What's Something You Don't Get? Feminism. See a great example of the stupidity of feminism.

seriouSnoo · 2017-08-31T20:59:33+00:00

You're an incredibly angry guy, but I actually like this. Little things like the two you mention are the reasons why a steady diet of /r/TumblrInAction can lead anyone to believe feminism as a whole is "an example of stupidity." There's a lot wrong with the movement, not least of which is the fast-and-loose way bloggers waving around the label say dumb shit. In fact, you only cross-posted your article here after first sending it to /r/feminism, and they dismissed it out of hand instead of calling out your "feminazis" for being overzealous or wrong. But really, with a title like that you weren't exactly posting in good faith.

I posted something like this over there before it was taken down, but if we're all going to have a conversation about the pitfalls of feminism, I might as well take a second crack at it. If you peel back the straw men and give people the benefit of the doubt, I truly believe there's more common ground between our two movements than not.

Air conditioning is sexist.

You're right, this looks crazy. It looks like feminism, the movement, is blaming an inanimate AC unit for maliciously targeting women in a sexist attack on gender. And you're right that while women tend to be disproportionately impacted by a lower office temp, there's probably nothing malicious or intentional going on. The feminist subreddit even has a version of the Principle of Charity in its sidebar, so I doubt they feel differently.

If we agree that there's no ill will, and we agree that some people are still getting cold, then it makes sense to talk about relaxing dress codes. Forcing women to wear pants is one option, so thank you for that angry suggestion, but allowing men to wear shorts is another. So is having a few office blankets on hand. If you really want to put a label on it, I suppose you could say it's a feminist issue because there's gender disparity, but it's hardly a big ticket item for the movement. Instead, it's common sense office policy reform that everyone should be behind.

Not all Muslims are terrorists, and not all men are rapists.

Of course that's true! The battle cry of #NotAllMen is frequently used to derail conversations about rape, so you can understand why this is a touchy subject, but it's wrong to make blanket pre judgements about a group. Even in the absence of institutionalized power, prejudice leads to Us vs Them animosity, bigotry, and hate. In its worst form, it even discriminates against men in health care, child care, and education, along with making it harder for male victims of rape to come forward or obtain protection from law enforcement. That's not okay, and mainstream feminism is right there beside you in condemning gendered discrimination and prejudice.

At the same time, #YesAllWomen (and the original rape discussion that #NotAllMen is a reaction against) exists because skepticism of men's motives is a justified huristic. All women are in some way impacted by domestic violence and rape perpetrated by the small, largely male minority who think those deplorable actions are okay. This is a discussion we need to have in our society. Yes, it's not okay to negatively impact the lives of half the population based on prejudice, but initial personal skepticism as a survival mechanism is an unfortunate necessity in our lives. If you're going to shout "Not All Men," you've got to at least acknowledge that you're not the only one around and shout "Yes All Women" just as loud. It's a package deal - don't claim rape is hard coded into the Y chromosome, but recognize how rape is an historically gendered problem that requires our immediate action. /r/Feminism frequently forgets to acknoledge the first half, but that's usually because they're pissed off that it seems like you're not listening.

There are misogynists out there who want to shut down debate and silence women. There are misandrists who really do want to exterminate all men for being rapists. There are bloggers who have nothing better to do than go down the dictionary claiming things are sexist. None of those are the norm. They are not progressives (either feminists or MRAs). They are jerks.

I full on support equality, but you do not achieve this by degrading men and portraying them as rapists.

Absolutely. I wholeheartedly believe the only reason feminism isn't seen as coming down hard on the aforementioned jerks is that no one over there takes those nutcases seriously. That's my Charitable view, anyway.

Title	What's Something You Don't Get? Feminism. See a great example of the stupidity of feminism.
Author	trontonian
Upvotes	15
Comments	1
Date	August 31, 2017 6:57 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/6x8x22/whats_something_you_dont_get_feminism_see_a_great/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/whats-something-you-dont-get-feminism-see-a-great.1175684 https://theredarchive.com/post/1175684

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