Enough Said!

by Les May 
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THE editors of 'Northern Voices' have decided to give this post by Les May below some prominance owing to a level of half-baked thinking, which appears to be developing today in the anglo-saxon world.  Sensing this following the open letter published in Le Monde in January offering an alternative view to the #MeToo campaign, and signed by Catherine Deneuve and 99 other prominent French women, Agnès Poirier last month wrote '...an insider’s guide to French feminism'. In this essay Agnès Poirier comments on the Catherine Deneuve letter thus:
 'In other words, these 100 French women, representing many more in France, argue that this new puritanism (of the #MeToo campaign) reeks of Stalinism and its “thought police”, not of true democracy.  What they refuse to countenance is an image of women “as poor little things, this Victorian idea that women are mere children who have to be protected”, the same one extolled by religious fundamentalists and reactionaries.'
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A number of copycat actresses with an eye on some cheap publicity have announced they will wear black at the BAFTA awards on 18 February to support those ‘fighting’ sexual harassment.

On Tuesday 6 June 1944, 61,715 British men, 70,000 American men and 21,400 men from eleven other nations were landed on the beaches of Normandy.  They were there to start to liberate Europe and the World from the Nazi ideology.  By the end of the day 4,414 were dead and 5,500 wounded, in the fighting which followed.

Can anyone point me to any evidence that General Eisenhower was inundated with correspondence from outraged women demanding that every man accused of sexism, sexual harassment, misogyny, manplaining etc, should be withdrawn from the invading force? 

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 Anonymous said...

This makes no sense whatsoever. So it's fine for men to sexually assault women because men at times have fought in wars? What has the entertainment industry to do with war anyway?
I've read better journalism in the Daily Mail.So now you've gone after women, who's next on your list?

Friday, 23 February 2018 at 10:26:00 

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Les May said...

As the writer of the piece which drew this response I do not feel under any obligation to respond to a comment written by someone who is unwilling to put their name to it. However as it is predicated on an assumption that ‘women’ are a homogeneous group and that adverse comment on the behaviour of a small number of women is somehow an attack on all women, I will do so.

What this piece drew attention to was that these women were not ‘fighting’ sexual abuse, they were posturing.

When someone claims to be ‘making a stand’ or ‘fighting’ some perceived evil it is a good idea to ask what the cost to them really is. Posturing in a posh frock in front of the camera or clicking on a smartphone to tweet your favoured hashtag carries zero cost.

The men who made a stand against fascism in the Spanish civil war, the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy, the women of SOE who parachuted into occupied Europe, the men and women who joined Resistance groups, all stood to pay a terrible price for the choices they made. That is courage.

Similarly the people who emerged from the death camps can rightly be called survivors, as can the people who escaped from the Grenfell Tower fire. You can’t if you mean a man who was ‘trying it on’ put his hand on your knee.

And if I am going to ‘go after’ anyone it would be the spineless male journalists who have shown that the lack the balls to take on the more grotesque aspects of this witch hunt, which demands no less than that every accusation by a woman is assumed to be true, and ideas of natural justice and due process are jettisoned. Instead they have stood back and let women like Catherine Deneuve, Joanna Lumley and Germain Greer try to bring some sense of proportion to this issue.

Women are not some homogeneous group who all think the same way. The BAFTA women and the women journalists who drench them with praise are not a representative sample of all women. Stop pretending that they are.

Saturday, 24 February 2018 at 20:38:00 GMT

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'I, Daniel Blake' Snubbed by US Oscars

KEN Loach's film 'I, Daniel' Blake'* was been overlooked  in the 2017 Oscar nominations.  The picture which was filmed in Newcastle, and starred the Geordie comedian, Dave Johns, had been expected to grab the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science.
Since winning the Palme d’Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival, two awards at the British Independent Film Awards (Dave Johns for Best Actor and co-star Hayley Squires for Most Promising Newcomer), last Sunday the film got five Bafta nominations.
It got Best Film - where it will be up against the all singing, all dancing and very lovely La La Land among others - and Outstanding British Film, the list of Bafta possibilities also includes Best Director for Ken Loach, Best Original Screenplay for Paul Laverty and Best Supporting actress for the aforementioned Hayley Squires.
So, you can see why everyone expected the film, which tells the terrifying tale of two people thwarted by the bureaucractic British Benefit's system, to be among those read out during the big reveal of the nominations, which came direct from Los Angeles last Tuesday afternoon.
Jessica Cripps discussing  I, Daniel Blake‘s controversial exclusion from the Oscars on 'epigram' wrote:
 'Successful cinema leaves an impact on its audiences. I, Daniel Blake reached parliament when MP Jeremy Corbyn recommended Prime Minister May watch the film as an example of the government’s ‘institutionalised barbarity.'
She concludes by saying:
'The gritty realism may have failed to create a buzz in Hollywood, but the honesty has touched the hearts of audiences worldwide; it lives on in political ripples rather than in an Academy Award.'
 
*  The indie winner: I, Daniel Blake It won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, comes from a beloved British auteur and has garnered critical acclaim, but would Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake prove too tough a sell for cinema audiences? If UK distributor eOne had any qualms, they have surely evaporated now that I, Daniel Blake has opened with an impressive £404,000 from 94 cinemas, and £445,000 including previews. Stripping out the previews, site average is a very robust £4,298.