Women on the left are notoriously loyal. We — yes, for now I will say we — can be relied upon for our votes, our labour, and our activism. We toe the party line and are excellent foot soldiers…mostly for movements that leave us behind. However, somewhere along the way we have been socialised and socialised ourselves to put every other cause above our own. One only need look at the state of feminism to see the results of this. Feminism is virtually meaningless because it is required to tick every other box on the planet before it can address its true purpose of the liberation of women and girls. It is the only movement in the world not allowed to centre itself in its activism, to accurately name its oppressors, and to accurately name itself.

Women on the left have done the grunt work for the men on podiums since forever. The nitty gritty boring jobs go to the ladies and the lads orate and narrate the process. The cries for equality and fairness have echoed around women for every cause but our own. Sure, the blokes on the left have learned the lines and are excellent at self-indulgent rants online about bodily autonomy and violence against women, but in practice they are as useless as tits on a bull.

Why then, are women so staunchly loyal to the men on the left? The men who will happily exploit their labour, but never bring themselves to fight for meaningful change for women? Fear. Manipulated by the fear of ostracism and conditioned to see the political landscape as ‘us vs them’ or ‘good vs bad’, women see the rest of politics as the oppressive ‘right’. Once tainted by conservative politics a person, publication, TV programme or whatever is off limits and “dangerous”. Women know that if they associate with someone or something that has been labeled transgressive they will be showing themselves to be a ‘bad’ liberal.

Having been taught that our primary role in life is to nurture and care for others, the masterstroke in leftist manipulation has been the proliferation of new oppressions that women are somehow responsible for preventing. Women fear being found to be inadequate allies or carers to those deemed more marginalised than them and so they will cast their own interests aside to preference the needs of others.

We, women, are held responsible for the minute actions of every human being we come into contact with. We are told not to speak to people who might otherwise help us if they have ever so much as thought a thought not sanctioned by progressive politics. If we seek resources outside of the boundaries decided by the gatekeepers of the left they will quickly point out the alleged racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, or bigotry of the person or group we’re associating with. The disapproval is loud and explicit and can come in the form of mass attacks. At their most manipulative, those on the left will warn a potential dissenter that a particular person or group are “misogynists” or have advocated against women’s rights. It is their trump card. How could any self-respecting woman on the left associate with a man who is so anti-feminist? If only some of the men on the left owned a mirror.

Women on the left are caged. We hold our opinions up as proof of our freedom. ‘Look!’ we cry, ‘we have radical opinions about society! We are strong women!” We forget that every opinion we hold is sanctioned because if we held an unsanctioned opinion we would be cast out. We are not allowed to question orthodoxies or challenge hierarchies of oppression. We are caged in an invisible prison of ideology and validation.

I never felt more endangered than when I became free. The cage was safe if I toed the line. People agreed with me readily when I repeated catch cries and talking points. I didn’t need to think ideas through beyond accepting that they were what had been agreed upon. But, once I dared to expose myself as a ‘bad’ liberal/feminist/leftist/woman I realised that I was free to say whatever I wanted because I was already exposed. Sure the death threats and rape threats and violent rhetoric were not very nice, but I felt like for the first time in a long time I wasn’t answerable to anyone. I could form an opinion myself, argue its merits, and be unafraid of losing anything…because I had already lost it all.

In the beginning I had to literally train myself to listen to diverse viewpoints again. I forced myself to read, listen, and watch people I would have rejected previously. I got better at remaining calm when listening to someone I disagree with and not seeing offence in every sentence. I listened to podcasts by people I had hated without knowing much about them at all. I was able to critically examine their opinions and my own and accept that while I still vehemently disagreed with them on many issues, we could agree on some stuff too.

I can also still agree with many of the ideas and concepts on the left, however, the tribalism and identity politics that has completely co-opted the left has made reasonable discourse difficult. Many on the left cannot accept the dialectic that you can both agree and disagree on separate issues simultaneously. To them one is only acceptable if they have proven themselves to agree with all of the groupthink prescribed opinions. To fall short on just one will see you denounced in the strongest of terms. It is an all or nothing situation.