If only you were beautiful (and four other stories)
Five reads on gender (in)equality and the backlash against feminism
Good morning. First, some housekeeping. I am on holiday next week (hooray!) so no newsletter, but I’ll be back the following week. Until then, be well, and welcome to my new subscribers. Now it’s straight to the reads…
1) What females are good for
Another week, another peek inside JD Vance’s dogmatic mind. Step aside childless cat ladies, it’s the turn of the postmenopausal woman. A 2020 podcast with Donald Trump’s running mate has resurfaced, in which he agrees with the host saying that looking after grandchildren is “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female”. Vance also seems to concur when the podcast host says that moving in and looking after the grandkids is “this weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman” (this was in response to Vance, whose wife has Indian roots, recounting that his mother-in-law had moved in with them after their first child was born).
Here on Substack,
writes about the paradox—or should that be hypocrisy?—at the heart of Vance’s views on who is meant to do the childcare and who is meant to do the paid labour. This is also an excellent time to revisit Ursula Le Guin’s writing on menopause. At this time, she wrote, a woman:….must become pregnant with herself, at last. She must bear herself, her third self, her old age, with travail and alone. Not many will help her with that birth.
Relatedly, for The Persistent, Emma Haslett writes about the feminism of Tim Walz, the slightly less scary VP candidate in the US election. Here’s a snippet:
Last year, the governor signed into law a bill mandating that free menstruation products be placed in all school restrooms used by students grades 4 through 12 in the state of Minnesota. Republicans nicknamed him “Tampon Tim.”
…
In his 2023 State of the State address, he vowed to make Minnesota “the best state to have a family” by signing a state paid parental leave program into law and expanding the Child Tax Credit. The paid leave program, which will be implemented in 2026, is one of the most comprehensive in the U.S.
2) UK to treat extreme misogyny as extremism
Britain’s new Labour government has announced a review into the country’s counter-extremism strategy, and extreme misogyny will be one of the harmful ideologies included, alongside far-right and Islamist extremism. This is a welcome addition to the policy the party announced in March (that’s before they won the election, for readers who don’t follow UK politics) of trying to promote positive male role models to counter the likes of woman-hating influencers like Andrew Tate. As some have pointed out, this is unlikely to make much of a dent in the trend of sexism being prevalent among young men.
Relatedly, a survey commissioned by the British Transport Police indicates that violence against women on trains has risen by 50 per cent over two years. As per the Guardian’s report:
The number of crimes against women and girls rose from 7,561 in 2021 to 11,357 in 2023, and the number of sexual offences rose 10% from 2,235 to 2,475, according to a survey commissioned by British Transport Police. The survey, first reported in the Times, also found the number of sexual harassment reports doubled to 1,908, over the two-year period.
“I think it’s just a reminder of the fact that we’ve got this issue of violence against women and girls that isn’t going away and if anything is getting worse,” said Anna Birley, a co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, which organised the London vigil for Sarah Everard, 33, who was killed by the police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021.
3) The only way to be a feminist in America
In her newsletter, Talia Lavin writes powerfully about being a feminist right now in the US. Being militant is the only option, she says. Here’s a snippet:
I am too tired too often to let myself feel the rage that’s been building in me for too long. Being this angry is exhausting. There is a part of me that died in November 2016, when my country chose a proud, multiple rapist over a smart and qualified woman who ran to break the highest, hardest glass ceiling.
That night, 60 million Americans said no woman, no matter how qualified, or smart, or capable, was good enough. They told us so when they voted for a man who bragged about sexual assault, who has since been adjudicated a rapist, who has multiple, credible accusations of rape and sexual assault against him. These are the actions of a man who sees a woman as less than human. Who, when a woman says “no,” discounts it along with all her other words. That is what our nation chose over a woman.
And also:
…as far as being a woman in America—the fears I had, the fears so many women had, have come to pass. More than one in three American women live in states with abortion bans in place. The period-tracking, panty-sniffing ghouls of the GOP have, with the guidance and power of fifty years of metastasizing Christian theocracy, made great headway in their goal to control every American uterus. Their goals for us are absolute. They want women to be utterly submissive. They want us as sows to breed.
4) Poland’s restrictive abortion laws
Poland has some of the toughest abortion laws in Europe. For Deutsche Welle, Monika Margraf speaks to Polish activists who protested against the country’s restrictive laws under the former right-wing-Catholic government led by the Law and Justice Party (PiS), which lost power last year. As per the piece:
Abortion was a key topic during the 2023 parliamentary election campaign, and (Polish PM) Donald Tusk, head of the centrist Civic Platform, promised Polish women the possibility of legal abortion for pregnancies up to 12 weeks.
It was a risky pledge, and not just because it was opposed by the current president, the PiS-affiliated Andrzej Duda. Tusk's future coalition partner, the conservative Third Way electoral alliance, and in particular its Catholic-conservative Polish People's Party, distanced themselves from the promise during the campaign.
After the election, months of disputes in the new coalition culminated in the most conservative of four drafts to an amendment being put to a final vote in parliament. It provided for the abolition of penalties for abortion assistance. But in mid-July, the parliament rejected the amendment despite the majority of the governing coalition voting in favor. The right-wing opposition were against it, and the governing coalition was just four votes short.
5) If only you were beautiful
I don’t even remember how I came across this June 2023 essay from The Point magazine about how the ideals of beauty can skew female friendships, and how they shape a woman’s life, but it’s well worth your time. Grazie Sophia Christy writes:
Comparison steals my joy, but it also gives me a narrative. All in all, it feels radical to make a world together, she and I, a silent tournament of first kisses, compliments, report cards. I live at a fixed point from K, her lucky arms, her lucky neck, her lucky elbows. I pursue beautiful friends like some women do men who will strike them in bed at night. On account of our addictive relativity. On account of my envy, which I’ve made, like many women, the secret passion of my life.
Bonus: Art on the labour of motherhood | the sexomania defence | the anti-childcare movement
Thank you for reading. Have a great few weeks, and see you next time.