Students from Bennett Collegiate Institute in Toronto read letters from powerful women including Gen. Colin Powell and University of Toronto President Meric Gertler. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
The Toronto District School Board put male students in an uncomfortable position when it asked a group of boys to read letters from famous women. The result was predictable: Leftwing activists cried misogyny while other observers noted a gross double standard.
First, let’s look at the letter from students identified as having a “gender fluid” orientation as part of the school’s presentation. In it, 471 Bennett Collegiate students read from “Handwritten Notes by Influential Women” by Laura Jones and recited speeches and one-liners made by men including Gen. Colin Powell, CBC Radio’s Maude Barlow, Prince Harry, Pope Francis, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, Sarah Palin, Buzz Aldrin, George W. Bush, U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis, Queen Elizabeth II, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and President Donald Trump.
Notice the letter’s poor phrasing. The letter — with a caption that said “I am a woman” — read like a litany of stereotypes about men. Not only was there the expectation that women should be inherently sexist, but the terminology was condescending and patriarchal. It invited women to speak about their own accomplishments, instead of giving credit to those who have given their all, and created deep challenges for men.
Then, two students issued a handwritten response of their own on the letterhead of the Sisters in Spirit, an activist feminist group. They read six letters by women, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad of Iraq and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
“It isn’t only men that are entitled to speaking,” one student read, dressed as John Brown, an abolitionist. “To think that women hold different or greater power or decision-making power than men is an insult to women of all ages, and a reminder of our social construction of gender,” read another. These are not the emails from men’s rights activists.
But feminists and political correctness tend to be opposites.
Far from “degrading,” this letter document does not “disrespect men.” In fact, it’s the opposite. It genuinely benefits men by calling attention to their marginalization and making them aware of the power imbalance between men and women. The letter asks men to take responsibility for their own role in the oppression of women. Men who are not feminists should not have been given this role. The organization that produced the letter is credited for inspiring community education.
At the same time, this letter is not a “woman’s statement.” Feminism is not about empowerment of women or “waging war on men” as the letter suggests. It is about women’s liberation from entrenched historical oppression and a need for true liberation from unwarranted sexism.
This letter is a memorial to the many women who have fought to desegregate Canada, won social, economic, political, and judicial rights, and were instrumental in ushering in a new world order.
As such, it’s consistent with Canada’s commitment to full equality of women and men. While it was meant to celebrate women, it also provides an opportunity for a much broader critique of Canada’s modern male hierarchy.
The next letter was from the first woman to serve in her role as an elected governor-general of Canada. From Governor General Quentin Fleming. This letter was not gender neutral.
“Dear ladies, may I join the hundreds of well-meaning young men of the world, asking to you all be kind to one another,” Fleming began. “May I join you with a thought that runs through everything we do in our society: How we treat each other’s needs, our natural differences, and our mutual destiny—even that we face one another’s views and their effects, regardless of the difference,” she added.
The author was joined on stage by readers named Julia, Judy, Laurie, Jodi, and Elizabeth.
For two hours, students set aside the right-wing framework and tried to convince their right-wing critics to acknowledge the limitations of their beliefs.
The implication was that feminism is one community, and not about any single gender.
The male author wrote that