When I was a less experienced teacher, I made a big mistake. Students were composing essays in a computer lab, and one young man thought he would be clever. Instead of writing, he spent his time shopping for an online essay. A flash of his parents' gold card near the end of the class is what alerted me. He let his trick be known to the students around him and a bustle of barely repressed giggles and furtive looks ensued. When he came to the front of the class to hand it in, I handed it back and then pointed to the door. I said, loudly and firmly, "This is unacceptable and I'd like you to get out of my sight." The class went silent and I was momentarily thrilled that I'd spoken so bluntly. However, I changed my mind when that silence persisted until the end of term. Without meaning to, I'd intimidated every other student in the room, none of whom, as far as I could tell, was cheating. I'd made classroom discussions difficult, and I had no one else to blame.
The effect of the #MeToo movement, especially in Canada, is creating the same subdued atmosphere among men.
Most support women and are, like my class, already behaving like reasonable human beings. Even so, their support isn't helping and this week yet another politician was forced to step down over an allegation that barely rose to the level of a bad date. Since it's clear prominent men, journalists included, cannot safely criticize the movement, prominent women of all political stripes are doing so instead. Rosie DiManno of the
Toronto Star,
commenting Brown's anonymous accusers states: "It is not brave to speak from the shadows. It is not courageous to vilify anybody from within bubble-wrapped camouflage." Christie Blatchford in the
National Post asserts the scandal "means that every man in the world is vulnerable, not because he has necessarily misconducted himself,
but because a woman may say he has." Even Margaret Atwood, renowned feminist and literary star,
expressed concern. However, by simply signing a letter demanding due process be followed in the case of novelist
Steven Galloway (see below), she too incurred the wrath of the #MeToo mob. Ditto the second most recognizable signatory of the letter, Joseph Boyden. He's a prize-winning author who writes about indigenous themes. To punish him, leftist critics have questioned his indigenous lineage and accused him of cultural appropriation.
Comment: Another former grid girl, Giorgia Davies, has hit back against the feminist outcry over grid girls and pointed out the real truth why so-called feminists went on the offensive to eliminate her well-paying job. It's worth reposting in full as it reveals a lot of what is so wrong with the feminist ideology at this point in time: