Linkage

[lirazel]

I really want to encourage everyone on my flist list to read this article about misogyny on the Internet.  I know you're all women, but I think you'll want to read this one all the way through.  Because it articulates so well so many ideas I've tried to explain to my (really great) guy friends who subsequently blew me off.  I feel like if I'd been able to explain these ideas this clearly, they might have listened.  At the end of this article, I wanted to applaud.  Wildly.

And then read this one to make yourself feel a little better.  (It's where my tag comes from, by the way.)  And then, of course, there's always the Male Privilege Checklist.
 

Comments

[ava-leigh-fitz.livejournal.com]

That first article is so thought-provoking but everything she says is right. And it's horrifying to think thta, but it's 100%, perpetuating the myth extends the myth and extending the myth fucks us all up.

On that seoncd article: HELL. YES.

I've had so many arguments with girls my age over the past three months over what it means to be feminist. So many it's unbelievable. It's crazy how many girls I've met, who share the same views of equality and when I respond "Then you're a feminist", their response is invariable "No! No I'm not!" Once, a friend of mine said that my 'definition of feminism' was in fact humanism. I LOOKED IT UP. THE SHORTER OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, 6TH EDITION AGREED WITH ME. In one of my seminars, a girl got offended when someone dared to suggest that believing in the equality of the sexes made her a feminist. I was absolutely horrified that a woman took being called a feminist as an insult. Thankfully my seminar tutor was equally shocked and tried to talk about it, unfortunately the girl still considers the word 'feminist' to be an insult.

Feminism is not about leg hair or your sexual practices or the title in your name. It's about equality. That's it.

This is why we're twins. ILU LAUREN.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Ha! The kermit!flail icon! *loves that icon*

I thought you in particular would appreciate this, so I'm so glad you did.

I know exactly what you mean. On one level, I can kind of understand that reluctance to accept the label--there is a particular stereotype that's grown up around a (very, very small, I'm sure) minority of women who genuinely do hate men or, say, believe that all heterosexual sex is rape (I hate this idea. It makes me furious). But then there's another reason, much pettier in fact, it's so rejected--that people associate feminism with, as you mentioned, those women who don't shave their legs or care about their attractiveness level and THAT'S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING!

However, the word really has lost a lot of its meaning--it's used to mean so many things now, from just people who think women should make the same amount of money as men for the same work (something, certainly, all reasonable people believe) to those really hard-core "militant" (I hate that phrase, but whatever) feminists who take it too far. So the word can be hollow.

But I love the way that second article reclaims the word and reminds us all that what it really comes down to is just being a reasonable human being. And yes, you are.

LOOKED IT UP. THE SHORTER OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, 6TH EDITION AGREED WITH ME Hahaha! I'm glad that you at least tried to verbalize this to people. It really does suck that this idea has been so rejected by our popular culture that a woman would be insulted by it. It makes me want to love on my guy friends who are quite proud of being feminists.

This also reminds me of that video--have you seen it? I don't remember where it was--where they went around and interviewed people and asked them if they were for or against women's suffrage. And all of them were against it because they clearly didn't know what it meant and just thought it sounded bad.

Susan B. Anthony would be so ashamed.