On having a vagina

Today I read an excellent blog piece (which you can read here if you want to) on Samantha Brick-gate, the column by Grazia and Daily Mail "writer", where her self delusion reaches previously unattained levels when she claims she is just too beautiful for any women to want to be friends with her. Sob sob, ahem, yes we're all sure that's why women don't like you, love. The author of the blog explains just why this is so hilarious far better than I could, but something she says in the final paragraph particularly stuck with me.

"...'the sisterhood'? Yukkk! There's no such thing, love! Having a vagina doesn't automatically make you part of some 'team'!"

Having a vagina doesn't make you part of some team. It just doesn't. Last week The Vagenda came under some trolling from some of the delightful Grazia-cum-Femail-cum-Heat magazine crew on twitter. Now if you don't know who The Vagenda are, go and find out right now. They systematically deconstruct the utter bile produced by the Grazis with supreme wit and brilliance (for example, see the Daily Mail's delightful piece of advertising revenue arse-kissing tripe on how "National Cleavage Day empowers us all because cleavage, ladies, helps us to "get ahead" in the workplace, since we aren't blessed with intelligence or ambition like men are). Anyway, so Polly Vernon, the sometime Grazia columnist and another self-professed "other women hate me because I'm skinny" (and presumably because you can't find anything more interesting to write about love) whinger had the following tweet-off with the Vagenda girls:

Polly: "Ladies of twitter, what dress size would you like to be?"

Vagenda: "We couldn't give a rats ass."

Polly: "omg, you guys are so cool...I really love and respect the way you slag off other women...cos that's feminism..."

Hang on a second. (Ignore for a moment that impressive overreaction - paranoid much?) How is it not feminist? Where is it written in the Woman Contract we all sign at birth that we have betrayed our sisterhood if we express anything other than gushing admiration for another member of our sex? We aren't all one big happy family of kitten-cuddling cupcake-loving (but not eating) underwear-clad slumber party-goers. Fuck that. Some women are great. Some are total twats. Just like some men are great and some are total twats. We're all the human race, "the guys" if you like. Aside from the fact that this is a spectacular double standard from Ms Vernon, who makes a living from helping her readers feel shit about themselves, there is nothing anti feminist about disliking some women and what they do or say or stand for, and talking about it. In fact, it's 'anti-feminist' to treat all women like we're one big sisterhood, and by extension, essentially all the same. It isn't "us against all the men". Having a vagina doesn't make me part of some team. Fuck that.