The Point: Feminism Without Women?
Breakpoint
Colson Center
4.8 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2021
⏱️ 1 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood became a feminist icon for her dystopian novel in which women are enslaved for the purpose of childbearing. Her writing is both the basis for a hit Hulu series and the unofficial mascot of the #MeToo movement.
Recently, Atwood retweeted an op-ed criticizing the use of phrases like "pregnant person" instead of "woman." "Why can't we say 'woman' anymore?" the article's author asked. And the backlash to Atwood's retweet was swift and vicious. Opinion pieces in USA Today and the Independent called her everything from "misguided" to "transphobic." She was compared with Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, who has consistently rejected the trans narrative, and each of these onetime progressive heroines are now labeled a "TERF," or "trans-exclusionary radical feminist."
This conflict between the "F" and the "T" in the acronym is real. The feminism of Rowling and Atwood assumes that women are real and are oppressed by men. But those in the camp of T claim that "woman" is a self-identifying construct, which men can fairly appropriate. So what's coming in this narrative? Will feminism eventually be edited to exclude women?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's a feminist when women no longer exist? For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the point. |
| 0:05.0 | The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood is a feminist icon for her dystopia novel in which women are enslaved to bear children. |
| 0:11.7 | Her novels are the basis for both a hit Hulu series and the unofficial mascot of the hashtag Me Too movement. |
| 0:17.4 | But recently, Atwood retweeted an op-ed, criticizing the use of phrases like |
| 0:21.4 | pregnant person instead of woman. Why can't we say woman anymore? The article's author asked. |
| 0:26.9 | Well, the backlash was swift. Opinion pieces in the USA Today and the Independent called her |
| 0:31.7 | everything from misguided to transphobic. She was compared with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, |
| 0:39.1 | someone who has consistently rejected the trans narrative and joined her as yet another one-time progressive heroine now labeled |
| 0:44.1 | a turf, which stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist. |
| 0:48.6 | The conflict between the L and the T and the acronym is real. |
| 0:51.6 | The feminism of Rowling and Atwood assumes that women are really |
| 0:54.6 | oppressed by men. But the T's claim that woman is a self-identifying construct, which men can |
| 1:00.4 | appropriate. What will feminism be if it excludes women? I'm John Stone Street with the point. |
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