Embracing the #femfog: Session at
the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 6, 2016, organized by
Bettina Bildhauer, chaired by Diane Watt
Reviewed by Debbie White (d.white.2@research.gla.ac.uk)
Reviewed by Debbie White (d.white.2@research.gla.ac.uk)
Embrace the #femfog:
Diversity, Medievalism and Moving Beyond Frantzen
As a first-timer at
IMC 2016, I arrived on the Sunday evening in Leeds not entirely sure what to
expect, armed only with the alarmingly thick programme, a notebook and more
spare pens than I knew what to do with. One of the highlights of the
conference, however, was a session which was not included in the programme; a
late addition to proceedings focused on ‘embracing the femfog’, which took
place on Wednesday lunchtime. The eight panellists, all of whom spoke
articulately (and impressively for academics, kept to time!) were Helen Young,
Elaine Treharne, Robert Stanton, Christina Lee, Dorothy Kim, Jonathan Hsy, Liz
Herbert McAvoy, and David Bowe, and the session was chaired by Diane Watt.
Perhaps due to its
late scheduling, the demographic of the room was noticeably skewed towards the
younger end of the scale, and as I observed at the time in a somewhat
tongue-in-cheek tweet, ‘There are more people
with brightly coloured hair than there are white men in this room.’
It is perhaps
inevitable that an event such as this would attract an audience consisting of
those most affected by the issues under discussion, but the danger that
accompanies this is that it becomes a matter of preaching to the choir (as
useful as having a safe space in which to share experiences with those who have
undergone similar things can be); the Frantzens of this world remain unaffected
and their views unchallenged, and the anger of those who see our field and our
identities under attack risks being unheard. Fortunately, Twitter came into its
own, and #femfog became a trending topic; for those who were not there, I’d
highly recommend investigating the record of proceedings as found on Twitter,
for a snapshot of the passion and energy in the room. It has been helpfully
storified by Shyama Rajendran, and can be found here:
For those who are
unaware of the impetus behind this session, a quick overview of the events that
led to it; #femfog began trending on Twitter in January, after posts were found
on Allen Frantzen’s blog which would not have been out of place on Reddit. They
spoke of the ‘femfog’, the ‘sour mix of victimization and privilege that
makes up modern feminism and that feminists use to intimidate and exploit men
...’ and the need to ‘clear the fog of feminist propaganda’. The
offending posts have now been removed, but they contained references to ‘red
pill’ and MRA culture, and were entirely dismissive of feminism as a personal,
political, and academic necessity. Frantzen’s comments had been posted some
time before they were discovered and given a wide airing on social media, but
in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, he defended his
arguments, claiming that his opponents merely accused him of ‘hating women’
rather than engaging with the substance of his ideas.[1]
Frantzen’s blog
attracted such levels of attention in part because of his status as a respected
academic and medievalist, and particularly as someone who has worked to bring
queer studies into medievalism. The seeming lack of understanding of
intersectionality made the discovery of the blog all the more shocking.
As Dorothy Kim noted,
Frantzen is not merely a private citizen; his status as an academic gives his
words weight, whether published in a blog or in more traditional modes. This is
particularly true as the blog on which these views were published also included
a list of his academic scholarship, as though this gives credence and weight to
the misogyny spouted. However shrouded in his academic achievements, however,
the similarities of the language used by Frantzen to that found in MRA culture,
and associated with phenomena such as gamergate (the controversy around
harassment and sexism in gaming culture, which began with sexist attacks, death
threats and harassment of games developer Zoe Quinn) or Roosh V (an American
blogger and self-proclaimed ‘pick up artist’ who has been criticised for his
misogynistic ideas and promotion of rape) cannot be ignored.
Such views are not
merely online ramblings; they have an effect far beyond an isolated series of
blog posts – they are rather reflective of a wider culture within academia and
society in which women routinely face harassment and may struggle to find their
work accepted, especially for those working within fields which deal with
gender, race, sexuality or disability. These range from microaggressions
(examples were given of male scholars rolling their eyes at women using the
language of heteronormativity in academic contexts) to sexual harassment at
conferences and academic events, the scale of which was uncovered in work
undertaken by the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship. Of the 432
respondents to their survey, 70% reported being on the receiving end of
harassment, and the culprits were often repeat offenders. Such a statistic is
likely to surprise no one who has experience of being a woman or non-binary
person in academia.
The discussion at the
IMC panel revealed that many women medievalists have faced such struggles, and
swiftly turned to ideas of how improvements can be made, especially for those
of us at the beginning of our academic careers, who are often most vulnerable
to structural injustices and have the least power to speak out against them.
Mentoring, and the importance of role models and support structures, was seen
as an important step towards addressing some of these issues. For young
scholars starting out in the field, older women who have experienced some of
the same battles and hurdles can be of vital importance, and many of the panel
and audience members spoke fondly of their own experiences of mentoring and
being mentored. This extends beyond the ‘gender question’ of course, and
sexuality and race in particular are areas where seeing role models who reflect
one’s own identity is an invaluable part of being supported in developing
oneself as an academic. Discussions on Twitter in the aftermath of the sadly
time-limited panel also highlighted disability and class as areas in which
diversity is noticeably lacking in the field. Anglo-Saxon studies in particular
was highlighted as being an overwhelmingly white field, and Helen Young spoke
of the rarity of encountering any openly queer women in her first ten years of
academia. This applies both to the subjects of our study and to those who are
teaching and writing; diversity must appear both in the pages of our textbooks
and on our presentation slides and in the names on the front of those
textbooks. Perhaps due to my own focus in my research on women religious, I was
fortunate enough to make it through the entire conference without attending a
single all-male panel, an experience that may not be either universal or
representative of the IMC, but the majority of panels I attended were
all-white. Jonathan Hsy noted the importance of interrogating attitudes within
one’s own community, particularly a call for gay men to look for, call out, and
rid their communities of misogyny, but also a reminder for white academia to be
vigilant against racism and whitewashing.
Alongside mentorship
and diversifying the field, both in terms of the subjects of our research and
the people in our classrooms, other practical options for action were
discussed. One important issue raised was the need for conferences such as
Kalamazoo and Leeds to have clear codes of conduct related to harassment and
for appropriate action to be taken in the event of such being reported. Refusal
to participate in structures and institutions which continue to permit
harassment and misogyny was brought up as an important weapon at our disposal,
though with the important caveat that withdrawing participation is not
necessarily a tool equally available to all; a PhD student or ECR may find they
have fewer options at their disposal than a more established senior colleague.
Again, here is where the importance of mentorship and of cross-generational
support structures and solidarity cannot be overestimated; the call goes out to
those senior, established scholars amongst us to use what power they have
within the institution for those of us with less of a voice. There was a
noticeable absence on the panel of a PhD student, and this was brought up in
the discussion; the reason for this was that the burden of labour can fall
disproportionately on younger scholars and this was judged to be an unfair
position to put somebody in. The risk of speaking out against misogyny in the
field is by nature far greater for someone in a more precarious employment
situation or who has not yet had the opportunity to establish themself.
The discussion
concluded with a focus on kindness; being kind to others and being kind to
yourself. We are often encouraged to be competitive, especially as jobs become
harder to find – at one point post-Brexit, there were more openings for leaders
of political parties in the UK than there were vacancies for positions in
medieval history. I can barely go a week, it seems, without another article
appearing on my social media timeline about the difficulties of finding a
permanent academic job. This creates an atmosphere of competition, in which the
values of mentorship and solidarity can be forgotten in the surrounding angst.
Academia can be a punishing environment for anyone, and particularly for those
with mental health conditions. This can be amplified when fighting against
viewpoints such as those espoused by Frantzen and others - for it is important
to remember that he is not an isolated case; his thoughts are not his alone,
and while his blog was the catalyst for the femfog discussion on Twitter and at
Leeds, it is clear that they are simply part of a backdrop of misogyny and
harassment which goes much further than any one individual or institution. Despite
what may seem like a rather depressing and demotivating thought, I left the
femfog panel feeling uplifted – the shared passion of scholars to create a
field which is diverse, welcoming, kind and supportive was impossible to
ignore, and my hope, a hope which I believe is shared by most of those in the
room, is that that energy is not left behind in July 2016, but will be taken
forward to academic institutions across the world, and shared with those
colleagues who were not present, to make it a reality. As Jonathan Hsy said in
his ‘tweetable summary’ of his thoughts, ‘keep on fighting, whoever you are and
wherever you are’.
Debbie White
University of Glasgow