16 posts tagged “feminism”

As miyu_sakura put it "False rape accussations are not funny. You're putting the fucking mark of Cain on a man who has never even dreamed of assualting a woman."  And she was inspired from a blurb written by mrda about the ending of this false-rape case in the UK: 

After the sentencing, Mr Ahmed said the girl should be "named and shamed". He said: "I can't imagine that the person who destroyed a whole family got only two months. "She had destroyed my family life, my social life, and she has destroyed me economically. She destroyed my credibility. "There is also the effect on my children. She should be named and shamed."  -news.bbc.co.uk

It's been my impression that feminism in the UK is much scarier than feminism in the U.S. (though perhaps not as scary as the Aussie variety?), according my my scary-feminist-meter of course.

After my last post, I was going to join a few new groups.  Feminism, Choice, Gender studies, Equality... all great topics for groups.

Why is the Reproductive Rights group woman-centric?!  WHY?  Why is it assumed that women have the reproductive choices, only, or erroneously that men already have choice available to them.  Feminism is actually one of the tags for the group.  That gives it away, doesn't it?  Or are they just trying to draw in the feminists because they are more likely to join?

Bothers me to no end.

Should I join and risk stirring up the gender-lines already apparantly in the sand?

I considered making my own group.  But I got lost.  What to call it?  Gender Equality?  I'm not sure 'gender' is the correct word, nor 'sex'.  And I don't want to be seen as supporting only "men's rights" either.  I considered creating Equalitarian, for equality among all individuals, but that seems too big.  Will gender-studies-equality messages be lost amongst the rest of the issues seeking equality?  Too much diversity and all momentum is lost.  But maybe not.  Maybe I should.  But then what about correcting the imbalance I see in the Reproductive Rights group?

I'm such a Libra!!!  This makes my brain hurt.

This book looks truly fascinating. I know those friends of mine that studied women's history would find it especially interesting, too.

Women's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present

One of the biggest hurdles to the development of new contraceptives
for men is the belief that there is no market for such products.
MaleContraceptives.org has launched a new survey to help dispel that
myth. Now all that’s missing is your voice! We need you to participate in this survey to help prove the demand for new male contraceptives.

» Read more on Vox

shouldn't be good for the gander. Is this yet another example of feminist sexism? Glenn Sacks has something to say on the subject, and I agree with him.

Women's eNews' Man-Bashing Cartoon Feminists fiercely resent criticism of women's behavior, or attempts to limit women's "freedoms." In this Women's eNews cartoon, a man is taken to task for criticizing a woman for having a baby at age 60. However, such criticisms are borne not of a desire to limit women but instead to protect children. Spin it how you want, but there's no way you can tell me that a woman having a baby at age 60 is a good idea. The cartoon instead attempts to shift attention (and blame) to the man's behavior because he is in a relationship with a younger woman.

"In a recent New York Times article Terry Martin Hekker, whose husband of 40 years divorced her, criticizes what she and others in the media are calling a trend: selfish older men dumping their wives for younger women...[however] the stereotype of the husband trading in his wife for a younger model is by and large a myth. The women in the AARP study were 60% more likely to claim that they ended their marriages than the men were, and men were almost twice as likely as women to say that they never saw their divorces coming.  In contrast to the Porsche and trophy wife stereotype, the AARP study found that these divorced men had many serious concerns, high among them their fear of losing touch with their children after their divorces."

To express your view of the cartoon, write to Women's eNews at editors@womensenews.org.

I direct your attention to this cartoon about the 60year old who gave birth.

As Glenn Sacks says,

Women's eNews' Man-Bashing Cartoon

Feminists fiercely resent criticism of women's behavior, or attempts to limit women's "freedoms." In this Women's eNews cartoon, a man is taken to task for criticizing a woman for having a baby at age 60. However, such criticisms are borne not of a desire to limit women but instead to protect children. Spin it how you want, but there's no way you can tell me that a woman having a baby at age 60 is a good idea. The cartoon instead attempts to shift attention (and blame) to the man's behavior because he is in a relationship with a younger woman.

So yeah, the cartoon was slightly amusing. But I don't take the 60-year-old-having-a-kid lightly. I think its most likely to be dangerous for the woman, and dangerous for the kid, and I hope that it does not become a trend. I also like to be aware of the stereotyping that goes on, even by feminists, and how it doesn't help matters at all, only makes them more hurtful, dumb, and harder to solve.

The Harpie Queen has a post on a work related incident which is interesting. It's about passive-aggressive weak females that allow sexism to continue, that choose to continue being victims, rather than learning to experience and respond with genuine and authentic reactions, not expect someone to clue in to what they want.

Very intersting read. And the tag she has associated with it is 'feminism is dead'. Typically there was a  commenter who is the tried and true feminist where women are always victims, not perpetrators of sexist crimes. Thankfully there have been a few other reponses that really approach the issue in a organic and holistic way.

So, Nio, one of my great online friends has a blog, and writes a lot, about this, that, and the other. She is a thinking person struggling to be socially responsible, like me. We are both often viewed as aggressive because we *gasp* fight for what we believe, and are willing to argue. Usually. Sometimes I'm a bit more willing. ;)

Unfortunately, she made a couple posts in a feminist(academic) blog which the majority took exception to. It became a game of 'gang up on the unique vision' which disgusts me. This is why I would rather be solitary than part of a community, at times. Not all communities are created equal. But the great thing about being online is that we find others who see the world the way we do. So long as we don't seclude ourselves from new thoughts, all is good.So, Nio's post is here. It set off a firestorm. Jenn stayed out of it but heard about the goings-on second hand, and posted here.

I think I need to sit down and take a long hard look at the differences between the two. Becaue the feeling I get is that there really isn't much of a difference at all. Both are saying that exclusion is happening, and is unhealthy for feminism.   

Reading the comments to Nio's post is a trip. Seriously. I think my problem is simple. I'm not an apologist. Not for anything. If I see something wrong, I acknowledge it and change it. And honestly, I'm terrifed to think that Nio's thoughts were jumped on because she was white, and not a person/woman of color (or POC/WOC). Those feminists_of_color deny that reverse racism or discrimination happens.

Video games have the real ability to piss me off. I love a good video game. I'm pretty picky and have no interest in the first-person-shooter games, nor the endless online soap operas. Halo2 pissed me off. And XBox360/Silicon Knights' Too Human has as well. They, and all the brain dead games like them that make such a stupid and obvious mistake, annoy the fuck out of me. Provide an option to play a male or a female character, god damnit! I detest always being forced to play a male character.   

Sometimes it seems like I'm an unlikely feminist, that I take equality for granted, especially given my childhood history of being a tomboy and refusing any part of the "feminine" trappings (makeup, fashion) while still burdening myself with the responsibilities (caring for siblings primarily), and my predilection for demanding equality not just for women, but for men too. Many of my friends are male (mainly because they are less demanding emotionally/psychologically, so long as it is a platonic friendship). I move comfortably in male dominated worlds (taking that equality thing for granted) like the Army and Computer Science as my former major in school. Then something comes along to make me ready to capsize this little boatride I (and those same men and likeminded women) have been on.

...

Halo2 really pissed me off. The military and futuristic setting screams for a level playing field of the sexes. The main character could TOTALLY have been a female, I don't care what lying apologist types have to say about it. Are all women super soldiers in hiding? No. Neither are all men. Allowing for the possibility of a super-man or a super-woman isn't that far a stretch. And I know Halo & Halo2 triggered this reaction because I wanted to get into the game, but dealing with the visuals and game play along with a stupid character was too much for me. First person games especially need this option. If they want women to play, anyways.

Too Human has done the same thing, now. I was really looking forward to this game. It was going to be the lure that drew me temporarily away from Sony's Play Station platform and into the world that my boyfriend loves (the XBox platform, as a poor followup/substitiute for Dreamcast). I thought to myself "FINALLY a game we could both enjoy". At least in Too Human the main character is a relatively heard-of god named Baldur. There's enough archetypal and mythological stuff out there on Balder that I won't argue too much about the male-sex-requirement of the character. It still annoys me, just not as much as Halo & Halo2. And I am tired of having my hopes crushed. Maybe Too Human won't be on my must-play list after all. I'm sure I could get sucked into Final Fantasy 12 instead. By the way, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children the dvd hits stores April 27th (or was it 25th?) here in the U.S.

So in honor of this pissed off mood, I have added to my del.icio.us links two sites focused on women in video games, and the video-game-culture (work and private): WomenGamers.com and WIGI: Women in Games International. If you know of any others, please feel free to share them with me either through del.icio.us or in a comment.