Thread by @monaeltahawy

I've been writing about women I call the Sorority Of Pinky Swears (SOPS) and looking at their hollow feminism tailored to fit just their needs, which I call Bespoke Feminism. In the U.S. it would fall under white feminism. I coined SOPS & Bespoke Feminism to take it global. 1/

Examples in the US: Senator Kyrsten Sinemal and the two other white female Democratic senators who voted against the minimum wage increase. Sinema's office said it was sexist to question her callous thumbs down gesture that accompanied her vote feministgiant.com/p/the-bespoke-…

It was a reminder that:

Feminism is not: supporting a woman simply because she is a woman.

Sexism is not: any and all criticism of a woman.

And also the way Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that anyone opposing Gina Haspel as CIA head was sexist

It was a reminder of the nonsense around Amy Coney Barrett being a "conservative feminist" and that anyone who opposed her nomination to the Supreme Court was sexist. I call her a Five Star General of the Footsoldiers of the Patriarchy feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-ju…

The goal of feminism cannot be simplistically the elevation of any and all women. What a vacant and meaningless goal that would be, without also destroying patriarchy.

Patriarchal fuckery is no more palatable because it is delivered by women.

And yet there was Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who happily ran interference for a fascist fuck and a sexual predator, and when she was not lying for her boss, was fond of using the Stick of Sexism to beat us into submission.

And also the Stick of Sisterhood to beat us into submission to the demands of the Sorority of Pinky Swears. You will remember that she once complained that “99 percent” of people who criticised her were women. thehill.com/blogs/blog-bri…

“I am only the third woman and the first mom to ever be the White House press secretary, and yet women attack me relentlessly, instead of, you know, being proud that we have more women doing those types of jobs,” Sanders said.

If by “those types of jobs” she meant complicity in fascism, you better fucking believe that I am not proud that “we have more women." feministgiant.com/p/the-bespoke-…

And what about the reverence for motherhood to shut us up?! White motherhood, of course. Not for Black mothers, whose children are murdered and brutalized by police. Not for migrant mothers, whose children are stolen from them in concentration camps at the border.

The Sorority of Pinky Swears dismisses, rather than reveres, those mothers.

And those white and wealthy Democratic female senators showed a callous disregard for mothers, especially Black & mothers of colour on minimum wage.

In case you thought that only GOP white women were SOPS, Democratic Senators Jeane Shaheen, Maggie Hassan and Kyrsten Sinema displayed that elusive bipartisan “unity” and reminded us exactly whom the sorority benefits: white wealthy women like themselves. feministgiant.com/p/the-bespoke-…

SOPs conveniently aligns with SOP - Standard Operating Procedure.

Bespoke Feminism is the antithesis of intersectionality, which Prof. Kimberle Crenshaw coined google.com/amp/s/time.com…

In future essays, I'll be examining SOPs and Bespoke Feminism in other parts of the world.

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Feminism: fights to destroy patriarchy--that many-tentacled octopus of oppressions such as misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, transphobia, ageism, etc

Bespoke Feminism: fights whatever hurts its individual wearer and fuck the rest of us. feministgiant.com/p/the-bespoke-…

I did not coin Bespoke Feminism to replace white feminism. I came up with it because I wanted to add to the terms we have to describe feminism that does not attack the oppressions that work in tandem to undergird patriarchy; the octopus that is patriarchy