After the complete and utter shitstorm caused by yesterday’s piece, in which a young New Matilda writer explained how Clem Ford is doing feminism wrongly, the site promised a follow-up, explaining why it chose to publish the controversial article.
That piece has not yet materialised, but earlier today, in an attempt to capitalise on the sweet, sweet clicks offer a different perspective, the site published a rebuttal by Lifted Brow co-editor Ellena Savage, ripping their earlier piece to shreds.
Savage’s article opens by slamming fellow New Matilda contributor Jack Kilbride‘s piece as “a misogynistic lesson in respectability politics”. She questions her fellow writer’s knowledge of feminism, saying:
Kilbride suggests that if feminists want to change anything at all, they need to be inclusive to their most dangerous and violent critics. Because Kilbride is the kind of committed feminist who has clearly never read anything written in the entire field of feminism, he just refers to Emma Watson’s UN speech, the one where she invited men to become feminists. He doesn’t mention that immediately after she made her speech that she was harassed online, and threatened with leaks of nude pictures.
The piece then goes on to say that misogyny is not the problem of “other men”, adding:
The nice white boys who do arts degrees at Melbourne Uni – who are both men and feminists! – demean you simply by not texting after they sleep with you (even though you paid for the cab), or by not asking you what you’re working on even though they know you’re an artist and you listen to them crap on about their work all the time, or they only ask you to write for their magazines when they need someone to cover some ‘women’s issue’, or they give themselves ‘boss’ job titles on projects you’re sharing the labour on, or they take credit for your insights, or they tell you stories about their crazy exes (it could be you!), or they only talk to you about their girl problems because to them you’re a free counsellor, or they devise entire undergraduate courses that do not include female thinkers at all. Or, they attend their friend’s gender studies lecture one time and then spend the rest of their lives schooling you on feminism.
Savage’s piece is one of two already published by New Matilda this morning – the other, by Emily Day, addresses critics of Clem Ford and Adam Goodes. The editorial about why they published yesterday’s piece remains forthcoming. In the meantime:
The author of the original piece has clarified that he “meant no offence”:
Thanks @BenEsler and yes I am taking on everything said and learning. I understand where I have gone wrong. Believe me, I meant no offence.
— Jack Kilbride (@JackKilbride1) December 8, 2015
Story: New Matilda
Image: New Matilda
