Hello my name is Gen
A big name within the feminist movement in Sweden
And a key figure in the Swedish #metoo movement
Has come out critical against the woke culture
And has turned the whole feminist movement against her
I will in this video discuss the recent article she has written, the backlash and her actions following the backlash
Cissi Wallin released an article
On may 1st
That has received a storm of critique
In the article, she describes a feminism that has become
Something entirely different than it once were
That its been taken over by
By something entirely different where everyone has to be involved
Regardless if their convictions and agenda has anything to do with women's rights
She describes a movement that is in her eyes very important that is allowing itself to be watered down
She seems to distance herself from intersectionality although that is not mentioned by name
She has received a lot of backlash and has made a lot of people very angry
All the feminist that I follow (almost)
Have said something critical about the article or at least like and/or shared something about it or her
She has turned many, if not all, mainstream feminists against her
Cissi Wallin is a big name feminist here with her 101 thousand followers on instagram
Her repeated visits on mainstream TV, her multiple feminist projects, and her opinion pieces at Expressen (One of the biggest newspapers)
She has also made herself known during the #metoo era for aledging to be ** by the Aftonbladet personality
And later got charged with slander
In an article written by Myra Å.Ö., who has done a lot of digging in Cissis past, she is described like this:
If you as a woman and feminist only want to focus on the battle for womens rights you are quick to nowadays get called excluding and even discriminating. Everyone should be a part of the feminist movemen, regardless of how little your own convictions or agenda has to do with feminist ideology.
Some concrete examples: in recent years, women organizations and even women shelters have started to welcome men. Men who believe that feminism also has to focus on men. It has to focus on getting men to stop watching porn, stop hitting their girlfriends and stops buying sex. That should now in big part lay on the women’s movement to solve.
what I find very interesting is that I recognize myself here from when I identified as a feminist
It wasn't anymore feminism as in Womens rights moment even in 2015
It was all ready then, a bunch of other things
You cannot be a feminist if you believe in less migration
You cannot be a feminist if you don't buy into the idea of non-binary
You cannot be a feminist if you don't buy into their idea of body activism
And so on and so on
Feminism today is about migration, no matter if women or men
It's about disabilities
It's about the environment and veganism, it's about religion... The list is long
We don't have to discuss these ideas and the femistist take,
But what I want to have said is that these areas maybe should have their own movements
Or maybe a new movement that includes all of these
So that feminism itself can keep on being a womens movement like Cissi Wallin and others would like
I think thats where the "cookie crumbles" for a lot of people
It was one of the key reasons that I left when I did
And if we are to believe the messages Cissi has received and the private messages she has shared
Then there are a lot of people who feel that way today
Feminism is an ideology which is a part of all aspects of some womens life
And is really harmful in my eyes
Cissi Wallin describes herself as a "somewhat radical feminist" so me and her don't see eye to eye
This video is not in any way intended to applaud cissi Wallin
This is a video examining her article
MOSTLY its about the reactions that her article has created within the feminist movement
She writes that men have been invited into feminism
Into women's shelters, into women's organizations and that feminism somehow now has to be about men
And feminists have said for years that it should
"feminism is about equality between the genders and they should have the same rights" is what they've been saying
But it hasn't ever been welcoming for men
Their idea of masculinity, of the patriarchy and the oppressive man is key within their ideology
Men are the enemy
That makes it quite hard to welcome men and honestly work with male issues
They should be honest about feminism being for women and thereby opening up for
other movements to be about other groups and issues
Cissi Wallin says herself in her article that everything that a feminist does is not feminism
and that feminists of course can be involved in other things
But it doesn't all have to be a part of the same thing
Even the trans debate has started to define the women’s battle more and more. Trans peoples rights are of course really important. They, just like any other vulnerable group should be free from hate and oppression. But people who have lived as men for 30-40 years and only last year started to call themselves women can not possibly know how it feels to have lived a whole life as a woman. Still, it seems like big parts of the feminist agenda are about these peoples opinons on gender and oppression.
Here, she writes the part from which she has received the most backlash
This is where she commits the giant miss step
top out herself as a TERF
Or that's at least what the conclusion people have jumped to
which stands for
She is completely right in what she is saying
Men don't know and will never know what it is to be a woman
With a slight risk of sounding like a feminist and playing my opponents in their hand
A grown man doesn't know what it is to have gone your whole life from
Girl, teenage girl, young women and into women adulthood
He hasn't grown up with all that it means to be the female gender
in how society meets us, in how we move inside social circles, in how it is to live within a female body
How it is to be the physically weaker gender
The only understanding that grown men wanting to transition seem to have is of the sexual kind
its a perversion of the female being
Cissi Wallin doesn't dislike trans people
She doesn't even question their existence
She is questioning newly transitioned adult trans-women's place in spaces ment for women
We will return to this segment later as this is where
people have taken the most offense
Even people who want to [spread themselves out], sell makeup and promote [plastic surgery] have gotten the idea that it can be a “smart career choice” to call these things “girl power”. They are calling their very obvious patriarchal pleasing feminism. If you are to question this, you will at a lightning speed get dubbed “un-sisterly” and generally mean. No critical questions can be asked, no friction can arise. Everyone should just peacefully agree and everyone should freely get to decide what feminism is. Regardless if that definition is free of analysis and of history.
Allow me to remind you that feminism is an ideology and battle that seeks to get women the same rights as men. This is feminism - battle for justice. Not more, not less.
I think that this part also is interesting
There are, as many people before me have pointed out, a whole lot of contradiction within feminism
There is also a "market feminism" where people have realized that the feminist symbol sells better than butter
this section is in my interpretation not about her denying feminists their freedom to wear makeup
to make themselves pretty, shes not even denying them plastic surgery
She is critical against calling it feminism however
She's critical against making yourself pretty for others, especially men,
and to pose sexually in front of a camera to advertise a product or yourself
She views it as, if I am correct, that it is to crawl for the patriarchal norms and then sell it as girl power
I myself, don't think that girls or women should be flaunting themselves online at all
The definition of that is very unclear and there is nuance however
My thoughts are that its over for feminism and has been for a long time
I think that we can work on equality and women's rights without calling it something specific
The feminism that has been is over and has run its course
the feminists are not happy
The platform that the use the most is instagram and I follow them ALL
They have written three articles, blogg posts and multiple Instagram posts
And that’s when Cissi Wallin writes a hateful article about how everyone isn’t welcome in her radfem battle. Thank you, we have known for a long time that radfems don’t want to be inclusive, in any way. In “racialised” queer circles, we have a term “white feminists” thats about our sisters who gladly take our support but don’t want to give back when we need it.
In Opulens, Myra Å. Ö. writes DUDE, DUUUDEE
In Dagens Nyheter, Lisa Magnusson writes a sarcastic article that I didn't have the opportunity to read before it got locked
One of the first people to write about this was Hanna Gustavsson with her blog "Fluffy Hannis"
That has been liked and shared by the big Karin Kajjan and Stina Wolter, amongst others
She compares Cissi Wallins feminism with Madonna sitting in her bathtub filled with rose petals
whilst describing *** as the big equalizer
In addition to this, there has been a storm on feminist Instagram, especially over on trans feminists accounts
Whats been shared the most is the part where cissi talks about grown men who transitioned last year
cannot possibly know how it is to have lived a whole life as a woman
The feminists write that a grown man who comes out as a woman always have been a woman
And that its offensive that Cissi Wallin would only bring up this group of transwomen as there is a lot of oppression geared towards transpeople
And there is a lot of nuance in this group
What they seem to miss is that it is precicely this group her problem lays with
"lays with?" can you say that?
Its precisely this group she has a problem with BUT SHE doesn't have a problem with them per se
She has a problem with them having such a strong voice in the feminist groups
That they should have a spot at women's shelters and women's orginizations
It is reasonable according to the logic she holds where she has a problem with men and wants spaces for only women
The counter reactions have somehow proved Cissi Wallin to be right
Cissi Wallin is described as Transphobic, TERF, White cis woman who only cares about other white cis women
Which isn't completely true
she is complaining about the new found anxiety within the movement
Where you have to look out for everyones wishes, even those who in her eyes have nothing to do with feminism
I think that it is this wide spread critique that she has gotten which led her to go even further
And what follows is that she completely abandons woke culture and all that is entails on her instagram
I could imagine, from what I have seen of her, that she gets a kick out of negative attention
Question: is there a swedish word for woke?
Her answer: Septumring
I'm sorry I can't translate these long messages, she is just saying some triggering things
What has gotten the feminists to choke the most
Is this charming little thing she wrote with a post of a fan message she got
She could have been a part of the rightwing anti feminists 2016
like some are now saying
The funny thing is that people are surprised over the similarities
Between her and the anti-feminists 2016 when that word peaked in popularity
But my thoughts are, how could the counter arguments, jokes, insults etc evolve
If the movement itself doesn't evolve
And its the same type of stereotypes involved in the movement
with the exact same issues
I mean Cissi Wallins issues are the same as thoses I had when I was involved 2015
I wouldn't, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to put too much energy into what Cissi Wallin writes today,
She could just as well change her opinion tomorow
She hasn't made herself deserving of any form of t-t-t-t-trust
Whats interesting is seeing who supports her, to read the counter reactions and examine how the movement reacts in general
It is a sin to talk about biological gender
And biological women's right to their own space in feminism today
You are as a feminist to welcome men who think they are women however they behave and however late they transition
There is a reason why that part of the article stung the most in feminists eyes
I am tensely awaiting the backlash
I think that this will be an increasing trend in Sweden with TERFs, we are often a bit behind everyone else
OHWELL, Im not going to spend more time in Cissi Wallin, I just thought this was a little funny,
Now, the feminists with fun haircolors, and their own pronouns something to talk about and so did I
So thank you Cissi Wallin, BYE
