AS a feminist, I’m fairly sure I’m expected to be celebrating the fact we have a female Prime Minister.
But feminism is all about equality and it has got to be said that women are equally as capable of behaving atrociously as anyone with a penis. Believe it or not, being female is not a golden ticket to all of those virtues society insists on aligning with women.
It doesn’t mean the automatic bestowal of that outdated caricature of femininity that celebrates all things passive, nurturing, gentle and kind.
The womanly take on humanity can be every bit as ugly, nasty and frail as the male, given that human nature is fairly consistent, give or take social conditioning.
Some of us are downright horrible on occasion, some of us pretty awful fairly regularly, with at least one of us seemingly working hard to maintain a reputation so terrible she’s been dubbed Thatcher’s Last Horcrux (simply put for non-Harry Potter fans, the last piece of the Iron Lady’s soul).
That Theresa May wants to abolish the Human Rights Act should be enough to cement her place in the halls of political villainy, but in our present day Dystopia – as sponsored by the Daily Mail – this is sometimes considered a wholly acceptable stance.
It is, however, one of many reasons I’m not celebrating the arrival of our second female Prime Minister – I’m too busy reeling in horror at her political career thus far. I don’t care if she fills her cabinet with more women than Peter Stringfellow would while stocking her wardrobe with “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” T-shirts.
To give her her due, Mrs May has worked on high-profile initiatives and backed measures that would improve the quality of life for some women and she’s fought for better representation in politics. She’s supported shared parental leave, introduced the law against coercive control and convinced David Cameron to better support survivors of female genital mutilation. But those are overshadowed with a voting career marked by consistent opposition to legislation seeking to improve equality and human rights.
She’s repeatedly voted to repeal the Human Rights Act that, among other things, protects our most vulnerable people, challenges injustices, supports victims of domestic abuse and makes it safer to be gay.
Mrs May has also long been reviled for opposing civil partnerships and voting to keep the loathsome section 28 – though she did eventually back gay marriage in 2013.
She’s ignored the advice of experts to push for the implementation of drugs laws as bizarre and potentially damaging as they are difficult to act upon and she’s voted against measures preventing climate change. Under a criticised Snooper’s Charter, our new Big Sister outlines disturbing plans to monitor emails, phone calls and internet use.
Her frankly appalling record on immigration includes the abhorrent “Go Home”
vans and an absurd incident in which she mistakenly claimed an immigrant could not be deported because he had a pet cat.
She banned British citizens from bringing spouses or children to the country unless they earned more than £18,600, regardless of how much their spouse earned – a move that is genuinely tearing families apart.
And I’m supposed to ignore all of this and celebrate because she’s a woman and I’m a feminist? Sorry, but Theresa May’s going to have to do more than be female to convince me her leadership is not a disturbing prospect for our country.
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