Letter 8: If feminists want to be heard, they need to reach people

The right would likely stop asking, "Where are all the feminists?" if they had seen the feminists on Fox News.

This is part 8 in what was to be a 6-part correspondence, but has become a longer correspondence, as Julie and I, it turns out, have more to say than anticipated. I have contributed parts 2, 4, and 6 here, at The Same Drugs, and journalist, Julie Bindel, has contributed parts 1, 3, 5, and 7 on her Substack.

This week, a debate erupted online as the makers of a talking head documentary called Adult Human Female, featuring interviews with some UK women about their fight against gender identity ideology, tweeted the following:

“Have been contacted by the Tucker Carlson show to discuss a potential interview about our ‘amazing film’. Of course we won’t be responding.”

A number of people responded with shock and confusion: why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to share your work with Carlson’s massive audience (indeed, the most watched cable news host in the US, who brought in over 3 million viewers in 2021.) If you want to be seen and heard, Carlson’s show is one of the best places to do it.

Feminists have long complained that their voices and concerns have been ignored in the debate around gender identity. I have been one of those women who has grown tired of seeing conservatives ask, “Where are all the feminists?!” Responding with: “Right here, albeit banned, silenced, ignored, censored, and cancelled.”

I have fought for years to be heard on this — to speak to as many as possible about the dangers of gender identity ideology and legislation. To see women refuse to take an opportunity to speak to millions of Americans about their fight struck me as absurd. How can you, on one hand, complain that women have been erased from their own fight by the right, while actively choosing to erase oneself from view?

Numerous people pointed out that this decision was self-defeating and short-sighted, and constituted a kind of “self-silencing.” The response was:

“We are not political purists and have been interviewed by centre right news — but we draw the line at anti-abortion, racist, and misogynistic extremists. We are busy reaching out to many media outlets and are hoping more on the left respond.”

Whether or not Tucker Carlson is a “racist and misogynistic extremist” is arguable. But that is besides the point: the purpose of doing media interviews is not to speak to the host, but to speak to the audience. If one only agreed to speak to media outlets that shared their political views, these filmmakers would presumably also turn down outlets like CNN and NPR, which would surely label these women as dangerous, bigoted Nazis. Of course, CNN and NPR would never offer these women a platform in the first place.

Indeed, it seems no one has offered these women a platform. I have seen precisely zero coverage of this film.

Adult Human Female was released shortly after the release of the incredibly popular and widely lauded film by the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, What is a Woman? Walsh and his film angered many feminists who felt women had been (ironically, considering the title of his film) erased from their own fight. Adult Human Female seemed very clearly to be in competition with his film — a direct response, even, using the dictionary definition of “woman” popularized by Kellie-Jay Keen (probably the most well-known British activist on this issue, oddly excluded from the film).

While I am no fan of Walsh, I have been honest and stated numerous times, publicly and privately, that his film was good: humourous, pointed, and compelling. He also had the benefit of access to a huge amount of funding and the Daily Wire platform. The filmmakers behind Adult Human Female, Dr. Deidre O'Neill and Mike Wayne, are unknown, have no public platform, and appear to have done no promotion beyond a few Facebook posts and the creation of a Twitter account. Even I, a person who is well-connected and immersed in this movement and debate, had not heard about the film until I saw an online argument about its title in a small corner of the internet (centered around the fact they had chosen Keen’s tagline, yet had excluded her from the film). They didn’t even reach out to feminist outlets, for goodness sakes, or to other women in this fight who could have covered and promoted the film. I would happily have watched the film and interviewed those behind it, in order to promote it on my podcast. But I never received so much as an email to alert me to its release.

It was almost as though they made the film for their friends. What was the point, if not to get it out there and seen—maybe to change minds?

While the filmmakers made a public show of declining Carlson, later deciding to pen an email response, for the sake of publishing their reasons for declining an interview on Twitter, the political purity at play here extends far beyond an “anti-abortion, racist, and misogynistic extremist.” These people refused even to engage women who could have helped them promote their film, on account of their leftist purity tainted by association. The silo is made ever smaller.

I realize I have yet to get to Julie’s letter. This is because this incident and resulting debate encapsulates so much of what I have been trying to convey and argue in terms of the question, “Should feminists ally with the right.”

The framing of this question, I have noted, is misleading.

One does not “ally” with Tucker Carlson by going on his show, just as one does not “ally” with me by coming on my podcast. You broaden your reach, explain your positions, and bring attention to your work. Maybe you even change some minds.

When I questioned the Adult Human Female filmmakers about their decision to refuse Carlson’s platform, one of the defenses offered was that Carlson’s audience was already “fully converted.” In other words, that there was no point in attempting to speak to his audience, as the assumption is they are all right-wingers who oppose trans ideology anyway. Preaching to the choir!

Of course, this isn’t true. Fox News pulls in a huge number of Democrat voters — 39% is a lot of people… Indeed, Carlson ranks very high among Democrat viewers, in terms of cable news outlets — the top four programs among Democrats include Fox News’ The Five, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and Hannity, competing only with MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.

British left wing feminists seem to presume a more obvious divide in audience — that only the terrible “far right” watch Fox, while the goodies are glued to, I don’t know, The Young Turks. This simply isn’t the case, and accepting Fox News’ invitation would have ensured that the invisible became visible in a way that they could not achieve by any other means. Not only could they share feminist analysis of gender identity ideology with millions of Americans — both Republican and Democrat — but they could promote the voices and work of women who are unknowns outside relatively small circles of British gender critical feminists to the masses. (Even I had not heard of the filmmakers or 75% of the women interviewed for the film.)

I have seen endless hand-wringing around the fact the right have “stolen” the narrative and the fight against transgender ideology, and now dominate the conversation. But feminists have handed the narrative to them.

One can be bitter about Walsh producing a documentary about “our” fight, but one should also admit he did a good job. What he created was something entertaining and accessible to the masses, and promoted it far and wide. A more dry, talking head-style documentary like Adult Human Female is unlikely to be as popular either way, but at very least it could be an opportunity to speak to people about the feminist view of gender identity, and to alert the ignorant that indeed we are out there, fighting this.

~~~

Last week, I wrote that “Terfing” had at long last gone mainstream. Across social media and beyond, we are seeing people say “enough” to the nonsense practice of allowing men claiming to be women access to women’s sports and spaces. This is in large part because the right caught on to what was going on, covered our Brave New Clown World on their platforms, and normies saw it, jaw agape at how far we had all descended into crazytown.

In her letter, Julie writes, “The hard Right are NOT friends to women’s rights; their reasons for disliking gender ideology are the opposite of those of feminists.” And this may be true in some ways, though I have met and spoken with numerous conservatives, Republicans, and centrists who would otherwise not want anything to do with feminists yet have grave concerns about the impact of gender identity ideology on women (and children). Just because a person believes they don’t like feminism doesn’t mean they don’t care about women. More often, it means they saw a bunch of pussy hat-wearing women behaving as though Republicans are the devil incarnate and “white women” his henchmen, followed by a Women’s March claiming not to know what a woman is, and determined feminists were ridiculous.

Women's March @womensmarch

If you're more concerned with policing who counts as a woman than with demanding our government restore abortion rights, you're doing feminism wrong.

Might it be fruitful to show these people that feminists have not, in fact, been simply “standing on the sidelines and whining while men do the hard work?” Might it be fruitful to ensure our views are included in the narrative?

I do.

Women are endlessly angered by the conservatives saying, “Where are all the feminists,” but guess what: I bet they wouldn't be saying that if they'd seen you on Fox News.

Happy New Year to you, Julie! (And to all) I am saddened that this debate has resulted in so much division and divide within feminism (the “gender critical” version, that is), but am heartened, at least, that we’ve been able to have this conversation, and demonstrate that we can indeed disagree while also maintaining friendship and respect.

Meghan