Christie Blatchford: I don’t hate women

Like any columnist worth her salt, Christie Blatchford has critics. But unlike most, she's actually responding to them. In a video that appears to be an evolution of "notable person reads mean tweets," the National Post writer addresses readers' comments that she is anti-women. Blatchford is known for her controversial columns, including her proclamation that the media's response to Jack Layton's death was a "public spectacle," urging people to resist trying Jian Ghomeshi in the court of public opinion, and insisting there were two sides to the story in the case of Rehteah Parsons' sexual assault.

The first comment she addresses reads: “Christie Blatchford has always been a nasty anti-feminist.”

“I recognize that this is a perception that young feminists may have of me,” she says. “I would define myself as a feminist for sure. I've always been pro-choice, I've always been pro-gay rights. For as long as I remember. I don't know what the other watermarks are but I don't think it's true. I may be nasty though, that may be true.”

Blatchford then responds to this comment: “Nobody hates women quite like Christie."

Here, Blatchford repeats her view that this type of comment comes from "younger women" and uses evidence of her deep female friendships to debunk this. “I’d be dead without my women friends,” she says. "I love men, that’s certainly true, but I love women just as much.”

She goes on to say that see sees, "women as full, complete human beings" and that means they are capable of the "full range of human behaviour," like lying in court. "That’s not being anti-woman to think that, that’s being absolutely pragmatic."

Whether or not a male columnist would respond to readers' personal attacks is perhaps a subject for another video.

Related: This Canadian mayor took a sartorial stand against sexism in politics Turns out your dictionary is a tiny bit sexist How heckling in the House affects women MPs