Why did Mhairi Black compare feminists to white supremacists? – Joan SmithA belief in biological sex is now heresy in nationalist circles. Black made one concession, acknowledging that people should be allowed to hold different views from herself, but only as long as they don’t express them. Asked whether someone with a different philosophical position on gender could be “thoroughly decent”, she said to applause, “if you keep it to yourself, aye”.
Black’s remarks were apparently delivered without irony, even though she has blamed a “toxic” culture at Westminster for damaging her mental and physical health. She is standing down as an MP at the next general election after being elected at the age of 20 in 2015. Now 28, she is evidently one of those people who think the name “Karen” is an insult — and that reaching 50 is a poor lifestyle choice.
One day Mhairi Black will be a Karen, too – Victoria SmithAgeist sexism is central to trans activism. The idea of “womanhood” that it promotes is bound up in the social construction of femininity, whilst utterly dismissive of the material reality of ageing female bodies. Through history, patriarchy has not just sought to define and exploit women as a sex class; it has done so in different ways depending on where women are in the female lifecycle. Trans activism, as an expression of patriarchy, does this, too.