Since when did infantilising grown women pass for feminism?

I’ve witnessed a successful politician reduced by some of those commenting from the sidelines to a feeble little girl, incapable of standing up to the bigger kids on the playground.

I’ve watched an astute negotiator be diminished as someone who can’t handle criticism, who didn’t expect to receive it, and who needs an army of keyboard warriors to protect her from it.

Strangely, these unflattering representations have come not from Forbes’s opponents, but from those who claim to be her supporters, or at least defenders.

Remember, this is a woman who, by the age of 34, has spent three years as the cabinet secretary for finance, run a close campaign for the leadership of her party and country, and leveraged a unique position of influence to secure herself the second most senior position in the Scottish Government – all while parenting an infant and three stepchildren.

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Whatever else you might say about Forbes, that’s impressive.

Yet for some reason, there are those who seem to believe they are doing Forbes a favour by using her status as a “young woman” as an indicator of helplessness, and describing any criticism she receives as “misogyny”. Since when did infantilising grown women pass for feminism?

This certainly isn’t any kind of feminism that I recognise, and at a time when progress on gender equality is so precarious, this kind of cynical misappropriation only serves to make matters worse.

Misogyny is a very real issue in Scotland today. It’s why the Scottish Government’s plans to introduce a law to criminalise misogyny for the first time are so welcome.

But that’s an effort which will not be without its challenges at a moment when the future of feminism – as a movement, as a school of thought, as an increasingly mainstream way of life – is under sustained attack on multiple fronts.

Faced with a world where, in large parts of it at least, equality between men and women is becoming normalised, there has been a resurgence of far-right political actors across Europe and the US who regard the very concept of gender as a threat to their patriarchal ideal.

The language of this movement, which believes in the natural and immutable subservience of women, has found its way through the backdoor into mainstream discourse in the UK. A prime and stark example of this was BBC Newsnight’s uncritical use of the ominous term “gender ideology” just last week.

Closely linked to this, but not always transparently, are the online “men’s rights activists” who are working to radicalise young men into a misogynistic, anti-feminist worldview.

Social media algorithms are aiding and abetting this propaganda project by repeatedly recommending extreme content and misinformation from the “manosphere” to this demographic. And based on polling on the popularity of anti-feminist figures like Andrew Tate – who has been charged with trafficking and rape of women – it’s working.

Meanwhile, the word “feminism” has been diluted and distorted beyond recognition by a consumerist, neoliberal agenda which would rather celebrate individual success or sell a product to the next generation of “girl bosses” than advance a collective movement for the radical redistribution of power – or, better still, the restructuring and reimagining of what power even means.

In the midst of these existential threats, self-described feminists around the UK are tearing each other apart over trans inclusion. Women’s organisations in Scotland can’t post to social media or host an event about gender equality without it being derailed by debates over this single topic.

Caught in a flurry of extremes, it becomes hard for intelligent, important discussions to be had – and there are many worth having.

Girls still in school are being sexually harassed or told that they’re inferior to men, because some TikTok influencer said so.

Sexual assault remains such a common part of the female experience that, for a moment there, it looked like we might be able to change something through the sheer force of our collective voice, saying “enough is enough” before the world returned to business as usual and men who had been “cancelled” were on our screens once again.

Women are still underrepresented in politics, in the media, and on boards, and are often underestimated, belittled, or subject to more abuse from the public when they are there.

Yet any effort to highlight any of these alarming issues is effectively being filibustered. It doesn’t matter what we want to talk about – women are being told to shut up until we answer the questions on someone else’s agenda.

So, do I think misogyny is an issue in Scotland? I think it might well be THE issue. But to the people who are using that word as a weapon to further their own political and personal ends in response to reasonable criticism – I’m sorry, but you’re part of the problem.

Feminism is not about shielding everyone who happens to be a woman from any form of criticism. In fact, if a woman in a position of power expresses views which could be seen to undermine the rights and equality of women as a group, critiquing those views is a feminist act.

In this particular instance, the criticisms have been levelled at a high-profile politician’s assertion that she would have voted against marriage equality for same-sex couples had she been an MSP at the time, her participation in pro-life events as an MSP, and her defence of the right to “silent prayer” outside of abortion facilities.

When considering whether sexism is at play in any given situation, it makes sense to ask the question: would people say the same thing, in the same way, about a man?

So, let’s put some of the recent “defences” of the Deputy First Minister to the same test: would the same people be engaging in outcry that a “young man” would be spoken to in the same manner?

Or, are they leaning into a narrative that, as a woman below middle age, Forbes is inherently more defenceless?

I don’t think such a framing is helpful to Forbes, and I certainly don’t think it’s helpful to the cause of gender equality.

So, I’ll stick to assuming that as an adult, a professional, and a parent, our Deputy First Minister is capable of hearing that people fundamentally disagree with her views, and focus my energy on recognising and condemning real misogyny and gender bias when I see it.

There’s certainly enough of it.