Fay Weldon’s unusual feminism

Fay Weldon has made plenty of enemies, and most of them are female, says Bryony Gordon in the London Daily Telegraph. The 78-year-old British writer has provoked the fury of feminists for saying that women should fake orgasms, that rape isn’t the worst thing that could befall them, and that anger in women is … unattrac­tive. If other women don’t like her views, she says, that’s just too bad. “I’m probably the only feminist there is, and the others are all out of step.” She parted company with her sisters, she explains, when they turned men into the enemy. “The battle became too fierce, and the whole culture encouraged women to believe that men are stupid, useless creatures. But they’re actually much nicer.” Now that feminism is mainstream, the thrice-married Weldon allows that its advocates are “getting a bit better.” She even thinks the movement has been a positive force: “Life is much better, because you are not dependent on the goodwill of men.” But Weldon still thinks that until women embrace gender differences, they’ll be disappointed. “Women want their boyfriends to be like their girlfriends, fun to go to the pictures with, but men are not like that. They want sex and they grunt. If you really want a man to be nice to you, never give him a hard time, never talk about emotions, and never ask him how he is feeling.”

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