A feminist guide to celebrating Thatcher’s demise

[ismnotwasm]

(While in not a fan of grave dancing, I understand, as much a an American can, the depths of loathing so many British have for here, I loathe her from an American point of view.)

I’ll start from the premise that anybody who’s got as far as reading this had no particular love for Margaret Thatcher. If this doesn’t apply to you, this article will not help. You’re on the wrong blog. Go away now. Bye bye.

Yesterday, today and probably for the next week or so, people are sharing the glad tidings around TwitFace in succinct missives ranging from jubilant celebration to wary reminders that this doesn’t change the way things are and we must keep up the fight against Thatcher’s legacy. There’s nothing wrong with either of these sentiments. While we must not forget that the wheels she put in motion are still driving the cogs that grind us into submission on a daily basis, we’re also entitled to blow off a little steam, and even to celebrate the presence of one less architect of our oppression wasting our oxygen with their vile presence on this planet. However, unusually for a such a potent symbol of rampant destructive capital, and especially for one in a position to wield so much power against the working class, she was a woman. What does this mean for the conscientious Thatcher-basher? Let’s try out a few suppositions that are making their presence felt throughout that amorphous confusion of privilege, oppression, liberal denial, radical indignation and occasional hope that our newspapers refer to as “The Left”.


Does it mean you can’t say anything these days cos feminists and political correctness has gone mad innit?
No.
Does it mean that we have to acknowledge her as a feminist icon because being in power was harder for women and she raised women’s political status and all that?
No. That is, it probably was harder for her than it would have been for a man, because patriarchy etc., but it’s not as if she was pursuing a feminist goal or fighting oppression. Her ambitions were quintessentially individualist. She wasn’t raising the status of women, in fact she used every feminine stereotype she could to promote herself while reinforcing working class women’s oppression. You don’t get to claim any feminist kudos for breaking glass ceilings when you rain down shattered glass on the women below in the process. Feminism (which Thatcher loathed) wasn’t, and isn’t, about getting to the top and playing with the big boys, it’s about bringing the big boys down, along with all the structures maintained by patriarchy and capitalism. Let’s get one thing entirely clear: Thatcher was no feminist, and she did shit all for women.


Does it mean that we can’t vilify her because we wouldn’t be vilifying a man in the same way?
No, we can definitely vilify her. But we should be careful about how we vilify her, because patriarchy does make it so much easier to vilify women as women, in ways that are harmful to all women rather than just the villains. That said, give her credit: she was vilified for far more than just her gender, and there are many very good reasons why Thatcher holds such a special place in the nation’s gallbladders. She was the one who turned on the tap for all the neoliberal free market shit we’ve been wading through for the past three decades. Why vilify her for being a woman when there’s her role in privatising services, destroying industries, breaking unions, starting wars, atomising communities and, lest we forget, stealing milk from babies.

It’s true that any other Prime Minister at that time would have done similar things, and that every one since has continued the job, and it’s also true that a man might have got away with much of it with less flack from the press. Doesn’t make Thatcher any less of a villain. If we want to be fair and break down the gendered vilification, let’s get ready to blow the roof off when Blair carks it.

http://angrywomen.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/thatchers-demise/

[hlthe2b]

1. I too have no desire to grave dance, but neither do I want to see this historical revisionism

The Brits are far less "forgetful" and "forgiving" than our US media. That says quite a lot, I think.

edited for typo

[DURHAM D]

2. Thanks for posting.

I was watching tv this am and thinking about the most appropriate way to express my severe dislike of the Prime Minister.

I am having lunch with a Brit today who will struggle to keep her feminist hat on so I think I will send her this link in advance. It should be fun.

[redqueen]

3. Gettin real fuckin tired of seeing "witch" thrown around. nt

[Sheldon Cooper]

4. She was a hideous human being without a shred of decency in her entire body.

I think that is gender-neutral. At least I hope it is, as I plan on repeating it when Cheney kicks the bucket.

[Whisp]

5. *applause

Feminism (which Thatcher loathed) wasn’t, and isn’t, about getting to the top and playing with the big boys, it’s about bringing the big boys down, along with all the structures maintained by patriarchy and capitalism. Let’s get one thing entirely clear: Thatcher was no feminist, and she did shit all for women.

Let us all remember these wise words.

[Prophet 451]

6. I DO have a desire to gravedance

She was an utter monster and it's a shame she died eighty-five years too late.

[ismnotwasm]

7. Understood

She hurt a lot of people with her politics, the 'not graving dancing' is a personal thing, not a judgement on anybody.