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This is my favourite one
A resurgent movement to revitalize feminism, along with questioning why so many seem to think "feminist" is a dirty word.
Read the article, follow the link there to the Duke University newspaper OpEd piece (from The Chronicle 12 April 2012 edition) and read that, too.
Comments
I think both genders
I think both genders need a little understanding of both sides. There are a lot of guys that get as stereotyped as women just as well. I don't like to see just one side of things.
And as a society we do tend to make things more negative than it really is. Sometimes it's the more biased individuals that make a whole look bad, sometimes outside people make the bias for them. The biggest thing feminists need to ensure is that their cause isn't an attack towards men, which I think many men have a hard time believing.
Part of the problem is exercise of power
I don't think that this is about negativity. It's about power, who has it and who is affected and sometimes victimized by it.
If the effort is not focused on men, where is the focus? Men wield the power. Men make the decisions. In a recent Congressional hearing on abortion rights, there were no women who were allowed to testify. How does one stand against power without challenging that power?
The sad, simple answer is that men allow the status quo through complacency. The sign that guy says it all. He admits bias and wants to change. How do we get more to admit the same?
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
I agree with the guy with the sign but...
I have always been a strong supporter of women's rights, of female culture. Lately in the last decade at least there has been a militant side to them that really go out of their way to make a guy uncomfortable. I have gone to several feminist lectures on campus with female friends and been made to feel extemely unwelcome. I know these are just branches of the movement but it's getting way too common to get this treatment.
There is a growing double standard with a lot of women out there (mostly the younger set) that also are hurting the cause. They want all the perks of socially being treated like a lady without returning the courtesies and the worst take that as their rightful due.
For a lot of decent, helpful and respectful guys we are getting tired of getting used then demonized.
This is the far too common state of feminism today.
Honestly I'm not sure if it's totally their fault. The media influences a lot and with the people in power now I can see this nice quiet movement to make women feel that entitled, then give them enough rope to hang themselves. Just look at TV. "You can have it all, You deserve it all, You're a princess."
Well royalty or the ones that think they are tend to step on the little guy. Which I'm sure pleases the older male set to no end. These are the men that coined "Feminazi". Unfortunately there are a lot of these so called feminists that fit that bill.
But there is I'll admit a huge gap in fairness. There's a huge gap in rights and just decency between men and women. I think the global economy would be a lot better if there were a lot more female CEO's. Women tend to have much more of a conscience and a world view. If there were women in more positions of power the whole global economic crash would not have happened.
The same for governments if there were many more women in governments there'd be a lot less wrong with the planet. For example it's not too much of a stretch to see women help make laws that have real food cost less than junk food. That they'd make sure people are people and not corporations are people. that if you fix the poorest of nations they'll eventually be partners in trade and culture and the global community.
To me real feminism is supposed to be women fighting to get that pile of male dogma off their backs and be equal. Just equal and that includes in everything laws, business, regular life, love, respect. There is a lot of common sense in real feminism, a lot of social justice in feminism. That's the movement I remember before it was hi-jacked by the Cardashians and their ilk. We need that return to the real message.
Just like Capitolism...is not Democracy but good at hiding as it.
Not to beat the dead horse but binary gender with feminism as I see it as it should apply to things is. Socially there are generally two genders, we have been running male dominated for a long time.
That's only letting us as a species run at 50%. Try that with heart or lung function. To have a healthy society we need to bring the numbers way up.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
more like a supremacy movement
Sorry, I can't support Feminism. Feminism means women who want all men castrated, advocate gendercides and preach a dualistic religion where men take the place of the devil. Women are never at fault, but women will make the world better. If something goes wrong, it's always the Patriachies fault. It's like they never grew up at all.
Feminism enforces gender sterotypes for men. Men have to be the protectors of the poor victimised women. Just today I read an article about misandry that described how feminism enforced gender sterotypes for men. Nothing got really better there for the last 200 years. Men are still supposed to die for the fatherland - if there ever is a serious war. Men are supposed to sacrifice themselves. It's always "x women and children died" (sadly it wasn't all men).
If there was a movement that would actually promote gender equality and not forced sameness then I'd want to be a member, but I won't support a female supremacy movent.
I'm sure there are decent Feminists, but apparently the majority are hate filled manhaters. Anyway, I don't like the term at all, it's just too rotten. Would you recommend someone believing in socialism but not the world revolution calling himself a national socialist? Feminism might have started as a good idea, but almost everything they publish now is hatred and self justification.
Seriously?
That's what you believe feminism is? Since when is striving to be treated with the same dignity equated to denigrating the other side?
It's attitudes like yours and statements like you made, "I'm sure there are decent Feminists, but apparently the majority are hate filled manhaters," that this entire piece is talking about.
If you're going to make sweeping assertions that "almost everything they publish now is hatred and self-justification," I'd like to see the numbers and data on that. The percentages of hate-speech and self-justification in the whole body of feminist literature and nonfiction would suffice, backed up by evidence -- not just pulling numbers from the air.
An interesting and thought
An interesting and thought provoking article, although I'm not sure I agree with the conclusion. The quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off comes to mind for me - "Isms" in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an "ism", he should believe in himself. Or herself.
I can understand what they are trying to do (as a woman in the lower rungs of management the remnants of the glass ceiling is a grrrr! moment) but I honestly think that while the concept of feminism is still as vital and important as it ever was, the term is beyond rehabillitation and should be allowed to retire peacefully. Too much mud has stuck and too many so called 'feminists' (who clearly aren't) have tarnished it. If you talk about women's rights (equal pay, sufferage, reproductive, etc) then I think people will give the issues more weight than using the umbrella term 'feminism' which in addition to the usual bra burning cliche also has a slightly more sinister side in phrases like 'womyn-born-womyn'. I was a little saddened to see that in their relaunch no mention was made of being inclusive of all sisters for example. I dislike the term transwoman as I consider myself a woman but some sort of reference being made to us would have been a good way to start feminism 2.0.
Personally, I like the non-ism of everyone trying to just be a decent human being.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
That's kind of the point
The glass ceiling is still intact -- not in remnants.
I entirely disagree that the term is "beyond rehabilitation" as it isn't an offensive term to anyone that hasn't decided to make it offensive proactively.