A generation of young women is being driven mad by woke ideology

Just Stop Oil logo
Just Stop Oil logo

In general, when we think about chaos and disorder, we don’t think about young women. We don’t particularly fear female muggers, or expect them to explore new frontiers in vandalism. But when it comes to political activism, the female of the species can be flamboyantly disruptive indeed.

Just look at the chaos surrounding Just Stop Oil, with its apparent habit of spraying orange substances over almost everything in its sight.

A striking number of those filmed committing these actions seem to be young ladies from middle-class backgrounds; not at all the sort we would usually expect to indulge in a spot of politically motivated disruption.

And yet while the rise of the paint-chucking, powder-spraying young woman feels new, there is a history here. In the early 20th century, the suffragists were non-violent campaigners for women’s right to vote, who used persuasion and hard work.

They were soon eclipsed in the public mind by the suffragettes, who believed violence was a legitimate means to achieve their ends. Their actions included arson, window-smashing and bomb attacks.

The 1970s in Germany, meanwhile, saw the rise of the far-Left terrorist Red Army Faction, better known as the Baader-Meinhof group, a handle based in part on founder and ringleader Ulrika Meinhof.

Similarly, in the 1980s, anti-nuclear activists established a sprawling “peace camp” at Greenham Common airfield, complete with blockades, fence-cutting and dozens of arrests.

Back then, the concern was the perceived risk to human life posed by nuclear weapons. Today, it’s the threat to botanical and animal life posed by everyday human life. And once again, women are at the forefront of the latest cause célèbre.