Russell Brand’s past and present mindsets perfectly embody the dichotomy of the misogynistic male view of women: he’s shifted from seeing women as whores and sexual objects to ‘celebrating’ them as Madonnas and thus refusing to regard women as possessing of their own sexuality.

He delegitimises the femininity of women who are overtly sexual or who embody (what he literally called) the “male values” of strength and leadership, using the label “woman-man” to describe Thatcher.

(Margaret Thatcher is not a feminist icon, this much is obvious; but the reason is not because she was a powerful woman in a position of leadership, it is because she was a homophobic, racist neoliberal who destroyed the lives of millions of working class people but anyway...)

The last thing any woman needed was Russel Brand’s take on feminism, and he has confirmed this by adopting the age old position of infantalising and softening women, denying them right to expression of sexual desire and reinforcing the idea of their being a specific form

of pallitable womanhood which is the only legitimate expression of feminity. He does this in what can only be described as the personification of the male gaze, sitting on his own watching two women in a music video (of course assuming the video was created for the benefit of men

and thus is somehow degrading for the women instead of acknowledging that perhaps Cardi and Megan enjoy feeling sexy and were creating the video for their own gratification) and critiquing them on how they choose to conduct themselves as women.

This kind of ideology may be easy to shroud in praise for women and (accepted) forms of feminity, but at it’s core it’s as toxic as his old schtick of acute objectification.