Saturday 10 June / Sunday 11 June 2017

Bernie Sanders Hip to be square Jo Ellison The radical senator on A revelatory show Why defiance never socialism and Trump on Mondrian’s art goes out of style

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For many — or at least many of the 54 per cent of women who voted for her — Clinton’s loss eviscerated certain notions of women’s progress. Main- stream feminism during Barack Obama’s presidency was often associ- ated with a careerist mantra of empowerment, typified by the Face- book executive Sheryl Sandberg. Ivanka Trump’s own attempt to mar- ket herself as a bastion of the working woman is an offshoot of this feminism. But it’s a message that depends on structures that were taken for granted under Obama, and on policies, such as abortion rights guaranteed by the Supreme Court, that Trump senior threatens to tear apart. As the administration pushes legisla- tion that could allow insurance compa- nies to charge higher fees for those with trauma related to sexual assault, the shiny lean-in doctrine as promoted by At times The Wing makes me feel like I’m living in a chic feminist version of ‘The Truman Show’

Sandberg feels outdated, even out of touch. By contrast, today’s incarnation of feminism is “the most politically charged since the 1960s”, says Karen Blair,a professor at Central Washington University who specialises in women’s associations. She believes that the cen- turies-old tradition of women’s clubs “bubbles up more vehemently at cer- tain times in history . . . this is one of thosemoments.”

At times The Wing veers into carica- ture, making me feel like I’m living in a chic feminist version of The Truman Show. One woman, speaking on the phone to an “Instagram influencer”, gushes that the space is the “best thing to ever happen to me personally or pro- fessionally”.Anotherstrutsintotheroom wearing sweeping olive green culottes andagrouphisses:“God,youroutfit!” Other moments are familiar in the best way.One woman walks in just after The start-up sisterhood 6pm, orders a glass of white wine and Continuedonpage2

president entered the White House. Women-only clubs in the US have had a new lease of life in the age of Trump. Things have turned out differently. On election night, what had been a planned victory party at The Wing Anna Nicolaou reports on the boom in the business of gender politics turned into a funeral. “It felt like everyone took bad drugs,” Gelman says.Inthemonthsthatfollowed,under a male president who has bragged on ’m on a nondescript block of New Above: the editor and create a place that “wasn’t just the tape about assaulting women, the space York’s Flatiron District, searching blogger Tavi Gevinson Costco of co-working”,with aspirations has become a “need-to-have” for many for a glimpse into the resistance (right) with Laia Garcia, to resurrect the atmosphere of the women. A waiting list of 8,000 is willing against Donald Trump — or at least deputy editor of Lenny women’sclubs of the late 19th and early to pay $2,250 a year for a spot at the oneversionofit. Letter, at the New York 20th century suffrage movement. Amy club. Its 700 members range from robot IAt the top of the elevator in a bland, women’s club The Wing, Woodside, a website founder from New engineers and police officers to the first 12-storey office building, concrete gives photographed for the FT Zealand and club member,explains the female secretary to the governor of New way to a rose-tinted penthouse filled by Martine Fougeron appeal. “There are other places in New York. Flower-arranging tutorials and with pastel rugs and hanging plants. Below: inside the club York that have more of a dude vibe. Beyoncé dance lessons have been sup- Women type on laptops, sipping lime- Coming here, there’s a sense of com- plemented by sessions with a psycholo- infused water as sunlight cascades fort, you can fully relax. It’s hard to gist to deal with “Trump hangovers” through industrial windows with strik- articulate without demonising men — andpartiestowriteletterstosenators. ingviewsoftheEmpireStatebuilding. which is obviously a stigma attached to Gelman herself admits, “I didn’t nec- The space is drenched in varying feminism — butitisverytrueand,for essarily think that we would be using shades of dusty rose — the palette me,preferable.” this space weekly for political purposes. dubbed “millennial pink”.It is defiantly The Wing opened its doors last Octo- Butthethingthatweseefromourmem- feminine. Posters of Hillary Clinton, ber,afewweeksbeforetheUSpresiden- bers is that they’re so interested right captioned “Hillz Yaaas”,line mint green tial election, when Clinton still seemed now in activism and getting involved.” walls. There’s a feminist library organ- the most likely winner. At the time, Trump’selection“uncorkedalotofugli- ised by colour and a “freak out” room says Gelman, she expected it would be ness”,sheadds,“AndIthinkanywoman that doubles as a breastfeeding centre. a “nice-to-have” as the first woman whohasaprofessionallifefeelsit”. Onataupecouch,TaviGevinson,the21- year-old editor and blogger who Lady In the wake of an election that Gaga declared “the future of journal- morphed into a battle of the sexes, the ism”,ishunchedoveraMacBook. popularity of a club like The Wing IaminTheWing. shouldnotcomeasasurprise.TheJanu- In January the then recently opened ary women’s march spanned all seven women’sclub hosted some of the organ- continents. Since election day, more isers of what would be the largest pro- than 4,000 women have told Demo- test in recent US history — the women’s cratic groups they want to run for office marchthatfollowedtheinaugurationof — four times higher than in the prior 22 President Trump. It was also here that monthscombined. the firebrand Democratic senator Theda Skocpol, a Harvard professor Kirsten Gillibrand recently spoke about who spent the past four decades writing the future of women in America and books on political uprisings ranging “howtoresist”in2017. from the Tea Party to the Russian Revo- But The Wing was founded with a lution, is now studying post-Trump decidedly less existential vision. Tired activism in swing states. She calls me of changing clothes in Starbucks bath- less than a minute after I email her: “I rooms in between meetings across New can tell you so far, the evidence is just York, Audrey Gelman, a public rela- overwhelming. Women are leading tions consultant and former press aide these so-called resist groups and net- to Clinton, dreamt up a place where works. In pockets across the country, women could work, network and hang there’s movement happening every- out — without men. With co-founder where, and women are overwhelmingly Lauren Kassan, she raised $2.4m to inthelead.”

JUNE 10 2017 Section:Weekend Time: 8/6/2017 - 18:12 User: india.ross Page Name: WKD1, Part,Page,Edition: WKD, 1, 1