From charlatans asking her to ‘free the nipple’, to men left so confused and impotent by the sexual revolution they can’t accept her advances, one Guardianista gender warrior has had it with the “male feminists” she helped to create.
“My name is Kate Iselin. I am single, I am a writer, and I never swipe left [on Tinder]”, she states in her Tumblr bio. In her Guardian op-ed yesterday, she lauded the fact feminist is “more mainstream” and “as accessible and fun as a Beyoncé single,” nowadays.
Feminism is the orthodoxy and the establishment: “There are feminist boxing classes, feminist baking groups, and, of course, feminist dating websites. Because when we talk about ‘having it all’, we also want a feminist boyfriend, right?” asks Iselin.
“In theory, it sounds excellent.”
In reality, however, “the fellow who agonised over accepting a blowjob because, despite enjoying them, he found the act simply too degrading to let me perform,” was a bit of a turn off.
Some blokes, it turns out, had only bought into an ideology committed to subordinating their sex under false pretenses. Like “the man who opened a text conversation with a photo of his naked chest and encouraged me to reciprocate in the name of the Free The Nipple movement.”
And others, of course, just weren’t quite feminist enough: “There was the chap who invited me to an event, not so much as a plus one but as a testing ground for his ribald, sexist one-liners.”
Although the very end of feminism is to politicise gender relations, Iselin “want[s] to be in a relationship where my politics aren’t sexualized.” This girl is “a feminist, yes, but not one who will perform on command.”
Dating male feminists is “one of the least empowering decisions I’ve ever made,” she concludes.
“Feminism has enlightened and empowered me, and now I’m using that power to put my foot down and say ‘no more’ to the movement’s male members.”
Feminism, it seems, has also left you all alone Ms. Iselin.