This is idiocy, not feminism

Let’s take it as read that the feminist movement has traditionally covered three issues: women in public life (access to the legislature, education and politics); women in private (health, sexual and other domestic violence); and the point of intersection between these two worlds (rape conviction rates, provision for victims of domestic violence, abortion rights, and government decisions about other health matters).

The primacy of each issue depends on the treatment of women in a country. Where women are fighting just to keep or get the vote, or retain access to education in the face of bigotry under, say, the Taliban, then access to abortion services will naturally take second place. This isn’t a relativistic issue — abortion rights are as important in Afghanistan as in Accrington. It’s just a pragmatic point that everything filters down from one’s democratic rights.

In other words, I am not saying that there should be total homogeneity in what we discuss on women’s day…What is not relevant is fun-packed dancing from around the world, spice workshops and fashion shows. Fashion is to international women’s rights as Agassi kitchen utensils are to gay rights. Yes, some women are interested in fashion; some gay men own more than one brightly coloured fish slice. But it is an outrage against people who take liberties seriously — who embody the core of feminism by interpreting it as a war that hasn’t been won until it’s been won for all women — to trivialise these matters…

Excerpted from a piece by Zoe Williams, ‘The Guardian’, March 7