Lorne Gunter's Attack on "Feminists" Has Gone Too Far

"[Gwen Landholt, President]... highlighted the takeover, by feminist ideology, of the judicial system in Canada, as well as its takeover of the UN. During the 60s, 70s and 80s, the radical feminist ideology was gradually instilled into the cultures of education, work, government and societal life." REAL Women of Canada

Isn't it wonderful that we feminists have so much power?

We've taken over everything and no longer have to worry about things like childcare and equal pay for equal work. We now rule the entire country. Hell to listen to Reform Party jargon (REAL Women were part of the Reform infrastructure from day one), we now rule the world.

Good for us.

I wish.

Lorne Gunter is a right-wing journalist, who has had a lengthy association with the neoconservative movement. As a colleague of people like Ezra Levant and a "friend" of the Fraser Institute, I rarely read his stuff. I see Lorne Gunter and know that I've read it all before.

In every book written about Stephen Harper and the Reform Party.

Global Warming is a hoax, gays back in the closet, unions are ruining the country. Yada, yada, yada.

But a column published in the Edmonton Journal caught my attention and has made me furious: WikiLeaks founder victim of feminism.

A rather abysmal attempt to discredit the leaks, but then Gunter really out does himself with the bizarre.

Yes folks, us world ruling feminists are to blame.

He first refers to Julian Assange as an "effete lefty activist" ("flaming liberal homo" in neocon speak) and then attacks the women.

"Sarah," Assange's first conquest in Sweden, was an official with a centre-left political party, a known radical feminist, a disciple of one of Sweden's most vehemently feminist academics, a former campus sexual equity officer and a webmistress who, until recently, maintained a website devoted to "7 Steps to Legal Revenge," about how women can use the courts to get back at unfaithful lovers.

The leaks themselves are a separate issue from the rape allegations. However, if they were true, Assange needs to face charges. But the implication that "radical feminists" somehow encourage sexual assault is ludicrous.

Did you ever think that in the twenty-first century in Canada, that a mainstream newspaper would be publishing this tripe?

A Trip Down Memory Lane

"In November 1990 Reform assembled a 'women's work group' to examine such issues as employment and pay equity, family violence, and women's health care.
Shortly thereafter, however, a number of party supporters, including several with strong ties to REAL Women, declared their objection to both study materials being used for discussion and what they viewed as a typically feminist construction of specifically "women's problems.'

Stated Mary Lamont, a founding member of both REAL women and the Reform Party:"'I've been involved in the Reform Party from the start and I've always thought of it as a strong conservative party. I thought it stood for a different
approach. I expected it to do more on these family issues than give us feminist slogans, attitudes and agendas. The feminists get enough attention from other parties.' Under pressure, the controversial women's group folded." (1)

And:

[Reform founding member William] Gairdner (speaking at the 1991 Reform Party's Assembly) went on to attack the whole concept of human rights and the funding of advocacy groups that 'compete for government funding to get these rights.' The attack on the 'rights illusion' brought applause, but his attack on feminists brought a roar of approval: 'Furthermore ... we fund ... radical feminist groups all over the country .... (extended applause) ... that publicly support social revolution ... of the most Utopian kind and they vow to abolish the traditional family.' (2)

Sources:

1. Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada, By Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, pg. 213

2. A thorn by any other name: sexist discourse as hate speech, By Donna L. Lillian, Assistant Professor of Discourse and Linguistics East Carolina University, 2007