Did generalising Jess realise she was testing Labour’s anti-sexism policy by being sexist herself?

Want to know why this is an image of Jeremy Corbyn and not Jess Phillips? It’s because he’s one of the people she attacked in her misandrist rant, and because the Labour Party under his leadership will have to decide what to do about the sexism she represents.

We’re going to have to devise a new word to describe people like Jess Phillips; the ones we have aren’t adequate.

The word This Writer used to describe her, last year, certainly comes nowhere near summing up the sexist – misandrist, in fact – stubborn illogic of her pronouncements.

I’ll be interested to see if the Labour Party responds to her claim that women are “entirely missing” from the party’s industrial strategy, but I don’t see that as any reason to denounce every single man who has left-wing leanings.

Nor do I see that she has much of a point in using some leftie Graun hack (and isn’t that a contradiction in terms these days? A leftie working for the Guardian?) and his (presumably his and not her) comments about Harriet Harman to support her.

Saying Jeremy Corbyn had “always voted the right way” can’t be used to say this person was suggesting he was better for women than Harriet Harman. That’s a non sequitur – the one statement does not follow on from the other.

And using sarcasm to attack Jeremy Corbyn is meaningless. What’s his record, and does it corroborate what Ms Phillips said? I doubt it (see tweet below).

The Times report that she said left-wing men pay lip-service to equality until it threatens their position, and never consider that women have changed the world, suggests that she thinks she knows what every left-wing man thinks. She doesn’t. She can’t.

If she said it, she’s a sexist and really doesn’t belong in the Labour Party. There is no room for that kind of prejudice in a modern political organisation.

Perhaps we should give her a new nickname: ‘Generalising Jess’. Look at these words, quoted from her appearance at the Edinburgh Festival: “Men said they supported better female representation but, when it came to losing their own jobs, they would say, ‘Oh, you mean me? But I am so clever. I’ve got so much to offer the world’. They are literally the worst.”

Men said.” Not some men. Not these men. Men.

Sexist. Misandrist.

Ignorant, too.

And any men who try to defend our gender against her tirade will be told they “want it to puff out their own chests”.

That is really annoying.

But then, This Writer is a left-wing man so you had all better disregard anything I have to say on the subject. Right, Jess?

Perhaps you would prefer to pay attention to women instead? Here are just some of them:

https://twitter.com/racybearhold/status/897484036137988100

https://twitter.com/earthygirl01/status/897131551212929024

https://twitter.com/dscale/status/897462357659701249

https://twitter.com/openjools/status/897457040678944768

I’m not sure if this person is female or not but they make an important point:

Perhaps my favourite tweet on this subject comes from – would you believe it? – Jess Phillips. It was posted on August 14:

And in fact, she was right. Will she be suspended and disciplined for her blatant sexism? If not, then the Labour Party clearly doesn’t have zero tolerance for sexism.

Jess Phillips has criticised the behaviour of left-wing men as the “absolute worst”.

The Birmingham Yardley MP spoke out at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and said women were “entirely missing” from Labour’s industrial strategy.

The backbencher also said that a leading left-wing journalist from The Guardian, who she would not name, had “lectured” her saying that ex-deputy leader Harriet Harman was “not that great for women” despite her role as a pioneer for all-women shortlists in party selections, as well as in equality legislation.

This figure had apparently added that Jeremy Corbyn had “always voted the right way”.

“So yeah, Jeremy Corbyn better for women than Harriet Harman, obviously. I remember him in all those meetings, there with his banners for [equality],” Phillips added.

Phillips told the festival that while left-wing men wanted to see equality “they don’t think of you on the same level”, The Times reported.

“When they close their eyes at night and think of amazing people who have changed the world, it’s always some white dude that pops into their head,” she explained.

Phillips was asked whether the “out and out sexists of the right” were worse than those “well-meaning” on the left, replying: “They [the left-wing men] are the worst, the actual worst. Men said they supported better female representation but, when it came to losing their own jobs, they would say, ‘Oh, you mean me? But I am so clever. I’ve got so much to offer the world’. They are literally the worst.”

She added later that this she feels “so cross about this”.

“Men who want to own your equality and the things you fought for are absolutely fine if they want you to own it as well but when they want it to puff out their own chests, that is really, really, really annoying,” she continued.

She was critical of Labour policy, saying that women are “entirely missing” from the proposed industrial strategy, as it is all about “men with shovels”.

Source: Jess Phillips: Men on the left are the “absolute worst” | LabourList


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No Comments

  1. Florence August 16, 2017 at 10:00 am - Reply

    I was a feminist before she was born. She is no sister of mine. Her “feminism” part of her egotistical agenda, and nothing to do with the real fight for equality (gender, race, ablism etc) that some of us have actually done rather than sitting around “shouting the odds” as they say. I was one of those who was a first in several endeavours, in the 70s and I had to be tougher and more determined than this little Fabian princess will ever know. I just wish, for the sake of all of us, men and women, she would just STFU. BTW I don’t care about Harman’s gender, but her neoliberal agenda has actually harmed millions of women, despite having all women short lists and women in politics development

  2. Barry Davies August 16, 2017 at 2:37 pm - Reply

    Why is it that white middle class men can be abused without having any “ist” attached to it, why are we so easily discriminated against, with so called positive discrimination, because for every person who benefits from positive discrimination there are others suffering from negative discrimination.

    • Mike Sivier August 16, 2017 at 10:58 pm - Reply

      It only happens if you let it.
      Ms Phillips’ comments were sexist and misandrist.

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