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Comments
From the comments today, on what feminism is, that range from outlandish "slut-shaming" of men to the insanely restrictive taboos on male sexuality and mores, I have to say that I now define Feminists as the new John Birchers.
I know you didn’t know I was here in town,
But bay-yay-yaby you can tell me if anyone can,
Baby, can you dig your man?
He’s a righteous man,
Tell me baby, can you dig your man?
http://www.metafilter.com/131338/To-The-…
The poor bastard just can't win.
I guess it led to a very amusing read, and ultimately that's what matters.
"Or, to put it another way, after some random dudebro has attempted to insult me on the Internet by taking a photo of me in a dress that I’ve already posted on my own site and slapping the word “feminist” on it, all I have to go back to is a successful career, a loving family, a circle of amazing friends and talented peers, and a social system whose systematic biases favor me in nearly all cases as a well-off straight white man. Even when I put on a dress."
That (plus the following paragraphs) seems to me like he understands and acknowledges his privilege.
I can say I am a feminist and it gives you almost 0 information that would say anything, really. The only thing it says is that the person has opinions on women.
Men are evil? There are feminists who agree and disagree. Heterosexual sex? Pro and anti. Transgender? Still being argued.
He's not an "ally" Scalzi IS a feminist. His fight is is't tangential to the goals of feminism - they ARE the goals of feminism.
And comments on those blogs - which were totally insulting - and comments like yours are precisely why more people don't describe themselves as feminists. Because even when they do they STILL get shit on by, yes, so-called feminists. IOW: fake-ass feminist posuers more concerned with playing martyred one upmanship and beating good people with rhetorical cudgels over minutiae than actually making things better for humanity.
So. Yeah. Keep up the good work!
@19 Ooh! An ad hominem. Good work.
My comment is not in response to the link criticizing Scalzi. My response has nothing to do with him and everything to do with the idea that he is free of criticism because he is a feminist and that bringing up privilege is the evil work of "so called" feminists.
So since you are confused, I will use simpler sentences. Your privilege dictates your perspective. Feminism's goals requires evaluating the intersectionality of gender, race, orientation, and class. To get there, you have to evaluate systems of privilege. So to be a good feminist, it requires checking your own, constantly.
Supporting feminism and being a feminist does not mean you are free of that responsibility or of criticism. It does not mean you have perfect knowledge of your own privileges nor will you ever. If that makes people uncomfortable and drives them away, then they were not committed to the concept of equality anyways. Coddling them won't make a difference. What actually drives many people away from feminism is the white, cis, hetero feminist's INABILITY to evaluate their privilege and frame all debates from their perspective. That's why most WOC call themselves womanists rather than feminists. Feminism is nothing w/o intersectionality and intersectionality is impossible w/o privilege checking.
Hey, I have sympathy. I'm privileged as fuck and it was extremely hard for me to recognize that at first. It was quite a shock to realize that the ultimate lesson I got out of feminism was not that I'm a woman in a world that devalues women, but my place on top in a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. My reaction does not come from a place of criticism towards Scalzi, but a personal knowledge of how important criticism is to stay on the road of productive feminism. I've heard plenty of WOC, trans women, and gay women tell women like me to stfu and listen. It's part of the work of being a feminist.