Isolde

At this time in women’s history I feel proud and sad. Not angry. Proud because, despite what is done to us, we show an almost super-natural strength. I do not care if women call themselves feminists or not. I care, beyond language, about women’s self-determination, freedom, unity, justice and joy. There has always been a global women’s movement and it has many names and many faces.

But I feel sad that whenever we speak about what is done to us, we are told that we are liars trying to get innocent men into trouble out of malice. It is rapists, harassers, exploiters, bullies, discriminators, stalkers, leerers and jeerers – plus the millions of silent men who do nothing to challenge their brothers – who act from malice. I wish they did not excuse, defend, even reward the perpetrators. I wish women had not absorbed all this loathing and turned it towards themselves and other women.