In a response to one of my earlier posts INS friend Cattygurl posted a rant that I think needs to see more of the light of day concerning the current state of feminism:
I think a lot of men and women have had a lifetime of fucked up indoctrination. I’ve met a lot of misogynist scum, but I’ve also met my life’s share of misogynist women.
As someone that seems to often get relegated to the radical fringe of feminism, I have nothing against men nor do the majority of similar-minded feminists. It’s too bad that feminism gets such a bad rap, because the psycho fringes are the psycho fringes-and small in number, but they seem to be used to tar the whole feminism movement-just like the woman with badzillion abortions (her right, mind you-and none of my business) are often used as the “representation of a woman that aborts”. Just as I hate the “hand-wringing-’tis-so-terrible” message that comes with talking about abortion-I equally despise the “man-hating” comments that always get brought up with feminism. Feminism is neither about man-hating, nor just about women. The core issue is in societal structuring based on gender and gender roles. There’s wackos in every movement, but damn-I’m sick of teh evel radfems getting brought up every time people talk about feminism. Just as I think it’s vile that a lot of people have to qualify talking about abortion as “tragic”, I’m sick of having to qualify my identity as as a feminist as “I’m not the man-hating kind.”
I mean honestly, the whole feminism = man-hating BS is one of the biggest things to irk me as much as Randal Terry’s blatherings. Just as the whole “tragic” abortion talk is kowtowing to the framing of the forced birthers, so is having to qualify feminism with “I’m not one the crazy ones.”
Amen, sister.
I wrote in here a couple of years ago about being cornered by a young feminist and told that I had no credibility as a pro-choice activist since I’d taken my husband’s name when we got married, and I was further reminded when I received e-mails from the Feminist Majority and NOW about how I must OMG totally support Hillary Clinton apparently based solely on the fact that she owns a vagina. Is it cool that a woman is definitely in the running to become president of the United States? Of course. Is it a strike against me as a woman that I prefer Barack Obama? If you listen to NOW and the Feminist Majority, it seems that way.
To me, feminism means that men and women are treated equally. That means that women will get rejected, not because they’re women but because they don’t qualify. Hillary Clinton to me comes off as yet another slick politician, mouthing the right words that will offend the least number and get the most votes. She lost me after the infamous speech where she referred to abortion as a “tragic” choice. However, I will say that she will get my vote should she become the Democratic nominee since John McCain is virulently anti-choice and borderline batshit crazy to boot. But I’m rooting for Obama and voted for him in the Virginia primary this past week. He puts no caveats on choice and has a lot of good ideas. Plus he supposedly spent his entire law school career stoned. That’s hardcore, dude.
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