A day in a year of celebrating feminism
Women, I have no advice. Wait, “never underestimate how much you are hated,” that’s a good one. Also, “be kind to yourself.” It turns out I have plenty of advice plus a list of names. I may have missed March 8 but to me, every day is International Women’s Day, and here’s a handful — it’s a baby’s hand — of women to celebrate this year. Naomi Klein — Klein’s book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, is the basic text of the modern era, the book you must buy, read, reread, study, treasure and pass on. Climate change is happening and we have to slow it down and prepare ourselves for the convulsion to come. Oh ye people of fire, flood, drought and frozen pipes, we’ll point at this book in the decades to come and go quiet at our raw young foolishness. Klein’s the Darwin of our time. How would Cole Porter put it, she’s a Botticelli, she’s Keats, she’s Shelley. She’s climate change’s diarist, Inferno’s Dante, she’s the top. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — I did not see how her pamphlet, We Should All Be Feminists, could win me over. It’s a printed TED talk. It’s not long enough, I thought, and the best books weigh at least 500 grams. I was wrong. This Nigerian novelist made her case, and then some. It’s a classic. Emily Bell — I first became aware of the great Bell in 2008 when a London teen- ager headed for his gap year in India, where he would blog for the Guardian, was viciously torn apart in the comments by envious people not in his fortunate position. It was class warfare. Bell, then the paper’s director of digital content, mused aloud that the paper had a “duty of care” towards the young man. “Duty of care” emerged from Donoghue v. Stevenson, the 1932 case of a Scotswoman who found a snail in her bottle of ginger beer, and the case against the bottler is the basis of the modern law of negligence. Every lawyer knows this, but I was entranced. Every time I write, I think of tort law and ask myself to whom is owed a duty of care. I always favour the weakest creature, so yes, it’s the snail (sadly deceased). Bell, a digital pioneer now teaching in New York, is a candidate for the editorship of the Guardian, along with several other great women. Michele Landsberg — She’s the columnist who introduced women’s rights to Canadian newspapers — “Here’s half your readership. Let’s shake hands” — and she has never been equalled. We met for lunch this week to discuss projects, and as always happens with Michele, I came away feeling intellectually and emotionally carbonated. How many people make me effervesce like that? About two, not counting family. Caitlin Moran — She’s the foremost populist feminist writer of our time, a brilliant thinker, a quick-witted woman of warmth and kindness. I fell in love with her memoir How to Be a Woman but her novel How to Build a Girl tugs at the soul. Moran was born poor in a difficult place and taught herself to write by intensive out-of-control reading at the local library. She’s not Britain’s national treasure, she is an international gold mine. Kathleen Wynne — With each public advance in gay rights, I used to quietly but actively worry about lesbians, who until recently were rarely mentioned and never in a favourable way. Who’s that woman in the back, I always wanted to say. Yes, you with the glasses and short hair, a Harriet the Spy all grown up, what do you have to say for yourself? The Harriets remained silent. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is a splendid person and a fine premier. Only incidentally do I mention that she is a lesbian but my point is that I am grateful that she exists, and can speak for women, as well as a female cohort that has had a perfectly hideous time of it throughout history. Beverley McLachlin — If one person has kept reasonable Canadians humming along in this Harper era of racism, stupidity, cruelty and dark despair, it’s the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. I see her court as an alternate government, a measured parliament of nine putting reason before passion. McLachlin was raised in Pincher Creek, Alta., apparently to do one job: maintain Canada’s good name. McLachlin’s court has defended safe injection sites, parole rules, death with dignity and the safety of prostitutes. She is Canada’s protector. Feminist men — Women’s rights won’t happen without the help of the men who fight at our side. Good guys, I salute you. We’re all in this together.