Milo Yiannopoulos – self-hating misogynist?

Milo Yiannopoulos – self-hating misogynist?

By Samuel Mack-Poole

“Come not between a dragon and his wrath.” William Shakespeare, King Lear ACT 1 Scene 1.

“I’m talking about men, darling.” Milo Yiannopoulos, The Big Questions Sunday 15^th March 2015

Although I am an avid follower of current events, and despite being a fan of the blogosphere, it was only recently that I had the misfortune to come across Miles Yiannopoulos. In spite of being a straight white male, I am proud to be a LGBT advocate. Moreover, it is an ethical stance I am honoured to campaign for, as it goes to show that humans can actually care about the rights of others, even one is not part of a disadvantaged group.

And then we have Milo Yiannopoulos.

Yes, old Milo is not content with being a self-hating homosexual, he feels forced¹ to deny equal rights to gay teachers, too. If his loathing for homosexual rights was merely self-applied, I would find it in my heart to empathise with him. After all, one could rationalise gay self-loathing as a symptom of wanting to belong to a homophobic society. However, Yiannopoulos is not content with his absurd cognitive dissonance; he is somewhat evangelistic about it, too. 

Whilst watching Newsnight, I saw Yiannopoulos propose that gay teachers should refrain from talking about their private lives to their students.  One must add a caveat here, however, for the sake of objectivity, as I am a teacher. Thus, whilst my blog may be polemical but evidence based, in this instance it is more credible (as I am speaking from a perspective of relative expertise) but also quite anecdotal in what I write in response to his lazy, imprecise and inhumane point.

Yiannopoulos’ exact words were “a teacher’s job is to be a fairly impartial conveyer of knowledge”. He also stated that he was “confused” about the “need” for teachers to “out themselves”.  He also stated that he wished to be a parent one day, and that he was “uncomfortable” with the idea that his hypothetical future children would one day find out about their teacher’s homosexuality.  This is not only illogical, it’s also extremely puzzling. Surely, if he does have children, as a self professed gay man, he shall be behoved to have that conversation prior to his children entering school?

My daughter, a beautiful and rambunctious young girl, asked me before starting school if two men could marry. My answer was yes. I wasn’t embarrassed at all. However, if she had asked her primary school teacher about this, I would hope that she would echo what I had said. Bizarrely, this shouldn’t upset Milo Yiannopoulos, as gay men and women have the legal right to marry in the UK, and by informing my daughter about this, the teacher would merely be a fairly impartial conveyer of knowledge.

He is guilty of ignoratio elenchi with regard to his opinions on teaching. Teachers are behoved to make children reflect about their ethical values, and part of this is embedded in family values. Most secondary school teachers are form tutors, and students will usually have a head of year. It is the role of the form tutor and the head of year to cater for a student’s spiritual**, moral, social, and cultural education. Every country in the world embeds their cultural DNA within the ethos of education.  As the UK is a country which has legalised gay marriage, and as gay rights are embedded in British law, every single school in the country, and I include faith schools in this, are obliged to reflect clear levels of respect for homosexuals.

Implicit within this acceptance is the human right a gay teacher has to speak of their love for their partner, or their children. I have talked to my students about my wife and my daughter, so why would it be remiss of gay teachers to do the same? By feeling forced to be absurdly reticent about their sexuality, gay teachers must feel that they are denying the essence of who they are to their students, and they must, as a consequence, feel that their lives are not equal to that of heterosexuals. Now, if Milo Yiannopolous wants to, set the record (dare I say it) straight on this topic, that is more than fine with me.

Now, to tackle the other part of the title of this piece, is Milo Yiannopoulos a misogynist? His attitude in conversation with women on the panel of The Big Questions wasn’t helpful, that’s for sure. The quote in reference to his comment at the top of this essay doesn’t, and can’t by its very nature as it is merely the written word, reflect his sneering tone when speaking. His comments were so inflammatory that Kate Smurthwaite felt incensed enough to comment that she was “tempted” to leave the show.

He was so rude, so vulgar to Christine Brown-Quinn, author of Step Aside Super Woman, that he fell into a fit of immature giggling – cue a super cringe from the audience – and Kate Smurthwaite was incensed, and quite rightly, too.

It is all a terrible shame, because within Milo Yiannopoulos’ contemptuous tone were some interesting points. His cited that there had been a feminisation of education, and that this had been harmful to boys. I would have to agree with this. I think gender balance is of the highest salience, and we do have a clear issue in society when the education of primary school aged children is deemed a woman’s job. What is more masculine than having a direct impact on the future? What a curious world we live in.

Nevertheless, Yiannopoulos’ point was countered by Smurthwaite most quickly – she stated that his point about boys being prescribed Ritalin was not the fault of women, but of big pharma. Personally, I see the issue as not one or the other as I don’t favour binary logic in complex matters, but as a synthesis of both; patriarchy leading to feminism leading to a dysfunctional consequence.

To personalise this experience a little further, I became embroiled in a twitter war between Milo Yiannopolous and Smurthwaite. Again, I must confess something... I am a humanist, as is Smurthwaite. I felt that her contribution to the show was great, within the debate mentioned her, as well as he contribution to apostasy, and I tweeted her as a consequence. What I wasn’t aware of was the fact that I had opened a Pandora’s Box of hatred by making such a gesture.

Twitter is a website I dislike, but it is effective as a news source, as well as networking with likeminded individuals. I dislike it because comments come out of nowhere and seem aggressive as a result. You can also be swarmed by a well-organised bunch of trolls, not keen on intelligent debate but “yah boo” politics worthy of the plebs in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. One user, claiming to be a Christian female, actually stated “Yay Patriarchy” whilst in a debate with me.

All I can conclude from my debates on twitter is that I shouldn’t debate on twitter.

Speaking of conclusions, I should refocus this piece as the end is nigh. Whilst Milo Yiannopoulos is unquestionably guilty of self-hatred in his ardent desire to make homosexual teachers deny themselves, his attitude to women is in question. I feel uncomfortable in calling him a misogynist, as I can’t state with total certainty that he sincerely hates women. Nonetheless, his manners are in question, but I think this is merely a pompous caricature. It is one he presents as he obviously has an insatiable desire for air time. Nevertheless, his attitude on The Big Questions certainly appeared sexist, and he should reflect good and hard upon this matter. Is this really the legacy he wants to leave behind?

¹I chose my vocabulary very carefully there: I feel the word choice is exact, as opinions seemed to have been forced into his mind by a society which still proposes that homophobia is acceptable.

²This part I am not comfortable with (obviously). Faith has no place in education, and although one can be spiritual without being religious, the word has a significant resonance with those who don’t value empiricism.