Learn more about Thistle Pettersen and the harassment she has endured.
Thistle Pettersen is a long-time environmental organizer and musician in Madison, Wisconsin who has been harassed, defamed, threatened, and ostracized from her community for expressing feminist beliefs. Read our fact sheet for a timeline of the harassment Thistle has faced.
What does Thistle believe? Like many other feminists, Thistle believes that gender is a patriarchal construct. She advocates for the right of women, as members of the oppressed sex, to have protected and respected safe spaces. She advocates for an acknowledgement of the problem of male violence in society, and the ability to talk about it.
Why is Thistle Pettersen targeted?
Thistle publicly expressed her opinions on sex and gender, and interviewed well known feminist authors/journalists Julie Bindel, Meghan Murphy and Sheila Jeffreys on WORT 89.9 FM via the Access Hour. For more in-depth analysis of gender-critical feminism please see this 2015 article from Common Dreams and this 2014 article in the New Yorker. Since then it has been nearly impossible to get gender-critical journalism published in left-leaning and progressive publications.