t colonise theirs.
Show me where women have ”colonized” men’s sports. Show me all of the examples of trophies, titles and opportunities stolen by women parodying men in men’s events. I’ll wait..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcsrW_3-G6w
Women’s sport, except for gymnastics, ice skating and horse events, is just not entertaining,but the media hype it up to pretend it is, just another lie in society we are all supposed to go along with
Very good essay and largely in line with my experience.
One fairly trivial but – for me – amusing aspect of the feminization of weather forecasts.
The male weather presenters tell you it’s going to be cold and rainy tomorrow in a factual, objective manner.
In contrast, the female weather presenters talk as if their target audience was a group of slightly mentally retarded five year olds. “Oooh, Julie, it’s going to be brrrr (shivering gestures) very cold tomorrow, wrap up warm and take a brolly…” All done with a childish, overacting intonation.
Those of you who whose masochistic tendencies include watching the BBC news (brothers, I share your pain) will know what I mean.
I looked up Louise Lear after she was drafted in to the main “news” broadcast to tell us how some random weather event showed that climate change is a problem; she “graduated from the University of Middlesex in 1988 with a BA Hons in Music and Drama”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/about/19112180
All the women weather presenters have the same infantile, giggly, baby-talk style. Some of them also have a mild speech impediment, which is also in line with the latest ideology: blind people for fighter pilots.
The blokes are factual: it will be 5 degrees tomorrow, with strong winds and rain. There is no advice: if you go out wearing shorts and a T-shirt, that’s your choice. You are an adult, you make the decision.
‘Preface
The wonderful silence of the godly and zealous preachers, the learned men and of grave judgment, now in exile, that they do not admonish the inhabitants of “greate Brittanny” how abominable before GOD is the Empire or Rule of Wicked Woman, yea, of a traitress and bastard.
This is contrary to the examples of the ancient prophets.
I am assured that GOD hath revealed unto some in this our age, that it is more than a monster in nature that a Woman shall reign and have empire above Man.
Why no such doctrine ought to be published in these our dangerous days.
(a) It may seem to tend to sedition.
(b) It shall be dangerous not only to the writer or publisher, but to all as shall read the writings, or favour this truth spoken.
(c) It shall not amend the chief offenders, because
1. It shall never come to their ears
2. They will not be admonished.
If any think that the Empire of Women is not of such importance that for the surpressing of the same any man is bound to hazard his life: I answer, that to suppress it, is in the hand of GOD alone; but to utter… Read more »
‘The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.
was not an attack on all women but aimed at the ‘unnatural’ rule or regime of Mary Tudor in England’
‘Published anonymously in 1557, Knox’s First Blast was not only misjudged. Drawing howls of horror from all sides – including John Calvin – it was grossly mistimed.’
https://www.annabelfrage.com/2017/03/02/a-misunderstood-misogynist-meet-john-knox/
I posted it above simply to indicate that similar debates have been going on for many centuries, millenia even.
‘They walked on as Rogers sang psalms. He was soon met by his wife and eleven children, one an infant in her arms. “This sad sight,” remarked chronicler John Foxe, “did not move him, but he cheerfully and patiently went on his way to Smithfield, where he was burnt to ashes in the presence of a great number of people.”
Rogers was the first of some 290 Protestants executed during the reign of Mary I, so-called “Bloody Mary.”
An excellent description of the crisis we find ourselves in. And to think that Dickens knew about it nearly 200 years ago.