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| Who wore it better? |
You are a feminist. I am a feminist. We are all feminists.
Feminism wants equality
for Women; for Women to enjoy the same liberties
as Men.
That is good. That is fair.
So why does everyone hate feminists?
Feminists can be annoying
. ... but everyone can be annoying.
People who are against racism
can be annoying.
People who are against child-abuse
can be annoying.
'These aren't the feminists you're
looking for' snides
one headline in The Guardian: bitter
perhaps, that Emma Watson did one talk at The United
Nations and got more praise
and recognition than an entire
career of sniping
from the sidelines.
Hipster feminists welcome
you to the fold, so long as you defer to them and acknowledge
you didn't actually
buy the debut album when it came out.
Still, can't let a few bad eggs ruin the bunch, eh? We tried equality for women, but we found some of the feminists
annoying so we stopped? Please.
Feminism seems unfair.
Positive Discrimination (and it's less oxymoronic, alliterative
cousin Affirmative Action)
sets off the hypocrisy klaxon
in most people’s
minds.
If the three most qualified
or experienced candidates
'just happen' to be not-women,
then how is equal and fair to include a woman in that short list? How is it equality to give them the job?
Well, that is tokenism.
The reality is, though, that it does need a bit of a jump-start.
Maybe, over time, things will balance out naturally. Good luck with that. I’m sure the men in the board rooms and parliaments, the straight white men, will get the equality sorted.
I suppose people
perceive feminists as being in two camps.
Ones who want equality for women starting...
Now! From this point on.
And those who want to balance out the inequality
of the totality
of human history
by giving women everything Men have enjoyed,
and treating Men like women were treated.
There is no magic wand for option
one, and people
don’t like the hypocrisy (and scariness) of option two. Neither works,
call the equality
off!
All we
can do is keep improving
things, little by little; and you can’t begrudge the feminists wanting
to hurry things
up a touch.
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Fem-Guardian Leviosa!
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Labelling.
‘Feminist’ is a label, and whatever your definition of ‘feminist’ most people do not like to be labelled.
Time Magazine infamously
nominated 'feminist' as one of its words to ban for 2015. They are obviously
pro equality for women, but didn't like the labelling:
“nothing against
feminism itself, but when did it become
a thing that every celebrity
had to state their position
on whether this word applies
to them, like some politician
declaring a party?
Let’s stick to the issues
and quit throwing
this label around
like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.”
Why can’t you be in total favour
and support of equality for Women and not be labelled a feminist? You can, obviously
you can.
Bring back 'Women's
lib', remember that?
Bring back suffrage,
remember that?
It is much easier for society to rally against
something than be a part of something. People rally against feminism.
Bring back sexism:
'I'm not a sexist, but...'
That is how you weed them out.
Most racists
don’t think they’re
being racist, most homophobes don’t think they are being homophobic; they might acknowledge
they have old fashioned views that society
would consider discrimination, in this day and age, but that is society’s
fault anyway, for being screwy.
People don’t like being labelled, so label them ‘sexist’ when they are being.
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| I'm not giving up my clown pants for no wimmin. |
Feminists make people feel bad.
Women don't like being made to feel like traitors
to their gender.
Men don't like being made to feel like rapers,
just because they have got the equipment.
And what is big fuss anyway? The wimmin are being hysterical
(as is their wont). YOU CAN'T EVEN HOLD A DOOR OPEN FOR THEM NOW?! YOU CAN'T EVEN. TELL THEM THEY LOOK NICE?! People
who have a spaz when they hear the term 'Political Correctness'
have a large Venn diagram
overlap with people
who hate feminists.
Perhaps an inherently
segregated society faces different challenges
in discrimination against
Women, than it does of race and sexuality.
I'm not saying
we should Ally McBeal
all the public
toilets to unisex.
Toilets are not segregated by race (although
they used to be, in the South),
nor by sexual
orientation (although, they would have been, if we weren't
pretending homosexuality didn't
exist).
But whites, heterosexuals, males,
are all ‘majorities’.
Yes, discrimination can happen to them; but putting whiney
comments on the internet every time there wasn't a little asterisk
saying *HashtagNotAllMen is petulant.
So feminism isn't about hating
men, with their penises (or 'rape sausages'
as the Feminazis
probably call them),
but it does have time for hating
on sexists, misogynists.
So if you read an opinion piece in the paper (probably
The Guardian,
or Huff Post), or see an interview with a women on the news, or if a meme happens;
and mans are criticised, try not to take it personally. Get over it: grow a pair.
Conclusion
Feminism is good because
it is trying
to deepen levels
of empathy; from ‘try to imagine how you would feel if the tables
were turned’, to ‘try to imagine how you would feel in that same position’.
This is the difference
between – empathy
level 1 - how you, as a man, might feel if a woman came up to you and said: “Hey sexy, I know you want it.” (As a man, you might actually quite like the idea of a woman coming up to you and saying
that). And –empathy
level 2 – how you might feel, as a woman, if some randomer
came up to you and said the same thing.
That kind of attention
is unwarranted, no matter how provocatively you might be dressed.
So feminism is good, obviously.
But it does struggle with brand identity. 4 Stars.
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| That's what people say, Mmm-mmm. |
Appendix 1:
That Guardian
article which seemed
jelly of Hermione
was actually pretty
good tho:
Appendix 2:
It should
be pointed out that TIME removed
feminist from the ban list shortlist (which
included ‘bae’ and ‘literally’ as other most hated words,
YOLO and Twerk were banned
from appearing in the magazine
in recent years):
“TIME
apologizes for the execution of this poll; the word ‘feminist’ should
not have been included in a list of words to ban. While we meant to invite debate
about some ways the word was used this year, that nuance
was lost, and we regret
that its inclusion
has become a distraction from the important
debate over equality
and justice.” –Nancy
Gibbs.
Christ, first TIME Magazine had to change
it from ‘Man of the Year’ to ‘Person of the Year’,
and now this?!
Etc.
Appendix 3
That's right, a bunch of eggs.
Appendix 4:
Appendix 5:
Lewis’s law: “The comments on any article
about feminism justify
feminism.” – Helen Lewis.
