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Louise Mensch deserves our solidarity

I know what it’s like to be a woman with an opinion in a man’s world. I think Mensch does too.

By Ellie Mae O'Hagan Published 04 May 2012 15:14

Conservative MP Louise Mensch speaks during the launch of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee report 'News International and Phone-Hacking'. Photograph: Getty Images.

Louise Mensch is currently making news because she’s been the target of misogyny. After she journeyed to every TV studio in London to voice her ill-advised support for Rupert Murdoch, some unpleasant individuals took to Twitter to brand her a slut, a whore, a bitch and other unedifying terms. In response, Mensch meticulously documented all those inveighing against her, and took to Twitter (where else?) to denounce them using the hashtag #feminism.

Never being one to miss out on a chance to fruitlessly commentate, I wanted to share with you my own experience of Mensch. You see a couple of months ago; I ended up having coffee with her at Portcullis House after we had a rather public spat about feminism. To be honest, I was apprehensive when she suggested we meet. because I feared the meeting would be so convivial I’d end up sympathising with her politics. I needn’t have worried: Mensch is every inch the Tory. She spoke about David Cameron in only the most effusive terms. At one point she even called him a feminist, which is frankly amazing to me. She never strayed once from the party line, and defended Tory policies to the point of nonsense. In that sense, Mensch is not the maverick she is made out to be. She’s a line-toer: a bog-standard, run-of-the-mill Tory.

But she’s also a Rottweiler. That combative, forthright thing she does on Newsnight isn’t a persona; it’s what she’s like. After we had our rendezvous I left feeling like I’d been savaged. That side of her, the side that’s always on the offensive, is where I think her feminism comes in. Because what I saw in Louise Mensch was a person who felt the need to defend her position – who felt she had fight for a place even in our argument. I suspected she’d had to fight really hard just to get the same hearing her male colleagues probably don’t even question.

During our meeting, Mensch was at her most passionate and sincere when she talked about feminism; especially in terms of how women are perceived by society. She was frustrated with the way women are constantly hemmed in by their gender; that we’re often made to feel as though womanhood is a thing we have to overcome in order to be taken seriously. I’m sure I’ll be accused of naïveté, but sitting there talking to her, I felt she was talking with the sort of depth that only comes from personal experience.

Now Mensch is being accused of using the misogyny she’s encountered to claim some sort of victim status. Well I’m sorry, but I just don’t think that’s true. Whenever I have suffered misogyny as a result of an argument I have made, I’ve never thought, ‘oh good, here’s something I can use.’ I feel depressed, because yet again I’m not being listened to. Yet again I’m being judged simply for having an opinion – for not being the pure, submissive, obedient ideal I’m supposed to be. The idiots who call opinionated women whores and sluts aren’t giving those women ammunition to deflect valid criticism; they’re oppressing them using the same rotten tropes women are exposed to from the moment the doctor says ‘it’s a girl.’

Anyone who casts doubt on Mensch’s insistence that she is sharing her experience because she refuses to feel ashamed simply doesn’t understand that shame is integral to misogyny. We women are often cast as the raw materials of body hair, madness, and sexual urges, which we must then wax, tame and abstain into social acceptance. Whenever we stray away from the ideal society has constructed for us, we’re judged as lapsing back into an unrefined natural state, like Lady Macbeth, Moll Flanders or the madwoman in the attic. When I’ve been called shrill or a slut, I often don’t tell people because I’m afraid that even the mere association with those terms might encourage others to think that maybe I am those things. And that will make me dirty and repellent.

I’m tired of feeling like that. I want to be judged on my words and actions, like men are. I’m tired of my uterus tying me to a whole set of arbitrary and suffocating standards that men will never have to worry about. I don’t have a window into Mensch’s soul, but I’m sure she’s tired too: tired of always having to be a woman and not a person – tired of the constant feeling of shame. I think that’s why she spoke out.

We could argue the toss about Mensch’s feminism. I’ve heard many feminists say that a woman whose party is closing down domestic violence shelters cannot consider herself a feminist. That’s an opinion I can understand. To be honest I don’t know how anyone with a shred of decency could join the Tory party, let alone identify as a feminist in the process. And I don’t know how Mensch can talk about Rupert Murdoch without picturing him dislocating his jaw and swallowing a human infant whole, but that’s just me. But I do know this: I know what it’s like to be a woman with an opinion in a man’s world. I know what it’s like to be cascaded because you don’t know how to be delicate or submissive. I think Mensch does too. And for that, I will put our political differences aside and offer her solidarity.

Ellie Mae O'Hagan is a freelance writer living in North London, contributing mainly to the Guardian. You can follow her at @MissEllieMae

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14 comments

Mon, 2012-07-30 16:38 — Pavlova

"To be honest I don’t know how anyone with a shred of decency could join the Tory party, let alone identify as a feminist in the process."

I think you do know don't you. They can do it because they have a different opinion to you about how to achieve things.

Sat, 2012-05-12 21:07 — poodleby (not verified)

Mensch has a silly, stressy voice - like a spoilt child trying to get her own way. When losing an argument (and some of them are breathtakingly embarrassing defeats) her voice gets posher, louder, more robotic and more repetitive, like a less-intelligent bullying parent or partner. Moreover, she seems highly contradictory. Her argument is that her appearance shouldn't be debated. How convenient! It ends any further probing about her likely body modification(s). And for a feminist this is where the contradiction lies. The personal is political: if a woman feels she has to have her face modified by a knife in order to be 'acceptable' to society/media than how can it not be a debatable issue? Anyone who has read her chicklit will know she is no more a feminist than Katie Price, aka Jordan. An opportunist, yes. An individualist, yes. A narcissist, yes. But not a feminist.

Sun, 2012-05-13 22:20 — poodleby (not verified)

Comment by 'Singlet'. He/she articulates brilliantly.

'Mensch calls herself a feminist when it suits her (when she wants to draw attention to other people's unpleasantness rather than her own failings... Somehow these feminist principles don't stop her supporting a government which is busy making other women's lives harder.

She typifies the vapid, self-serving mediocrity of her political class and she attracts plenty of loathing for that reason. No surprise that she would prefer that we all talked about the jeerings of a few Twitter oafs - it distracts attention from the acres of real, rational political criticism that she isn't competent to answer.' Thanks 'Singlet'!

Wed, 2012-05-09 00:41 — Stuart Moore (not verified)

My mummy says "when I grow up I'm going to be a proper little madam" is the line that springs to mind whenever this awful woman opens her mouth, what is it with Tory women; Louise Mensch, Baroness Warsi, Teresa May, Nadine Dorries, all snotty stuck up wannabe Thatchers. I spent my childhood being bullied by women like them while at school masquerading as teachers, god save the British Public from their self righteousness stupidity and narrow mindedness.

Sun, 2012-05-06 21:20 — perry mason (not verified)

it is a shame that far too many on the left instantly start name calling and personal attacks when they disagree with something rather than having a normal debate.

the Iron Lady said it best:
Margaret Thatcher - "I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

Sun, 2012-05-06 19:15 — hugh markey (not verified)

Owing to the fact that Louise Mensch is relatively young it's difficult to know wether the Nuns had any kind of influence on her formative years, As opposed to the Jesuits, Nuns, no matter the religious order, inculcate, quite accidently, a rebelliousness towards any kind of authority, religious or secular.
Louise exhibits a kind of Jekyll & Hyde character. One of the early creators' of Chick Lit suggests something of a wayward trait but then again she was inspired to follow a career in politics by Mrs Thatcher. At an early age, mind you. Her recent marrying into the Rock industry registers a somewhat unconventional outlook.
Yet, Louise adherence to the party line is another quirk that leads to the straight and narrow.
Somebody at our elbow muttered 'Just like a woman! However, his wife heard!
Anyway, its all too topsy turvy.
Of course, Louise now knows what it's like to have nasty things written about one(you) in words tabloid journalists only wish they could use'
Is the pot calling the kettle black?

Mae West & Her Men

Sat, 2012-05-05 00:42 — Fraziel1

Louise mensch is a idiot and undeserving of solidarity, except maybe from some numpty feminist. She is another over priviliged wealthy tory , and in her case, playing at being a politician. She is everything that is wrong and appalling with politics and she just wants to screw over every working person in this country in the name of ideology and to make herself wealthier.No wonder people can't be arsed voting any more.

Sun, 2012-05-13 11:53 — poodleby (not verified)

totally!

Wed, 2012-05-09 00:32 — Stuart Moore (not verified)

Well put!

Fri, 2012-05-04 19:31 — Unity (not verified)

"Now Mensch is being accused of using the misogyny she’s encountered to claim some sort of victim status. Well I’m sorry, but I just don’t think that’s true."

Well, of course it's not true because that's not the point that article makes.

It's not that claimed victim status as she clearly was the victim of some horribly misogynistic comments. The charge is that she opportunistically masde use of those unpleasant comments to deflect attention away from the criticism she was receiving over her pandering to Murdoch, and the evidence to support that contention lies in the fact that not all of the comments she favorited were tweeted directly into her own time line.

There are at least three, if not four, tweets in the one's she saved by adding them to her favourites that were made by people she doesn't follow and which do not contain her twitter ID @louisemensch, and so to grab those tweets one of three things must have happened.

1. she went looking for them herself,

2. she has someone on her staff who's menitoring Twitter for her, or

3. the tweets were picked up by someone monitoring Twitter for CCHQ.

That's where the element of cynicism enters the frame - its one thing to complain about misogynistic comments that are directed at your, quite another to go looking for such comments so you've something more to complain about.

Sorry, Ellie, but its not as straightforward as you make out, although that doesn't deflect from your general points about the unacceptability of the comments themselves.

Fri, 2012-05-04 18:51 — JLOsm (not verified)

I am with the author on this one: I cannot stand Mensch's politics and think that she, and all the other Tories, are damaging the very poorest in our society with their policies. But I will support her need not to suffer the threat of sexual violence when she airs her views. As should we all.

Fri, 2012-05-04 18:02 — Paz (not verified)

Oh dear, comment from Alex FRI, 2012-05-04 17:43...I rest my case. Mensch outed the abusers on Twitter for political gain. Of course she did.

Fri, 2012-05-04 17:43 — Alex, Sturdyblog (not verified)

Ellie, I agree with practically every word. But find one of your basic premises profoundly flawed. Lousie Mensch suffered intolerable abuse. Louise Mensch used that fact for political purpose (namely, of deflecting criticism away from her inexcusable defence of the Murdochs). The two are not mutually exclusive. Both are regrettable. That's all.

She described the man in charge of the organisation who had a countdown to Charlotte Church coming of legal age as a great newspaper man, obviously fit to run a media organisation. Was that a blow against patriarchy? She props up a Prime Minister who patronises experienced parliamentarians on the basis of their sex, age or sexuality. Is that a blow against patriarchy.

All I suggested, in my own inept way, was that ideological and philosophical positions are invariably more convincingly argued when they are genuinely held.

Fri, 2012-05-04 17:38 — Paz (not verified)

Nice piece. But it does amaze me that you feel you have to apologise almost for arriving at the conclusion that female Tories can be feminists. That somehow, the left have a monopoly on causes that strive for equality.

The mentality that you can't be understanding of a mintory group - or under represented group's - position and needs unless your politics are left of centre is dangerous. It's the Daily Mail reader syndrome..."The Mail is a right wing rag so all their readers must be right wing idiots too." I'm sure you don't believe that but plenty on the left do. Equally, many on the right think that all Guardian readers are left-wing pinkos.

This partizan politics is what holds Britain back from having a Government that is representative of us as a nation rather than of the % who bother to vote. It also attracts a certain type of person into politics, one that would rather crow about how the opposition candidate has been wiped out at the polls rather than address their new constituents with a mandate for change and reform. Mensch seems to break this trend (or mould) and I'm sure there are many on the left who do to.

It's just a shame it takes an issue around vile abuse on Twitter to get both sides talking and appreciative - if not understanding - of each other's politics.