Me Too

A century ago, after years of campaigning, women over the age of 30 who owned property were given the right to vote in the UK.

But for many thousands of women, it was not a moment of celebration.

Known as the anti-suffrage movement, these women had been working to oppose the suffragettes.

They believed women didn't have the capacity to understand politics, and portrayed the suffragettes as a group of "ugly" women and "spinsters".

The Anti-Suffrage League was founded in 1908 by Mary Humphrey Ward, with support from two men: Lord Curzon and William Cremer.

A year later, it was announced that more than 250,000 people, both men and women, had signed a petition against giving women the vote.

Writing in The Queen in 1908, one "opponent", as they were described in the article, said they saw the campaign for the vote as a "prelude to a social revolution" that would set society back.

"We believe in the division of functions as the keystone of civilisation," the piece continued.

"It is as if the animals on the farm should insist on changing places - the cows insist upon drawing the coach, while the horses strive in vain to chew the cud and ruminate."

Historian Kathy Atherton says people nowadays can find it "surprising" that women were involved in an anti-suffrage movement, but that it's important to "put yourself in their shoes".

"There would have been a general acceptance that women were intellectually inferior and emotional - and women would have believed that as well as men - so they didn't have the capacity to make political judgements," she says.

"It's a really hierarchical society and the white male is at the top of the heap.

"There's a fear that you're upsetting the natural order of things, even going so far as thinking the colonies would be affected if they felt that Britain was being ruled by women."

Let him Maxsplain it to ya, folks.

A man has been jailed for murdering his ex-girlfriend by stabbing her 75 times in her car.

Molly McLaren, 23, died in a "frenzied" attack at the Dockside shopping centre in Chatham, Kent, on 29 June.

Joshua Stimpson, 26, had admitted manslaughter but denied murder before his trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

Sentencing him to a serve a minimum of 26 years in prison, Judge Adele Williams said: "This was a cruel, calculated and cowardly act."

The judge told Stimpson, of Wouldham High Street in Rochester, he may never be released for his "wickedness".

She added: "You slit her throat while repeatedly stabbing her.

"You were determined to punish her for finishing with you. You were seeking revenge."

It took the jury less than four hours to convict Stimpson, who had been in a seven-month relationship with Ms McLaren before she ended it two weeks before her death.

The court heard after the relationship finished, Stimpson posted derogatory messages about Ms McLaren on social media.

On the day of the murder he turned up at the gym she was in and waited for her to get into her car before he launched his attack.

As well as the murder weapon, police recovered two Stanley knives and a pick axe from Stimpson's car at the scene.

The judge told Stimpson: "You are a highly-dangerous young man and you will pose a very considerable risk to women for a very considerable period in the future."

Well it can carry on shitting because I'll talk about anything and everything I think is relevant.

The point here is that MeToo is not a conversation.

You have angry White people in Red "MAGA" hats on one side, and angry White people in Pink "Pussy" hats on the other side.

Another day, another Max show. Ho hum.

After #MeToo, a Revolution of Desire?
ELLE, February 7, 2018

In Washington on January 20, Natalie Portman delivered a powerful speech [... where], she said, the time for a "revolution of desire" has come. Writer Camille Emmanuelle*, a specialist in eroticism, sheds light on this new perspective, far from any puritan retreat.

ELLE: Is the expression of feminine desire freeing up?

Camille Emmanuelle: With the #MeToo movement, a breach has opened, to say that we refuse to be dependent on the desire of men. After this collective refusal of women to be only sexual objects, it is certainly time for them to claim the status of sexual subjects! It is important that female desire expresses itself in the form of "no, I do not want that" as much as in the form of "yes, that's what I want".

ELLE: Where do we start?

Camille Emmanuelle: We need to learn to say "yes", without false modesty! Yes, I want you to take me like that, yes, I want that, yes, I like you talking to me that way, yes, that's how I reach orgasm. I would like us to teach the younger generations consent in this way too.

ELLE: How can men support this "revolution of desire"?

Camille Emmanuelle: It's not about giving to our partners a "user notice" for our desires, our fantasies, but rather about creating a climate conducive to dialogue. When one is curious, one realizes that feminine pleasure is not so complicated, cerebral and sacred as that... And male pleasure can be much more subtle than some people think!

* Author of "Sexpowerment" (Ed. Anne Carrière)