Thread by @monaeltahawy

There is a chapter on Power in The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls in which I expand more on Footsoldiers of the Patriarchy. This essay from 2019 captures many of my points nytimes.com/2019/05/28/opi…

Feminism does not promise to support a woman simply because she is a woman. Is that woman a fellow feminist fighting to destroy patriarchy or is she a Footsoldier of the Patriarchy? feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-ju…

To demand I support a woman simply because she is a woman, with no regard to whether she upholds/works to destroy patriarchy, is to reduce feminism to a Sorority of Pinky Swears - a hollow & toothless mockery of goals of feminism, benefiting only those who benefit from patriarchy

I do not celebrate the appointment of women to high positions in regimes where cruelty is a favored tool of governance by patriarchy; if they accept, they're nothing short of footsoldiers of that patriarchy & the violence it has instituted e.g. Gina Haspel nytimes.com/2018/03/14/opi…

I do not subscribe to a feminism that demands perfection or super heroic nobility of women. But I do insist that putting women at the service of patriarchy is no victory for us.

These are discussions that will come up again and again as women demand inclusion in institutions that haven't been friends to women, e.g. the military, religious institutions, corporations & the C.I.A.

Subscribe for more of my writing on these issues feministgiant.com