- Feminist group claims to be safe space – really forum for bullying
- Favourite targets ‘posh’ women who are ‘too privileged’ to speak
- I was attacked and silenced for running anti-rape campaign
Trigger warnings, safe spaces – writing in the 21st century has a new rule book. Fail to acknowledge this, fail to conform, and you can find yourself in hot water very, very quickly.
Stirring the pot at Oxford, where I study, are a band of new-age censors who rally under the banner of Cuntry Living, a grim pun on the British society magazine of similar name.
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The movement, some 13,000-strong, masquerades as an online safe space and self-care feminist love-in. But in reality it is nothing more than a forum for bullying.
Although it started at Oxford, Cuntry Living has spread far further, and is now a watchword for thought-policing and right-on paranoia across the country.
Anyone insufficiently oppressed, not au fait with feminist jargon, or possessed of the wrong opinions is promptly convicted, tarred, and thrown out.
I should know – it happened to me.
My crime? Campaigning against sexual assault while white and ‘posh’.
A friend and I started a social media campaign, NoMeansNo, after two friends were sexually assaulted by fellow students.
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We wanted to raise awareness, and get people discussing consent – right up Cuntry Living’s street, you might think. Not so. A thread struck up to judge the campaign soon turned vitriolic – not because of what we did, but who we were.
Some took issue with how we ran our campaign – fair enough. But it soon devolved into the classic Cuntry Living approach – picking apart the identities of women they have an issue with. White, straight and privately educated – we never stood a chance. Before I had a chance to say a thing I found myself thrown out.
And I am hardly alone. I’ve heard of plenty more summary executions on Cuntry Living, which carry a social stigma that leaks into real life.
Ten friends of mine – some of whom, God forbid, went to Eton – were booted out for as little as “liking” a comment. Privilege insufficiently checked, they are sent packing.
Meanwhile the pool of voices left to debate whether it is polyphobic to call someone heteroflexible, or whether your hair plait is cultural appropriation dwindles ever-narrower.
Even if you do find these boys offensive, you will hardly bring them round with banishment. Instead, the massive chip on Cuntry Living’s collective shoulder undermines everything they do.
At the heart of this mendacious culture is a team of six essentially all-powerful admins. They decide what can be said and whether, ultimately, you are too privileged to have a voice at all. And they all refuse to talk about it.
I contacted all six of them in the hope of a robust defence, but none would answer my questions. They don’t appear on campus, never do debates – most aren’t even at Oxford any more.
Those apparently accountable for the group are, in fact, unaccountable.
Cuntry Living is so damaging. It makes people’s lives more difficult. It curbs free speech and belittles those actually trying to do something.
It can no longer pretend to be a noble cause; it is much too far-gone for that. For a discussion group they are not very keen on discussion. A safe space? Perhaps – but one of the most dangerous safe spaces of all.
