Fifty Shades of Feminism

"Think of the American teenage slaves who signed up to fight for the Union. Think of the ‘76 youth generation of South Africa, fourteen-year-old girls and boys who said to their elders “enough is enough” and forced the fight against apartheid into a more radical position to secure freedom for everyone’s future. What they didn’t have that Malala and we do is the technological revolution—the digital world, internet, and social network platforms that instantaneously spread the word and connect people—that speeds up the process of global awareness so it can be listened to, thought about, discussed, debated, acted on, rallied around. Used properly and strategically, these are powerful tools for change—just as the printing press was. I think we’ve run out of excuses and must recognize our complacency for what it is.

We don’t have to like each other, or even wholly understand each other. We have to understand enough to work together despite our differences. Men worked that out centuries ago, and they’re still doing it; men created themselves as a strategic, transnational class. Patriarchy is the most successful global movement, based on a coalition of many differences, in world history. And they don’t care a damn whether they are seen as “good,” “bad,” “aggressive,” “nasty,” “confrontational,” “war-mongering”—in fact, these are positive values amongst them. They bury their differences for as long as and in all the ways that enable them to maintain economic, cultural, and social preeminence. That’s why they’re still the top dogs the world over, and we’re either fluffy puppies or bitches. Feminism needs a new international, and a newly defined, program and strategy."