Weldon: Power of women makes men change sex

MEN are changing gender in an attempt to cope with the dominance of women, a feminist author declared yesterday.

Fay Weldon claimed transgender issues are becoming more prominent because ‘the only way men have of fighting back against the natural superiority of women is by becoming women themselves’.

The novelist, 84, added that women now ‘have it better than men’ and that they can treat men in an ‘absolutely horrible’ way.

The comments from Miss Weldon, whose books include The Life and Loves of a SheDevil, follow other controversial statements from authors on gender issues.

Last week Ian McEwan, whose books include Atonement, attacked the claims of some transgender campaigners, telling an audience at a lecture: ‘I tend to think of people with penises as men’.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Miss Weldon said: ‘Feminism was necessary in the 1970s because men were so awful then. By the end of the 1980s they had realised what was going on and, to their credit, changed.

‘But women didn’t change and went on being victims. Now women can be absolutely horrible to men. Women have it better than men.’ She added: ‘Men invent things: if this were an all-woman society, we wouldn’t have television. We would have lots of nice cushions.’