I had an odd experience with Meghan Murphy at Feminist Current, a Canadian web site for feminists. Murphy is the founder and administrator of the site, and one of Murphy's pet peeves is transgender ideology, which is one of my pet peeves also. Because we agree on the issue, I started to read her site and post comments on the articles. I was doing a lot of posting, and since Murphy personally approves every comment that appears, I started to worry that I might be causing her a lot of work. I was also aware that men aren't always welcome on feminist sites. So, to grease this relationship -- and since she begs for money on every single page -- I decided to make a donation. As a start, I donated $50. Immediately after, however, my comments stopped appearing, meaning that she or someone else (or the comment software) was blocking them. When I asked her about it, she claimed that she couldn't override Disqus's forbidden-words filter. But that wasn't true because she had overridden a Disqus block once before. Specifically, the very first comment I had posted on an article was blocked, and she unblocked it for me. Since I had made the donation with the expectation that I would continue to participate on her site, but now couldn't, I asked her to return it, and she refused.
Naturally enough, I want to know what went wrong, but Murphy won't tell me. If my comments were too strongly worded, she won't tell me that. This experience left me wondering if she always cuts people off after they make a donation -- but that would certainly be strange behavior. Perhaps she is a man-hating feminist, or she doesn't like gays. A couple of my comments referenced my religious views, which are not mainstream, and maybe she's anti-religious. (Specifically, I believe in reincarnation, and I believe that human beings choose their gender before birth. My opinion about trans people is that they likely made the wrong choice, which is why they want to change genders.) I also disagreed with Murphy on a couple issues -- one of my comments was about how much I resent the word "queer", which she used in an article. And I also disagreed with her about the phrase "toxic masculinity", which I think is a perfectly fine phrase which describes something real (but she doesn't). In other words, perhaps she just can't tolerate opposing viewpoints.
I read her Wikipedia article, and Murphy seems to be a person with a lot of anger. She resents men who call themselves feminists -- I never called myself that, but my support of women's rights seems to imply that I might think of myself as a feminist. It seems to me that Murphy likes to fight with people. I can sympathize with that, especially on the subject of transgender ideology, which in my opinion is absolutely poisonous. It seems to me that Murphy just doesn't have the sense to realize who her allies are.
Before Murphy formed Feminist Current, she was employed by another publisher, but she lost her job because of her strong views. Having formed Feminist Current soon after, it seems evident that she is trying to support herself from the site, meaning that much of the money that she receives must be income for her. In order to support herself from donations, she would need multiple donations from sympathetic individuals (like me).
In my case, my income has gone up since mid-2019. During the pandemic I discovered my inner philanthropist, and I have donated thousands of dollars to various needy people and organizations. If she hadn't cut me off, I likely would have given her more money. Instead of doing that, however, I now feel that I've been treated dishonestly and want nothing more to do with her.
If you are considering making a donation to Feminist Current, I suggest that you don't. Meghan Murphy has an ax to grind, and she'll grind it on your head if you allow her to.
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