Broadside: Do women have the right to be controversial?

You can’t have feminism that’s about justice when you don’t have a just system.”

This weekend the Melbourne Town Hall was taken over by an unapologetically feminist agenda. The space came alive with with the defiant words of notable feminist writers, speakers and activists such as Zadie Smith, Monika Lewinsky and Fatima Bhutto. I eagerly went along to two talks, Taking Up Space and Rage Against the Machine.

I was enthused, enraged and enlivened by the thoughts, declarations and questions raised and articulated by the panelists and hosts. Here is sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom on how feminism has failed black women: “Do you want to change the situation for you or do you want to change the system for everyone?”

My mood was coloured by the earlier events of the week, when the Broadside edition of Q&A was pulled from ABC's online broadcast in response to hundreds of complaints. Feminism as a brand is popular, but the reality still makes people uncomfortable. The right to be provocative, bold and controversial is once again withheld from women. (You can watch the removed episode on Youtube.)

Tressie McMillan Cottom again:
“How quickly feminist ideas can be turned into commodity... How powerful but vulnerable it can become... They’re extracting the brand from the work and selling it back to you.”