One of the paradoxical aspects of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was the strong criticism he received from the Anti-Slavery League (of all people!). Many members of that league had earned a good living and received a great deal of attention, which was unlikely to otherwise be directed towards them, as loud-mouthed anti-slavery advocates, so their impending irrelevancy was of deep concern: hence flogging a dead horse well after it had bolted.
This set the scene, wrote the playbook, for left-wingers, which they’ve followed ever since – their rhetoric and hysterical behaviour reach irrational levels as soon as the actual problem no longer exists. A good example today (literally!) is the NZ Parliament now being 50/50 in terms of men and women. The claims of feminazis and virtue-signalers for decades are no longer applicable as they simply have no basis in fact.
An amusing historical twist – which never suits the left-wing narrative – is it was never men who engaged in sexism. Early women MPs such as Ethel McMillan, Mabel Howard, Hilda Ross or Esme Tombleson found it wasn’t men who were critical of them – but other women! Campaigning at election time 60-odd years ago; knocking on the door, being greeted by a housewife, baby in her arms, food on the stove, washing on the line, tended to get a rather hostile response. On the other hand, holding an impromptu street corner meeting at lunchtime outside a factory, or visiting the local RSA or working men’s club tended to see these women given a polite hearing by the menfolk.
Mabel Howard always used to say the 4000 votes for her National opponent were almost entirely women; housewives who hated an unmarried childless woman “getting above herself”, whereas her own 8000 or so votes were almost entirely men who would have considered it un-gallant; unchivalrous, to vote against her.
Hilda Ross said much the same thing; her tenuous hold on the Hamilton electorate in the 1940s and 50s was because the housewives all voted for her opponent. Her successor, Lance Adams-Schneider, by contrast, won easy victories because of votes from women that Ross never received.
Because that fact of NZ political life – it being other women, not men, who were hostile to women MPs and candidates – didn’t suit the feminist narrative they simply dis-invented it by creating the fiction that female politicians face endless sexism and misogyny. A lie then, a lie now, was anyone to have a thick enough hide to claim it’s happening at a time when Parliament is 50/50.
There is nothing more amusing than to hear upper-middle-class 20-year-old women claiming they are victims of sexism and misogyny, that they “can’t have an opinion” without it resulting in some sort of avalanche of “hate” spewing all over them. Laughable claims, truly laughable as such women have never lived in such a world and won’t ever do so: a good thing. But what’s the point of being a young upper-middle-class female if you can’t be a victim of some sort? I guess pretending to be a victim of sexism is safer than a fake suicide attempt (which may inadvertently succeed!) and nobody can prove you’re making it up.
Now that we have a Parliament with a precise gender balance, grab the popcorn and start the clock on when allegations of sexism and misogyny in Parliament are ramped into a frenzy. It’s going to be hilarious to watch.