Angry Birds

Suzanne Moore has a piece in the Guardian today in which she laments the passing of some of the great feminists and provides something of a 'call to arms' for feminists: 'God, how I miss those troublesome women like Andrea Dworkin and Shulamith Firestone. They may have been as batty as hell but they had passion. And balls. They were properly furious at the horrible things men do to women. Who in their right mind, male or female, isn't?'

Whilst Andrea Dworkin was never the type of person I would have found total agreement with, I admire anyone who passionately argues for their beliefs and doesn't give in the first sign of prejudice and resistance. Moore's central argument about the tension within feminism is an interesting one. There remains little public commentary on the tensions within this theoretical framework -and an all too casual application of the label 'feminist' to cover a group of people with many opposing beliefs. Moore describes this tension in the following terms:

'It is as though feminism had to sex itself up to keep itself interesting. We are not hairy man-haters who bang on about domestic violence and abuse. We are fascinating women interested in fashion, relationships and true intimacy. OK, so we have a few little problems like having it all turning into doing it all, and finding a nice guy to do any of it with at all, but look on the bright side! We have got a few more female MPs, our girls are doing well at school and isn't life grand?'

The full piece is well worth reading, and you can do that here.

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