Feminists in Assange Case Doing Harm to Feminism

By legendary Swedish radio personality Helene Bergman.

Get It Try It

The preliminary investigation protocol into Julian Assange's romantic affairs is shocking reading for an old feminist from the 1970s. I who for years led Swedish Radio's legendary 'Radio Ellen' and fought for the rights of women and equality through innumerable reports describing women's reality. I who have lived my life in heterosexual relationships with a lot of lust and a lot of sex.

We do exist, we who love men and our sons. But after having read the protocol I feel a need to warn our sons about jumping into bed with unknown Swedish women in Sweden. Good god - it can end up in a rape allegation! I'd never have dreamt that a justified struggle for equality would wash over into a state-sponsored feminism that completely loses all its sensibility and sanity. State-sponsored feminism that regulates sex in the bedroom. Where claimant Anna Ardin can state the following in an interrogation about her relationship with Assange:

'I was really chuffed to have the coolest guy in the world living in my flat and sleeping in my bed.'

And then she goes to the police!

It seems as if women/feminists in a productive age have stopped taking responsibility for their sexual relationships. Instead they trust in the judicial system, the health care system, and the morning after pill.

In the 1970s we feminists fought for our right to lust and sexuality, not to make men criminals but so we could enjoy sex together with them. In addition we learned to trust our own survival instincts. Our own ability to assert a 'no', to stand our ground. Feminism is about strengthening women's self-esteem, not making them into tools of the state.

So let me stick out my feminist chin and state that after having read the protocol that at least the two women who filed charges against him have no knowledge of men's sexuality and/or were blinded by Assange's rock star status and halo. When it was later discovered he was an ordinary man in bed, their disappointment was too heavy to bear and then came the revenge instead and the women went to the police.

The way these women play with fire will most likely end in untold misery, not in the least for them.

They should therefore withdraw their complaints whilst they still have time. But that's not possible in Sofia Wilén's case because rape is a crime against the state. That's to say: the impersonal state-sponsored feminism has taken over and Wilén will simply have to await her fate.