Explanation

My criticism and hostility towards current, ‘3.5 wave’ feminism has come under fire and I would like to substantiate my position and check it to ensure that my contentions are reasonably accurate.

As I have described elsewhere, when I criticise ‘feminism’ it is the kind of feminism that I encounter every day. The #killallmen hashtags, the misrepresentations about a supposed boycott of the Mad Max movie, moaning about comic book covers and trying to have them changed, supporting the government in its restriction of free sexual expression and so forth.

Now, obviously I have developed some confirmation bias on this score and my personal, anecdotal sampling tends to centre around cultural and artistic conflict. I am, in other words, an unreliable narrator on this issue.

Sadly I don’t have access to third parties to ‘check my work’, so I’ve tried to devise at least a crude method for checking my own biases.

Method

The BBC is, remarkably, still a fairly respected source of news and information and a search on the BBC News site returns relevant and popular results without being skewed by my personal bias in the way a logged-in Google search would.

As such I simply searched for the term ‘feminist’ on the BBC news site and surveyed the top 100 returned results – presumed to be the most relevant if not necessarily the most current (some went back to the 1990s).

I then assigned each search return to a category:

Historical: Looks back on previous feminist or pre-feminist waves such as the suffragettes. I do not consider these relevant when discussing modern feminism.

Puff: Any returned hit without substance for the debate. This included obituaries and ‘clickbait’ style pieces that never got into any subtance.

Supporting: Anything that supported my contention that modern feminism is prescriptive, authoritarian, censorious, propagandist etc.

Confounding: Anything that confounded that contention.

Flaws

A single person, working alone on a Sunday morning with his dander up is not the most objective method by which to categorise pieces and I am sure there would be disagreement on some of these issues. For example I would regard the imprisonment of Criado-Perez’ trolls as supporting my contention, while others might see it as a genuine feminist issue. I would also consider several of the pieces I’ve filed under ‘puff’ to be examples of what Hirsi-Ali calls ‘trivial bullshit‘ and, as such, to support my contention, but in an attempt to be fair if there was any question I characterised them as ‘puff’.

I also have not had time, at this juncture, to listen to every podcast/program in detail and have had to make a decision based on the show notes and the profile or professed beliefs of panelists or the described topic.

Public fights over feminism have been considered supporting where one side agrees with my contention, as it demonstrates the conflict goes beyond my own, personal perception. EG: Even though I don’t agree with Mike Buchanan on a great deal, his existence and profile is indicative of a broader social conflict which supports my position.

News services have decreasing relevance, which is another factor. Social media campaigns are much more indicative but impractical to survey in this manner and I don’t think there’ll be much opposition to the thought that social media is even more rife with this brand of feminism, often in the form of hashtag campaigns such as the aforementioned #NotAllMen or others such as #YesAllWomen, #HeForShe, #ToTheGirls and it goes on and on and on.

Results

Historical: 15
Puff: 21
Supporting: 45
Confounding: 19

Of those which are relevant (supporting/confounding), my contention is supported by 70.3125% of BBC search hits.

It’s worth noting that of the 19 confounding results, many were repeats and 12 (over 60%) were non-western in origin, coming from places where equality is still quite distant.

1. Editor’s Choice – Second Wave Feminism (historical).
2. Editors Choice – The Age of Reason (historical).
3. #BBCtrending – Women Against Feminism (supporting).
4. Books and Authors Podcast: Open Book: Kamila Shamsie; young feminist writing (supporting).
5. Eve Ensler on trafficking drama and why Mad Max is feminist (supporting).
6. Spotlight: Caryl Churchill (supporting)
7. Jeremy Vine’s Being Human Podcast: Caitlin Moran (supporting).
8. Helen Skelton: Children do not look for role models in books (supporting).
9. Books and Authors Podcast: Open Book: A Book of One’s Own Part 3 & Crime ficiton: Too gory? (Historical).
10. Talking Books at Hay Festival (supporting).
11. Woman’s Hour: Weekend Woman’s Hour: Anita Dobson, Jodi Piccoult (Puff).
12. Call Yourself a Feminist (historical).
13. Feminist Comedian claims Uni Gig pulled over feminist threat (supporting).
14. Student Showcases feminist art (puff).
15. French feminist challenges greens (supporting).
16. Leading Japanese feminist dies (puff).
17. Victorian feminist celebrated (historical).
18. #BBCtrending: Feminist Hacker Barbie (confounding).
19. Coelho savages feminist nightmare (supporting).
20. Mary Wollenstonecraft, Britains first feminist (historical).
21. Hardtalk: Kat Banyard, Feminist Author (supporting).
22. Paris Brudge named after feminsit (puff).
23. Home town finds feminist painting (puff).
24. Egypt feminist in presidency bid (confounding).
25. Feminist writers appeals for protection (confounding).
26. Egyptian feminist threatened with divorce (confounding).
27. Bangladesh police hunt feminist writer (confounding).
28. Same story repeated (confounding).
29. Same story repeated (confounding).
30. US Masters draw feminist ire (supporting).
31. Women banned from feminist show (confounding).
32. West Yorkshire’s first feminist (historical).
33. Suffragette to open London Film festival (historical).
34. The Interview Archive: Natasha Walter, feminist (supporting).
35. Call yourself a feminist: Episode 1 (historical).
36. US feminist Friedan dies aged 85 (puff).
37. Egyptian feminist faces apostasy trial (confounding).
38. Egyptian feminist faces ISlamic divorce case (confounding).
39. Feminist icon French dies at 79 (puff).
40. Call yourself a Feminist: Episode 3 (supporting).
41. Call yourself a Feminist: Episode 2 (historical).
42. Is Jane Eyre a feminist icon? (puff).
43. How Iran’s feminist genie escaped (historical).
44. Killing Star on challenging feminist views (puff).
45. Feminist academic Germaine Greer assaulted (puff).
46. Bangladeshi feminist writer goes back to exile (confounding).
47. Egytpian Feminist: Parents encouraged me to rebel (confounding).
48. Volleyballers’ bikini bottom ads criticised by feminist (supporting)
49. Danish feminist group claims Little Mermaid beheading (supporting).
50. Hardtalk: Gloria Steinem (supporting).
51. Same story repeated (supporting).
52. Open Book: Kamila Shamsiel Young feminist writing (supporting).
53. London Fashion Week 2015: Is fashion feminist (supporting).
54. #BBCtrending: China’s feminist five and homophobia in Iceland (confounding).
55. Sweden feminist party’s 2010 equal pay protest (supporting).
56. Election 2014: Feminist meets Justice for Men leader (supporting).
57. In Toronto with the world’s feminist pornographers (supporting).
58. BBC Learning English – US feminist Betty Friedan dies (puff).
59. Twitter abuse pair jailed over threats to feminist (supporting).
60. Knickers used by artist for York feminist carnival (puff).
61. Feminist video-games talk cancelled after massacre threat (supporting).
62. Pair jailed over abusive tweets to feminist campaigner (supporting)
63. Baby it’s cold outside: the feminist version (supporting).
64. Tweets to feminist campaigner Criado-Perez – two charged (supporting).
65. Two guilty over abusive tweets to feminist campaigner (supporting).
66. Books and Authors Podcast: Open Book: A history of women’s writing, Ross Raisin (historical).
67. Ukraine’s Femen: Topless protests ‘help feminist cause’ (supporting).
68. Nuns meet with Vatican over ‘radical feminist’ accusations (confounding).
69. Gloria de Piero MP on feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (historical).
70. Baby it’s cold outside: The feminist version (supporting).
71. Feminist site attacked on International Women’s Day (supporting).
72. So is Andy Murray a feminist icon now? (puff).
73. All about that Bass: The feminist business parody (supporting).
74. Theresa May slaps down ‘feminist bigots’ (supporting).
75. ‘We must end feminist bigotry’ is the headline (supporting).
76. Did David Cameron refuse to wear feminist T-shirt? (puff).
77. Bangladeshi feminist comes out of hiding for court appearance (confounding).
78. Feminist T-shirt sweatshop claims denied by Fawcett Society (supporting).
79. Is explicit funk carioca Brazil’s new feminist movement? (puff).
80. Feminist initiative shakes up politics in Sweden and Norway (supporting).
81. Leading writer and feminist Elaine Morgan dies aged 92 (puff).
82. Woman’s Hour – The Catholic Feminist (confounding).
83. Helen McFarlane – the radical feminist admired by Marx (historical).
84. Leading writer and feminist Elaine Morgan dies aged 92 (puff).
85. Feminist author Alice Walker on women, aortion and ageing. (Puff).
86. Woman’s Hour: Feminist movement re-evaluated; Parenting classes (supporting).
87. Talking Books: Germaine Greer (supporting).
88. Woman’s Hour: Author Abi Morgan, Italy’s Feminist Emergency (confounding)
89. Same story (confounding).
90. In pictures: A male feminist’s view on African women (puff).
91. Woman’s Hour- 80s feminist agenda (historical).
92. Plea to call off Miss World feminist protest in London (supporting).
93. Front Row: Alan Cumming; Marlowe’s Edward II, new feminist comedians. (Supporting).
94. Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy was ‘first feminist role model’ (puff).
95. Woman’s Hour: Girl summit; Carolyn Forche, Tartan; feminist marketing (confounding).
96. Did a feminist abort her baby because it was a boy? (supporting).
97. Woman’s Hour: Representation of Sikh women, Cyber feminist Eva Pascoe (puff).
98. Alison Wolf on feminist help for women in low paid jobs (supporting).
99. Woman’s Hour: Women who leave their children, feminist Catharine McKinnon (supporting).
100. Alison Wolf on feminist help for women in low paid jobs (supporting).