Suspecting Another Pendulum.

I’ve seen two high profile cases recently in which campaigning groups made headlines over their opposition to general wrongs, one environmental and one socio/political. In both cases, the women activists in the group took over the reins and, rather implausibly it has to be said, turned the general issue into a women’s issue.

I have to be both brief and vague about this because detailed argument around individual examples becomes too long and complex for a simple blog post. I do wonder, however, whether we are seeing a trend that is a symptom of, or even a hard line reaction against, post-feminist sensibilities. I wonder whether we are seeing another example of how the momentum of pendulums often swings them into the realm of the irrational. And if that is the case, I further wonder whether the activists involved are damaging their credibility by appearing to both men and women to be erring on the side of the ridiculous. Addressing specifically women’s issues is right and proper, but turning everything into a women’s issue only makes the whole movement look definitively bigoted. This is something to watch with interest over the coming years.