Margaret Atwood Responds To Backlash Of #MeToo Criticism: Is She A ‘Bad Feminist’?

Margaret Attwood is by all intents and purposes a feminist icon, whether she chooses to identify as one or not. Her 40-year career churning out female-driven literature, poetry and essays, including The Handmaids Tale, explored and evolved the female narrative and inspired young women across the Globe to identify as feminist. It is this status that has given her a platform on which to advocate for women’s rights. However, she is also, seemingly, a tried and true second wave feminist, which in the current age presents some problems.

When she signed an Open Letter (UBC Accountable) to the University of British Columbia in in November 2016, she declared her support of Steven Galloway- an accused rapist- and criticized the way in which his university treated him before, during and after the case. Steven Galloway was found innocent, and Margaret signed the letter, which asked for transparency from the university about a ‘flawed system’ that fired him despite his innocent verdict, presumably viewing his case as a (relatively rare) incidence of false rape allegation. But what she fails to acknowledge is that there's another 'flawed system' at work - one where many rapists are found innocent thanks to a justice system that works against victims rather than for them.

The problem with this, which many feminists jumped on, was that just because there was not enough evidence to convict in any given case, it does not mean the accused is automatically innocent. It is extremely difficult to prove rape cases, and only 4% of rape allegations are found to be false in the UK. This is the same in the US and Europe, where rates vary between 2-4%. In Canada, where this case took place, the rate of false rape allegations is lower than any other crime while only 6 out of every 100 sexual assaults are actually reported. All of this speaks to a larger problem, which feminists told Margaret upon her support of this document. Her huge platform and status as a ‘feminist hero’ gives weight to a letter which in the grand scheme of things undermines the rape survivors and victims who fear to come forward.

It was this attack that she addressed this week, publishing her own open letter in The Globe and Mail titled Am I A Bad Feminist?. In the letter, she details her reasons for signing the letter, not entirely addressing the concerns that are raised or engaging with them in detail. She also discusses the #MeToo movement, which has caused further controversy.

In her words, the movement is the result of a failed justice system. True. She goes on to speculate a world in which we surpass the justice system, as #MeToo did, implying it would be too extreme. While her fears of online justice are well-founded – the power of the internet to ruin someone’s life regardless of a defense or trial is terrifying – to compare the ‘vigilante justice’ of #MeToo to Stalin’s USSR or the Red Guard in China, where justice was taken into the hands of someone who believed they knew better, is obscene.

Feminists online have of course taken issue with this. She is being accused of ignoring valid criticism, dismissing the views of younger women and writing a self-indulgent response which victimizes herself rather than addressing the root cause of her ‘bad feminist’ reputation.

It’s not the first time she’s been given this reputation. The Handmaids Tail, feminist mouthpiece that it is, has come under fire for its obsession with the white experience. Taking the history of black women and applying it to her white main characters, is quite obviously problematic. What makes it worse is the show’s casting aside of women of colour, never exploring their narratives while seemingly stealing from their own history.

It’s a lacking in intersectionality that second wave feminism is known, and criticized, for. The application of feminism only to you and your problems isn’t what we have come to support as modern-day feminists. Given that she is also a privileged, wealthy, older, white woman, her views aren’t even that surprising, they’re just a bit disappointing. It’s all well and good to believe in a world where women and men are equal and we can speak to individual cases of sexual assault where possibly a man IS falsely accused, but it’s not real life. These incidents can’t be treated as isolated because every precedent we set influences the ongoing struggle against rape culture.

Margaret has done AMAZING things for feminism, her main critics are often the women who grew up on her literature, eager to explore the conversation further and engage in healthy debate. That’s why her response has been so disappointing, because in this age we demand accountability and we expect an evolution of understanding when it comes to feminism. For her to disregard her critics, especially when it comes from women who only wish to educate people and evolve the feminist agenda, is obviously upsetting to the many women who have been influenced by her huge body of work.

Debating feminism doesn’t have to mean women are at war, to which she alludes in her open letter. It is the healthiest and most useful way of advancing the conversation and working together toward a better, more progressive feminist agenda. Whether that’s what we’re doing right now is the question.

On the bright side, this very incident, where two versions of feminism meet and the chasms of each wave are blatant, is a positive step forward in discussing feminist notions at length and possibly turning some older second wavers into modern day intersectional feminists. Margaret Atwood might not necessarily be one of them, but we can at least hope to have recruited a few more.

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.