Are the Yellow Vests just a bunch of middle class whiners?

On two Sundays this month there have been Yellow Vest demonstrations in France organised by women. As one of the leaders explained to the media, they’re not ‘feminist’ demonstrations but ‘feminine’, a chance for women to have their voices heard in a movement that, since its formation, has been predominantly patriarchal.

These women don’t want their movement to be hijacked by bourgeois Parisian feminists, those who care more about making French a gender-neutral language than reducing childcare costs for single mums struggling to make ends meet. Changing grammatical rules so that the masculine form of a noun no longer takes precedence over the female is probably not the issue that preoccupies the million working women living below the poverty line.

Men are free to march in the female Yellow Vest demonstrations (although not in the front ranks) but on the understanding that they’re to behave themselves. Nothing, not even abuse, is to be hurled at the police. While the women’s yellow vest protestors are more mellow than the men’s they are just as white.