The weaker sex?

Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions, for safety in the streets, for child care, for social welfare, for rape crisis centres, women’s refuges, reforms in the law. If someone says, "Oh, I’m not a feminist", I ask, "Why? What’s your problem?"

Dale Spender, Man Made Language

The BBC evening news yesterday reported on the horrific sexual violence indulged in by the Hamas militants who attacked Israeli communities and a music festival on October 7th. Sexual violence against women has been a common feature of conflict, from minor incursions to full-scale war, and has generally been a feature of male extremism, including Islamic terrorism. When it comes to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, such behaviour has not been confined to Arabs. I doubt that many of those watching last night's news knew that Israeĺi Zionists have indulged in it too.

Women in Palestine, Ukraine, Cambodia, Rwanda and many other places have been subjected to the same sort of brutality. Where does it end? How can it be ended? That depends on agreeing on what causes it, and eliminating those causes. As long as we're distracted by so many other issues this one will continue to be neglected. I regret that I'm too old to do much about it now, but hope that more women will focus on forcing the issue to the top of an international agenda.

Women are caļled the weaker sex, but we don't usually lose our self control and resort to violence to resolve our differences. We're generally physically weaker and smaller than men and consequently more vulnerable when attacked, and there's not a lot you can do about that when your attacker is armed. A castration spell would be useful, but we have other strengths. One is in the influence we can have on male behaviour through our personal relationships, particularly motherhood. The feminine role playing expected of us isn't one, though some manipulative women think it is.

Before you take sides in the Hamas Israeli conflict, consider that it's a mess, and from a character called Abraham in the Old Testament onwards, a succession of dominant males have made it.

Hello!

If you came here looking for me as I quit X, Twitter as was, you'll find I haven't written anything for a while. I'm thinking about a post on how I learnt about transgenderism through Twitter, but that won't be the theme of this blog. I'm not a single issue blogger.

Come back in a week or two. Meanwhile, read my quotes page. It'll give you something to do.

Oh, and there used to be a lot more posts here, but I deleted them one day after some particularly harsh criticism. I regret that now.