Wednesday, May 30, 2007
You Gotta Be Fucking Kidding Me.
This happened a while ago, but I haven't really had time to blog until today.
And. And. And. I am appalled. Absolutely appalled.
One of my friends from uni sent me a humourous link to an onion article lampooning the 'empowerment' term and what it means today. Empowerment used to mean something. It used to mean women overcoming great odds and obstacles to gain full control of their own bodies. It used to mean sticking their third fingers up at the patriarchy and saying "fuck you, I'm exercising complete socio-economic independence."
Well, the article my friend sent me basically went on and on about how women breathing, and walking to the park, and sticking their hands up in the air and crying out "you go girl!" with some Xena whoopee-ing thrown in is the new 'empowerment'. Which is to say, not. I had a good laugh about it, and suspect more than not that the article was satirising the new stripper-pole-breast-implants-schtick that is fed to us as 'empowerment'. (yeah, because making ourselves as fuckable as possible is NOT at all playing into the hands of the patriatchy.)
I really liked the article. I told my friend over MSN, "it's hilarious."
After a while I typed into the conversation window, "I bet the person who wrote that article is a feminist, or at least a pro-feminist."
And what does my enlightened friend say? Dear God, what does he say?
"have you heard of masculinim? shld check it out."
"yeah, I've heard of masculinism." I say, "I think it's regressive and reactionary.What do you think?"
"nah i think its a valid response to this whole guilt trip that feminists try to put on guys like as if all guys got nothing better to do then put down women. and always making us feel guilty. feminism is not limited to women, its abt equal rights, men can be for it too."
First off: I DO NOT HATE MEN. I do not think that men should be beaten up, raped, be subjected to domestic violence in the way that women are currently subjected to. Nor do I think women should be paid more than men for equal work (equal pay for equal work, I say). I do not advocate lesbian separatism, I do not advocate trading in a system that disproportionately burdens women for a for a system that disproportionately punishes men.
But what does my dear uni friend say? He thinks that feminism is a whole guilt trip put on men by crazy wacko feminists. Hey, way to make it all about you, hey? Way to put yourself in the centre of everything again, way to make men the default and women the, as De Beauvoir would put it, the second sex.
He goes on about how "as if all guys got nothing better to do then put down women". Well, newsflash, some men put down women all the time, and I would venture to say that all men put women down some of the time. (I would also say that some women put women down too, but that's a different story for another time)
And the the last part just kills me "feminism is not limited to women, its abt equal rights, men can be for it too." Men can be for it too. Can be for it too.
I love the way he makes it seem optional. Uni friend, I don't disagree with you. I would just change the word from 'can' to 'should', or to 'must'. Everyone human should, must stand for equal rights. Congratulations, you've stated the correct definition of feminism - for equal rights. Scratch the definition you put forward earlier - feminism is not a giant guilt trip for penis possessors.
And. And. And. I am appalled. Absolutely appalled.
One of my friends from uni sent me a humourous link to an onion article lampooning the 'empowerment' term and what it means today. Empowerment used to mean something. It used to mean women overcoming great odds and obstacles to gain full control of their own bodies. It used to mean sticking their third fingers up at the patriarchy and saying "fuck you, I'm exercising complete socio-economic independence."
Well, the article my friend sent me basically went on and on about how women breathing, and walking to the park, and sticking their hands up in the air and crying out "you go girl!" with some Xena whoopee-ing thrown in is the new 'empowerment'. Which is to say, not. I had a good laugh about it, and suspect more than not that the article was satirising the new stripper-pole-breast-implants-schtick that is fed to us as 'empowerment'. (yeah, because making ourselves as fuckable as possible is NOT at all playing into the hands of the patriatchy.)
I really liked the article. I told my friend over MSN, "it's hilarious."
After a while I typed into the conversation window, "I bet the person who wrote that article is a feminist, or at least a pro-feminist."
And what does my enlightened friend say? Dear God, what does he say?
"have you heard of masculinim? shld check it out."
"yeah, I've heard of masculinism." I say, "I think it's regressive and reactionary.What do you think?"
"nah i think its a valid response to this whole guilt trip that feminists try to put on guys like as if all guys got nothing better to do then put down women. and always making us feel guilty. feminism is not limited to women, its abt equal rights, men can be for it too."
First off: I DO NOT HATE MEN. I do not think that men should be beaten up, raped, be subjected to domestic violence in the way that women are currently subjected to. Nor do I think women should be paid more than men for equal work (equal pay for equal work, I say). I do not advocate lesbian separatism, I do not advocate trading in a system that disproportionately burdens women for a for a system that disproportionately punishes men.
But what does my dear uni friend say? He thinks that feminism is a whole guilt trip put on men by crazy wacko feminists. Hey, way to make it all about you, hey? Way to put yourself in the centre of everything again, way to make men the default and women the, as De Beauvoir would put it, the second sex.
He goes on about how "as if all guys got nothing better to do then put down women". Well, newsflash, some men put down women all the time, and I would venture to say that all men put women down some of the time. (I would also say that some women put women down too, but that's a different story for another time)
And the the last part just kills me "feminism is not limited to women, its abt equal rights, men can be for it too." Men can be for it too. Can be for it too.
I love the way he makes it seem optional. Uni friend, I don't disagree with you. I would just change the word from 'can' to 'should', or to 'must'. Everyone human should, must stand for equal rights. Congratulations, you've stated the correct definition of feminism - for equal rights. Scratch the definition you put forward earlier - feminism is not a giant guilt trip for penis possessors.
Labels: Feminism
# posted by me lah @ 12:50 pm 
