feminism vs feminism and male privilege

This morning I have read the following:

1. should Beyonce have been wearing underwear on the cover on Time magazine while being declared the worlds most influential person

2. are organised nurse-ins a good thing or do they they actually harm the breastfeeding in public cause

3. should women stop wearing high heels as a feminist statement or should we reclaim them as a feminist statement

Oh and I have also just remembered a couple of days ago the article criticising the way the women who run The Vagenda stood with their hands on their hips, and were therefore subconsciously mirroring the very over sexualised female they argue against. Really? Is this really where we are at??

Of course debate is good, these things need to be discussed and I'm glad I live in a time when they can be openly debated, but I am so tired of the fact it is only women having these conversations. I have yet to hear a man utter the line “should David Beckham really have posed in his pants, I think it undermines men everywhere and sets a false expectation on us all by portraying us as sexual objects”, and I don't expect I ever will hear it.

Men can just “be” without the actions of some of their own sex having a reflection on them as a whole. They don’t have to argue and debate and justify and try to convince each other of the true definition of masculinity. I really cannot imagine how liberating that must be.  

I guess the counter argument is that women are the ones fuelling these conversations and therefore voluntarily dividing ourselves, but of course we can’t not discuss these issues. When you come from a place of inequality and are striving for change everyone is going to have different ideas of what the end result should look like. Does equality mean that lap dancing is empowering and allows women to express their sexuality without moral judgement, or does it mean lap dancing is really male fantasy sold to women as empowerment? Or was Caitlin Moran right in How To Be A Woman and we need more porn of the female friendly variety, or is an equal society more in keeping with the aims of Object and Gail Dines? Its a minefield and one which only women have to navigate, while men can just, well, just live really.

Of course I want feminism to be my kind of feminism and am willing to argue and debate it so I realise I am part of the problem I am moaning about, so I know there isn’t an answer. It just made me quite tired today and very very aware of the luxury of male privilege and in need of a little rant.

Its exploitation not immigration

Theres an article in The Mirror today “revealing” the sex trade in women brought in Romania and sold in to prostitution in the UK http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/romanian-girls-trafficked-sold-sex-3175123

Firstly I cant really believe its a “reveal”, this is hardly a new phenomenon is it? Dont most people know that sex trafficking is an enormous industry and that there are actually more people in slavery today than ever before in history, and surprise surprise the majority of them are women.

Secondly, and this is the bit that really pissed me off, is the horrible slant the article is given, selling this problem and one of immigration and lack of border controls.

The articles opening line is of the pimp saying “England's opened the gates and can't do nothing…” like it wasnt happening before.

It follows up with details of how gang bosses will “make millions over the EU scrapping of our border restrictions with Romania and Bulgaria.” Again, they made millions before, border restrictions did not stop this trade.

Then we have the pimp saying “They can’t do nothing to you. Romania is in Europe now” followed by “Like many gang bosses throughout Eastern Europe Meder knows the EU policy of “free movement” between member states works well for them.

Immigration restrictions placed on Bulgaria and Romania when they joined the EU in 2007 ran out on New Year’s Day, allowing their citizens easy entry to the UK. Watchdogs estimate ­European crime lords already net £20billion a year from the vice trade. And experts fear that number will continue to soar because of the end of restrictions.”

And finally “Last night Tory MP Peter Bone, who previously chaired the all-party group on trafficking, said the end of restrictions was “a gift to traffickers”. He said: “That’s one of the disadvantages of free movement.”

This is NOT a border control or immigration problem. It is plain and simple a problem with men buying women for sex and not giving a shit how they came to be in the terrible situation they are in. How can anyone read this and not be outraged that thousands of very young women have been duped, coerced and bullied into a life of prostitution.

The article itself states that these particular women were being auctioned off with the promise that they could service up to 20 men a day, and that they have no other life choices once they finish school. 20 men a day. It makes me want to weep for them, and yet this is barely concealed scaremongering and playing into the hands of UKIP and every other xenophobe who reads this. The comments below the article pretty much bear this out.

Right now, this second, prostituted women are being raped by men who live and work among us, yet their hellish lives are being used to score points in an immigration argument. As long as men are free to buy and sell women for sex this trade will continue, and no amount of border control or UKIP policy will change that.