Gender equality and backlash

I’m on the road at the moment, so blogging will be very sporadic this week, but I wanted to highlight two articles I’ve read recently, which both show that we are far, far from being in a world where feminism is no longer needed. I am sometimes told that feminism is so passé, so 20^th century, and some of the people who seem to be under this impression are very nice, considerate male individuals who have themselves lagerly overcome their sexism (for the most part at least). And because they have, the assumption seems to be that everybody else is in the same place now; they assume that everybody else is acting like them these days. But that’s of course an instance of sample bias, so it’s good to get a different perspective on things from time to time.

The first article is about sexual abuse and rape within marriage; it discusses in particular the situation in Norway, which is one of the 127 countries in the world that does not explicitly criminalize rape within marriage -- so most likely this is a rather widespread situation, certainly not specific to Norway. Towards the end, the article raises the possibility of a backlash to gender equality:

Why is sexual violence still so prevalent in countries where gender equality has made such gigantic strides? Some experts, like Ms. Kelly, argue that as a society moves to redistribute power between genders, there might be a transitional period where violence rises as the last expression of male domination.

“As women gain in status, earn more money and take their rightful place in society, some men may resort to their physical strength,” Ms. Kelly said, noting that most couple rape is ultimately based on a feeling of emasculation.

This sounds very plausible, and indeed seems to be confirmed by another article, this time linked by the Feminist Philosophers. The article is about hate trolling towards prominent female bloggers, in particular rape threats. Here again, it seems that a significant number of male individuals are so uncomfortable with women who think and write on the internet and argue etc., that one way to restore ‘order’ is to resort to sexual violence (not physical, but verbal). As more women become prominent, vocal participants of public debates, a backlash effect seems to be taking place.

So yes, there’s still a long way to go.