Why are feminists so terrified of women’s freedom?

Zoe Strimpel’s new book, Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free, was never going to go down well among today’s media feminists. After all, the quasi age of fourth-wave feminism we’re currently living through is one dedicated to misery. Women are told that all areas of life, from dating to jogging, are full of dark and scary dangers. It is not a propitious moment to publish a book called Good Slut.

But what is surprising is just how unpopular Strimpel’s defence of women’s freedom has proven among ‘progressive’ feminists and right-wingers alike. It seems that everyone, from the new wave of reactionary feminists to the Everyday Sexism crew to right-wing incels, is terrified of the choices free women might make.

Reading the reviews, it seems that the greatest crime Strimpel has committed is arguing that life for Western women is better than it ever has been. When Good Slut argues that it’s easier to be a girl today than it was in the 1960s, a Spectator writer counters with the claim that at least the sexist society of old didn’t have mobile phones creating ‘new forms of harassment’. When Good Slut points out that women, as a whole, aren’t routinely and institutionally oppressed any longer, the Observer cites the sexual abuse of Gisèle Pelicot, the murder of Sarah Everard and, of course, Jeffrey Epstein to suggest that things are even worse than ever. Even the optimistic tone of Good Slut got under the skin of some reviewers. As the New Statesman put it, ‘while this may technically be the best time to be a woman in the West, that’s like saying it is the best time in history to have a vital limb amputated’.

Strimpel is unequivocal in her preference for what makes a good life as a woman: lots of sex and lots of power. And though she may use some cringeworthy examples of women she thinks exemplify her kind of liberal utopia (Bonnie Blue – really?), Strimpel’s main argument is that whatever your flavour of freedom, the alternative is worse. ‘Failure to be at political and moral peace with women’s right to promiscuity’, she argues, ‘can only degrade a society’. Instead, she writes, we must insist ‘without shame’ on defending freedom, one of ‘the core Enlightenment values that still just about makes the West the West’. Women might do things you don’t like with their freedom, but it’s their freedom.

There is lots to disagree with in Good Slut. Strimpel’s advocacy for a pro-capitalist, ‘cock-carousel’-riding ‘careerist bitch’ will not be for everyone, and her dismissal of the issues surrounding motherhood and women’s freedom is a failing. But none of this is what is twisting the knickers of so many who claim to be speaking in women’s best interests. For them, Strimpel’s cardinal sin is her embrace of the potential for women to have it all. ‘There is something much more optimistic afoot, and, curiously, something way more controversial to say out loud’, she writes: ‘This is a great time to be a woman.’

Why are so many feminists so down on the idea of a feminism of freedom? It’s because free women take risks and, in our current fearful, pessimistic era, taking risks is just about the worst thing you could ever do. Suggesting that women – especially young women – should take a few leaps into the unknown for their own good appears reprehensible to many opinion-formers today. This despite there being little actual, material evidence that women would come to any harm.

It’s unfair to suggest that Strimpel is ‘waving away’ the problems women still face. Much of Good Slut acknowledges all these and more. Institutional sexism might be a thing of the past, but most women will still experience unpleasant interactions with the hairier sex at least once in their lifetime. From abortion rights to domestic abuse, there are serious challenges still to overcome.

But to overcome these challenges, the last thing women need is today’s downbeat politics of fear. They need confidence and a determination to live life on their own terms. They need to ‘grab life by the ovaries’, as Strimpel puts it.

Good Slut is a vital riposte to the miserablist outlook of today’s professional feminists. It poses the question: would you rather be free, or feel safe in chains? Our futures could well depend on the answer.

Ella Whelan is the author of The Case For Women’s Freedom, the latest in the Academy of Ideas’ radical pamphleteering series, Letters on Liberty.

Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free, by Zoe Strimpel, is published by Constable.