The man in the audience is calling me a liar. He sits a few rows back, behind the women and the handful of men who have come to hear me do my talk about anti-capitalism and feminism, about sexual politics and the backlash against women’s freedom in the west. He speaks with dull rage. He calls me a fantasist and a lunatic, tells me that men and women are as equal as they’re ever going to be or need to be, that I’m hysterical, attention-seeking. I’ve met this guy before. I’ve met him with different faces, always in his mid-thirties, in a vicious mood and often, curiously enough, in one of those pseudo-liberal campaign groups that fights tirelessly for free speech – except when it’s women talking about feminism, because those bitches need to shut up already.
In the past month I’ve given talks all over Europe, mainly speaking about with Meat Market, my little anti-capitalist-feminist pop-theory book, doing interviews and discussions and readings in twelve cities. If this particular talk were happening in Italy, someone would have turned around and laughed in this guy’s face. In Britain you’d have had a bit of cross muttering followed by quietly furious people coming up to me after the event to ask if I’m sure I’m okay and isn’t it shocking, which is British for “this is fucked beyond belief”. But this is Germany, and the room is an orgy of polite silence. And suddenly I’m tired beyond words.
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