Can someone please explain Karen Straughan?
After receiving numerous recommendations to view Karen Straughan's videos on YouTube, I sat down to watch one, not entirely sure what i would see. She refers to herself as Girl Writes What. The effort to infantilize herself immediately rubbed me the wrong way since she's obviously no 12-year-old.
From her outward appearance, I wondered if she might be a lesbian separatist: she is quite articulate & well versed in feminist jargon, she has short hair and wears no make-up.
(Fine print: I'm a short-haired, cosmetically-challenged lesbian, nowhere near as well versed in feminist lingo as Straughan.) I'm no separatist, but I came out in the late 70's when minimalism was in vogue. I later discovered that Straughan's appearance was to appease men who accused her of using her "feminine wiles" to divide and conquer!
As I strained to listen, I understood how far out in the ozone Straughan lives. Unfortunately, I'd picked a video in where she accuses feminists who claim to receive threats of sexual violence or death of making it up to make MRA's look bad. (Considering I've also gotten rape/death threats for having the audacity of advocating for Planned Parenthood, I concluded that she's reality-averse.)
She also has a retro attitude (I'm trying to be nice) toward sexual assault, quite odd considering she reportedly has a daughter.
Can anyone explain her schtick? I've researched her, but most of what i could find was written by MRA apologists. Why an obviously bright and articulate young woman would take such a position is puzzling. Her charge that that feminists are out to oppress menis akin to saying that African Americans who opposed slavery were out to persecute slave owners. At least it dovetails nicely with the conservative Christian claim that people they've historically discriminated against are actually persecuting them by fighting for their rights. There is a lot of victim-blaming going around these days.
My only theory is this: if she were a feminist, Straughan would be one of hundreds of thousands. And among those hundreds of thousands, there are some brilliant minds, against which Straughan could never compete.
HOWEVER, being a gender-traitor makes her unique. She therefore gets affirmation, recognition and exposure she'd never receive as a feminist. (Ditto for Ann Coulter, by the way).
In light of the increasingly nasty political rhetoric and the unwillingness of right-wing leaders to police their own misogynist spokespeople, I'm making an effort to try to understand the women who work against their own best interests.
Thanks in advance to anyone who is patient enough to read this. Even more for those who reply.
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