Misconceptions about feminism strike again

[celestial]

http://www.themodestmomblog.com/2011/10/31-days-of-femininity-being-feminine.html

She lays out this "typical path" that the life of a feminist might take, going to school, getting a job, buying a house, and then having 2 kids. (shock! awe! horror!) Fine, certainly plenty of people choose to live their lives that way. Not all of them could be described as feminists. Plenty of other women choose to stay at home and raise kids. Not all of them are anti-feminism. Not by a long shot!

The thing many of these bloggers fail to understand is that feminism is the desire to have equal rights and access for women. Period. It does not dictate what sort of lifestyle one must live. It does not mean you cannot stay home with your children, if that's what you want to do. And, plenty of men are feminists. (Though I'm sure not the ones these bloggers know!)

If you think your bible tells you not to go out and get a job, fine. Don't. It's your choice. No scary feminist out there is trying to rob you of it!

[finleeport]

You know there's this youtuber called Feministfrequency, she explains how feminism is poorly portrayed in films and media, such as;

Straw Feminist

Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Evil Demon Seductress

The Smurfette Principle etc.

I myself prefer the term Equalist, Feminist sounds to old fashion to me (no offense). But I do admire feminist works such as the Stepford Wives, The Handmaid's Tale, Orlando and Herland.

[titus2_4u]

Anyone else notice how many fundies get caught up in the "feminists don't want us to hold open doors for women" thing?

I swear, this comes up every time I "drop the F bomb" and mention that I'm a feminist around old fundie acquaintances. NOBODY CARES ABOUT DOORS. REALLY. Stop caricaturing us. Most feminists don't waste our time on things that petty. I'd agree to never open a door again in my life, if our country abolished the pay gap, decided to stop taking away reproductive freedoms, and gave gay people full equal rights.

[Kitty]

You know there's this youtuber called Feministfrequency, she explains how feminism is poorly portrayed in films and media, such as;

Straw Feminist

Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Evil Demon Seductress

The Smurfette Principle etc.

I myself prefer the term Equalist, Feminist sounds to old fashion to me (no offense). But I do admire feminist works such as the Stepford Wives, The Handmaid's Tale, Orlando and Herland.

OH MY GOD A TROPER.

All of those are tropes, except I'm not so sure about Evil Demon Seductress.

And I'm reading the Handmaid's Tale now.

I've always considered myself a feminist, and I'm glad to have finally found a boyfriend who knows what the fuck that means. I don't mind him helping me or opening doors, but I do mind him treating me with respect and seeing me as his equal.

[debrand]

Anyone else notice how many fundies get caught up in the "feminists don't want us to hold open doors for women" thing?

I swear, this comes up every time I "drop the F bomb" and mention that I'm a feminist around old fundie acquaintances. NOBODY CARES ABOUT DOORS. REALLY. Stop caricaturing us. Most feminists don't waste our time on things that petty. I'd agree to never open a door again in my life, if our country abolished the pay gap, decided to stop taking away reproductive freedoms, and gave gay people full equal rights.

Twice I've been on forums with men who were outraged that some woman was offended that they opened the door for her.

I've always found their stories difficult to believe because who gets angry over a door being opened? You don't know if the door opener is acting because of the other person's sex or because they are being kind. Most people assume that the door is being opened as a gesture of kindness.

The outrage some of these guys have over a woman who doesn't accept their kindness is amazing. I've seen guys suggest that the door opener should have slammed the door shut on the woman's bottom or run ahead to teh next door, open it and pointedly slam it shut on her face.

Seriously, if your manhood is that easily hurt because some woman you don't know is offended by a gesture, you must be very underconfident.

When I was a teenager I decided to sit outside a local store and open the door for customers. Everytime someone came to the door, I jumped up and opened it for them. Why? I don't know. I was alive and happy to be alive, I guess. I wanted to spread my good mood around. One elderly gentleman blessed me out and told me that women should NOT open doors for men. I was embarrased but I figured he was just one guy. It didn't turn me off of gracious gestures nor did it make me angry at men in general

I've told that story on threads where men are getting very angry at women for not letting them help carry groceries or open the door. I never get a response from the guys. They ignore the story completely.

[finleeport]

OH MY GOD A TROPER.

All of those are tropes, except I'm not so sure about Evil Demon Seductress.

And I'm reading the Handmaid's Tale now.

I've always considered myself a feminist, and I'm glad to have finally found a boyfriend who knows what the fuck that means. I don't mind him helping me or opening doors, but I do mind him treating me with respect and seeing me as his equal.

The Evil demon seductress is a supernatural female creature (usually a demon, robot, alien, vampire, witch etc.) that disguise themselves as sexy human women. She uses her sexuality and sexual wiles to seduce, manipulate, and kill and often eat poor hapless men by luring them into their evil web.

[bananacat]

She lays out this "typical path" that the life of a feminist might take, going to school, getting a job, buying a house, and then having 2 kids.

I'm sincerely confused. Is this supposed to be an insult? Most women, even ones who don't identify as feminists, will have a job before having kids.

[apple1]

I'm sincerely confused. Is this supposed to be an insult? Most women, even ones who don't identify as feminists, will have a job before having kids.

It DOES work out slightly better that way when it comes to paying bills and buying groceries. (rolling eyes)

[finleeport]

There's also a show called 1000 ways to Die that showed an Ultra-feminist group called Centuries of Womyn, or C.O.W. It was about how a man-hating feminist got killed by mistaking an electric shock device for a vibrator. You could see the clip on youtube as well.

Is there a difference between Misandry and Feminism? because people often think the two are synonymous.

[Guest Anonymous]

Is there a difference between Misandry and Feminism? because people often think the two are synonymous.

Is this a serious question?

[finleeport]

It was suppose to be a joke Lissar, maybe I should of added something. But why do some Feminists have a bit of misandry in them? I'm not saying all of them but some do like one said that marriage is like legalized prostitution, one said hetero sex is like rape and there was one woman serial killer who wanted to kill all the men in the world (I forgot her name though).

[Guest Anonymous]

It was suppose to be a joke Lissar, maybe I should of added something. But why do some Feminists have a bit of misandry in them? I'm not saying all of them but some do like one said that marriage is like legalized prostitution, one said hetero sex is like rape and there was one woman serial killer who wanted to kill all the men in the world (I forgot her name though).

Why do some men have a bit of misogyny in them? Men say fucked up stuff about women all the time. Check out some M.R.A. websites and you will read horrible, vile things. Most serial killers are men who kill women. That's why it's so memorable when a woman kills men - it doesn't happen very often.

People aren't perfect, but as far as my personal experience goes, the vast majority of feminists do not hate men.

[alphaeta08]

I didn't read the original blog post, but I'm also confused as to how I'm supposed to be horrified by this hypothetical woman's life. If it's a fundie thing, she could've at least added a step like, "has 17 abortions."

[duplessis3]

Emma Goldman is the one that said marriage was legalized prostitution - and of course she was in a time when married women could not raped by their husbands (legally I mean, I'm certain they frequently were) and the total worth of a woman was in the condition of her hymen before marriage.

Andrea Dworkin is the one that allegedly said that heterosexual intercourse is rape. If you read what she actually wrote though, she doesn't mean that. "Andrea Dworkin: No, I wasn’t saying that and I didn’t say that, then or ever. There is a long section in Right-Wing Women on intercourse in marriage. My point was that as long as the law allows statutory exemption for a husband from rape charges, no married woman has legal protection from rape. I also argued, based on a reading of our laws, that marriage mandated intercourse—it was compulsory, part of the marriage contract. Under the circumstances, I said, it was impossible to view sexual intercourse in marriage as the free act of a free woman. I said that when we look at sexual liberation and the law, we need to look not only at which sexual acts are forbidden, but which are compelled." http://radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/10/andrea_dworkin/

The woman that wanted to kill all men - that was the S.C.U.M. Manifesto - it seems pretty satirical in nature. (By Valerie Solanas.) But of course it couldn't be satirical because everyone knows that feminists have no sense of humor.

Why bring this up? because this just keeps coming up about feminism - that there is some kind of direct link between misandry and feminism. I'd think Beall Philips is a more likely candidate for misandry.

And why worry about it anyway? Three women speaking for all women, every where that consider themselves Feminist! It would be like someone saying they could decide who was and wasn't Christian....oh, wait....

[bananacat]

It was suppose to be a joke Lissar, maybe I should of added something. But why do some Feminists have a bit of misandry in them? I'm not saying all of them but some do like one said that marriage is like legalized prostitution, one said hetero sex is like rape and there was one woman serial killer who wanted to kill all the men in the world (I forgot her name though).

Without any names, I'm reluctant to believe that someone actually said these things, or that if someone did you have taken them ridiculously out of context. This stinks of an urban legend to me.

[emmiedahl]

Karl Marx said the thing about wives being prostitutes. Catherine MacKinnon is falsely believed to have said sex is rape. (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mackinnon.asp) I heard about the serial killer, wasn't there a movie about her starring Charlize Theron?

[Austin]

Karl Marx said the thing about wives being prostitutes. Catherine MacKinnon is falsely believed to have said sex is rape. (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mackinnon.asp) I heard about the serial killer, wasn't there a movie about her starring Charlize Theron?

Charlize Theron played the part of Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster. Wuornos was a serial killer in Florida who was convicted and executed for her crimes. Is that what you're thinking of?

[emmiedahl]

Yeah, is she the man-killing serial killer?

[Austin]

That's her. I think she killed seven.

[Mompom]

Am I the only person who thought the hypothetical sounded like a pretty nice life? I swear some people have no perspective. You know there are hungry people living in war torn countries. Heck, there are hungry people living in America who would give their right leg to live that kind of "hypothetical" that she portrays as so awful and evil.

Obviously, this woman is defensive about her choices and needs to have a club of people around her who made the same holy choices she did. Kinda sad. Kinda annoying. Totally short sighted.

[emmiedahl]

She has set up a classic false dichotomy. You can be a feminist who makes the right choices in the right order OR you can be a mentor to younger women and teach them how to be good wives and parents. Not mutually exclusive, lady.

[jenny_islander]

I'm a stay-at-home mom, a Sunday school teacher even, and I'm a feminist. I believe that feminism at its root is this: If it's beneath a man's dignity, a woman shouldn't have to put up with it. My feminist decisions have centered mainly about who I vote for and how I gave birth. I did not believe that I should have to put up with the things that are done to women in labor in hospitals simply because they are women in labor, things that (for example) a man who is having a prostate exam could justly sue for because they have no medical purpose. And I try to vote for candidates who respect women as human beings.

[celestial]

It DOES work out slightly better that way when it comes to paying bills and buying groceries. (rolling eyes)

Don't you know? Women aren't supposed to worry about how the groceries get paid for. It's not their business how the family's income is generated. They're just supposed to keep having babies, regardless. :roll:

[Aurora]

Yes, fundies love to trot out the same old wrong statements about what feminism is. Feminine is better than feminist, as if we can't be both.

She runs a business from home, but oh no it is bad to go out in the big bad world to make money.

It looks like we will have 31 days of these blog posts!! :x

[FemaleScientist]

I'm a feminist. But I also like to wear skirts/dresses, delve into fashion, wear hair accessories, cook, what have you. My husband and I see ourselves as equals, both holding jobs and contributing to the household income. It's something that works for us.

One of the biggest misconceptions I see about feminists is that they hate men, love to insult men, and want to beat men down into being less masculine. Right. :roll: