THE CLEAR THREATS FROM IDIOLOGUESÂ
What is most disturbing about this backlash against this wonderful novelist is not the difference of opinion between Atwood and some feminists. Rather it is the symptom of how surrendering to an ideology cripples critical thinking and alienates allies. What Atwood has to say, and Catherine Deneuve says much the same thing, is being accused should never equal being convicted and that anyone accused of a crime should have a fair hearing. Deneuve adds that healthy sexuality can become the victim when a puritanical movement cannot or will not distinguish between peccadillos and outright crimes.
The reaction of some feminists to these opinions has been to label Atwood and Deneuve enemies not only of feminism but enemies of women in general. This is not an overreaction. I wish it were. Rather it is a refusal to listen with any care at all to what these two women are saying. People who are held in the grip of an ideology the way these feminists are are so crushed by it that they can hardly breathe and can no longer reason. Such people demand that one agree with them 100%. If one agrees only 95%, one is labeled an enemy. If all this sounds familiar, it's because human history is laced with this kind of thing. I think of the Joseph McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, the Salem witch trials, the acts of the Nazis and Stalinists, the Terror in 18th century France, the wars of religion in 16th century France, and the Inquisitions in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. The current instance pales a bit by comparison to those horrors, but the difference is one of degree and not of kind. Atwood and Deneuve, both of whom have contributed generously to our culture, should not be treated as pariahs for holding perfectly sane, logical, and, in fact, pro-feminist positions.