She too blames the patriarchy

In her blog yesterday, controversial Tory MP Nadine Dorries made no apology for her stance on "abstinence education" for girls:

I respect the point of view of Labour MP Chris Bryant, who I have just finished a phone in with on Radio Ulster, however, I am not happy that his line of attack is that I want to place an emphasis on girls. I do. It's girls who get pregnant, girls who lose their education, girls who are left to bring up a child on benefits, girls who reach old age in poverty, girls who are subjected to a string of guesting fathers as they throw in the towel in a life of welfare misery, girls who seek abortion, girls who suffer the consequences of abortion, girls who are subjected to the increased medical risks of giving birth at a young age, girls who have little control over condom use, girls who are pressurised, girls who are targeted by lad mag marketing, it's seven year old girls Primark made alluring padded bikinis for, girls who are targeted by paedophiles...


Feminists who criticise Dorries for "blaming" girls for being sexually active or trying to shift responsibility onto them for getting pregnant really are missing the point. She is a feminist. Not a sex-positive feminist, perhaps, but then those good feminists who run Object and the Poppy Project aren't very sex-positive either. The paragraph above is a crystal-clear articulation of the view that women are primarily victims of men, of a patriarchal culture and of their own biology; strip out the reference to "the consequences of abortion" and it could have been written by any right-on Guardianista. (She even appears to think that only girls are targeted by paedophiles - and she's a Catholic!)

Admit it, sisters. She's one of you.

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