BEING a woman, sometimes I give you blokes a bit of a hard time.
Ya know, for the crime of being blokes.
APFor every little weasel like Andrew Tate, there are the Andrea Tates of TikTok and YouTube, ones influencing impressionable young women[/caption]
Being something of a feminist (although I absolutely like doors being held for me and merrily accept a proffered Tube seat on a packed commuter train, no questions asked), it’s important I challenge things like the gender pay gap, and champion women in sport.
But, wow. In 2025, I’m beginning to feel sorry for you chaps. And on behalf of the sisterhood, I’m sorry.
Because there’s a new “third-wave feminism” in town: The toxic femosphere.
It’s a place where rabid, man-hating women meet up to slag off blokes, and try to take advantage of them to “redress the balance”.
Netflix’s Adolescence was the streamer’s breakout series of 2025, and highlighted the dangers of online misogyny. But for every little weasel like Andrew Tate, there are the Andrea Hates of TikTok and YouTube, the ones influencing impressionable young women and giving them tips on how to con the opposite sex.
Their raison d’etre, being somewhat confused and largely nonsensical as all woke ideology tends to be, is basically skewed feminism on steroids.
The Suffragettes campaigned for equality, freedom and dignity, but these women, hiding behind obscure nicknames and fake avatars, are doing the very opposite.
Often, they pit woman against woman. I had a recent taster of the femosphere after writing about Kate Cassidy, the girlfriend of late One Direction star Liam Payne.
It was a piece explaining how the American influencer, whom I interviewed and found to be very sweet, could, on a technicality, be entitled to a chunk of his will.
This was met with a veritable barrage of abuse, because the femosphere is both febrile and tribal.
Fans went into a wormhole, finding old articles I’d written, accusing me of being a paid mouthpiece of Simon Cowell (absolutely no idea what he has to do with anything, but still) and accusing me of being a woman-hater, or trying to get a cut of the will.
It literally made no sense.
Femosphere fans, meanwhile, piled in, telling Kate she should get every penny she could, that she was entitled to it all.
It’s a mad world out there. Confusingly, these third-wave feminists also love the idea of the #tradwife — a woman baking, cooking, cleaning, making home — which, to my unradicalised mind, surely goes against everything Emmeline and Co fought for.
But they also believe it is the job of Modern Woman to redress the perceived evils of years gone by, and punish a chap for the mistakes of his great-great-great grandad.
Perceived evils
So if a man takes a woman out for dinner now, it is no longer feminism to split the bill, oh no. The man must pay for years of “gender oppression”.
Anyone childless over 40 who dares to celebrate their kid-free life is also called a freak — never mind their personal circumstances — and trolled to hell and back. Aw, the sisterhood!
GettyI was met with a veritable barrage of abuse after writing about Kate Cassidy, because the femosphere is both febrile and tribal[/caption]
NetflixNetflix’s Adolescence was the streamer’s breakout series of 2025, and highlighted the dangers of online misogyny but we have a toxic femosphere too[/caption]
Arguably, “Femcels” are every bit as weird and unpalatable as their male counterparts.
This is a generation of celibate women living online, and one with more than 17million followers is a Femluencer, who advises her followers to be “spoiled” by their male partners.
In her video, called the “Princess treatment”, women are encouraged to say (without irony): “I would appreciate it if you gave me some money, like an allowance.”
Women must “embrace feminine energy” to secure a husband, followers of femfluencers are told. This, they believe, is empowering.
Excuse me while I retch into my salary- bought rucksack . . .
RACH’S KILLER NEW LOOK
WHAT a legacy, eh.
Single-handedly, poor ol’ Rachel Reeves has been credited with killing off the trouser suit.
The Chancellor’s ten-month reign has largely been dominated by an array of power suits, teamed with a dash of fiscal incompetence.
Now sales are said to be “floundering” due to the “Rachel Reeves effect”, something no woman ever, ever wishes to read about themselves.
Poor soul.
Gary will be missed
GARY LINEKER has been hoist by his own petard.
That his incredible 26-year BBC career has come to an end this way, however, is incredibly sad.
iNSTAGRAMThink what you will about his politics, Gary Lineker is a truly talented broadcaster and will be missed[/caption]
But by telling the world they needed to speak out on Gaza and, essentially be more informed, he simply had to go when it emerged he was ignorant to the significance of the (awful) meaning behind the rat emoji.
Gary knew this and did the right thing stepping down, despite how devastating it must have been.
He is a principled and kind man, and there is no doubt in my mind he genuinely failed to recognise the significance of that re-post, a social media slip that will haunt him for ever.
Think what you will about his politics, he is a truly talented broadcaster and will be missed.
And his statement yesterday, once again apologising for his stupid error, was pitch perfect.
A RAW DEAL
RECENTLY I embarked upon the “carnivore diet”, having seen its virtues extolled across TikTok and Instagram.
I lasted four days.
Essentially, it entailed sirloin steak and eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, washed down with collagen coffee and bone broth protein shakes.
I was also sent some offal burgers to pan-fry, and on one occasion found myself chowing down on a heart and organ patty at 6.30am before the gym.
Vegetables and fruits aren’t allowed, and some users snack on sticks of butter (grass-fed, unsalted).
But at least my meat was cooked.
There’s a plethora of UK TikTokers now eating theirs – liver, steak, lamb – raw. So a bout of food poisoning with those #gainz, lads.
Sound judgment by Code Of Silence
ABSOLUTE credit to ITV for brilliant new drama Code Of Silence, a series highlighting the everyday realities of the deaf community.
Starring incredibly talented deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, who evokes empathy with every rise of the eyebrow or sad smile, Sunday night’s opener was a corker.
PAThe opener for Code Of Silence, starring Rose Ayling-Ellis, was a corker[/caption]
The broadcaster followed this up by silencing all of the ad break commercials, subtitling them, to again highlight how the hard of hearing experience television.
This has never been done on national television.
Cynics may say it was virtue signalling of the highest order. It wasn’t.
It was a PR masterstroke. For the first time ever I kept my phone down and watched every ad. Genius.
As a side note, in the age of Brexit, forget French and German.
Schools should be teaching kids BSL (British sign language) on the national curriculum.
SPEED MO GO
ROAD safety groups are calling for 10mph speed limits in towns and cities.
What utter guff.
Crawling along at 20 miles per hour is soul destroying enough. At 10mph, Mo Farah could overtake you on the A3.
Ludicrous.
Meme of the week
People are poking fun at the doorbell camera image of Prince Harry
KUDOS to this photoshop wizard, coming two weeks after Prince Harry ordered a Deliveroo to his pal’s home in the very week he claimed he was terrified about personal security.
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