As it is generally perceived, rhetoric is about bribing the ear with sweet lies, but it may have served, first and foremost, as a defence against con artists and liars. Feminism is a defence against the prevailing abuses of privilege enjoyed by men. The repertoire of abuses that have been exercised over women are well understood and categorised, and now they are being employed against men. These newly won ploys of punishment are not being turned against the patriarchs, but against the vulnerable, the moderates, and the foreign.