Below is a clip of Australian Senator, Mitch Fifield, firing back at a feminist senator, Katy Gallagher, who accused him of "mansplaining". He successfully puts his feminist attacker on the defensive. It's good to see a Liberal Party senator stand up for himself like this (the Liberal Party is the Australian centre-right party, meaning it is a right liberal party). Fifield's tactic is to point out the hypocrisy of a feminist using a sexist term. The strategy worked, but it has the limitation of remaining within the framework that feminists use.
It's something, isn't it? However you're right to point out that the conversation remains within the Feminist frame - and here they have the advantage. It's not hard to imagine how such an encounter could eventually lead to the time-honoured invocation of "historical oppression" in order to secure the moral high ground. That's a dangerous minefield for male politicians.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know what might have been a reasonable response that did not remain within the frame.
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