Feminism: all about the men

[brigid]

Mirrored from brigidkeely.com/wordpress.

I want to open this by saying that if you’re a dude I interact with in a positive way, this is not about you. I have male friends who are feminists and if I had a problem with their behavior I’d address it to them directly.

This is directed at dudely dudes in general who are dipping their toes in this crazy thing called feminism.

Here are some pointers for you!

• There are a LOT of resources about feminism available both on line and in print media. It is extremely lazy and demanding to drop into a conversation about feminism and demand that the people participating drop what they’re doing and educate you on certain matters. Nobody owes you anything. You do not innately deserve women’s attention, nor do you innately deserve personalized educating. Get off your ass and do your own reading; stop trying to change the subject to yourself. You are not the center of the world.
• Feminism is a large movement with a large number of active and involved participants who are out working to make very real changes in the world. Will your male participation be welcome? In theory, yes. In practice, if you demand respect and attention and accolades simply because you have a penis, you are in practice an entitled douche bag. Feminism does NOT need men as participants to be taken seriously. In fact, that’s the whole POINT of feminism: that women do not need male approval to function. If you act like an ass and are asked to leave a discussion, please don’t rant about how feminism “needs more men” and shouldn’t waste a “valuable male ally/resource.”
• If you feel compelled to open conversations with “If you have an issue with a feminist who JUST HAPPENS to have a penis, I don’t know WHY so many people TAKE ISSUE WITH WHAT I SAY” than the problem is YOU. If people keep calling you on the same shit, you need to examine that shit and change it.
• It is utterly hilarious in a very bad way to have a dude talk about how he’s really new to this whole “privilege” thing and then demand that someone help him explore what his privilege is. Congratulations, you know a buzz word. You also fail utterly to comprehend anything about it, and are proving your inability to read or think critically.
• Guess what: including praise about a woman’s body with praise about her mind isn’t really praise. “Joan has a great ass! And she’s pretty smart, too.” is insulting. “Joan is so smart! And has a bangin’ heiny” is also insulting. Congratulations! You approve of her body type! Who gives a shit? Why do you feel compelled to mention that? Why are you unable to separate your physical attraction to her body from her actual accomplishments and skills?
• “The Patriarchy” exists. “Rape Culture” exists. They permeate all aspects of the world. Ridiculing women for taking to task book authors, writers for television, web comics, etc because they’re not focusing on “real issues” does nothing except prove how little you get it, how little you actually value and respect women, and how little you are aware of the work that feminists are doing around the world. Ignorance: you’re soaking in it.

If I have the time, I’ll work up an article about vaccines and morons next. It will have to go through many revisions as I remove insulting language and cusses and sheer ranting.

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Comments

[cleverthylacine]

Mmmmm, which vaccines? (I approve of all vaccines. It's just that the rant I was preparing to rant is about flu shots, and what fucking idiots people are about them, and why if you got sick once after you had a flu shot, that doesn't mean they don't work.)

[brigid]

Vaccines in general, with a special bit about adjuvants and squalene.

I almost bit my tongue clean off once while trying very VERY hard not to comment to a bunch of adults with state paid insurance (state employees) bitching about the existence of vaccines and how they cause autism and blah blah mercury and blah blah this and blah blah that and they always get sick after the flu vax etc. I was almost shaking with anger at their spreading of ignorance, and ALSO trying to figure how I was going to scrape together the cash for a flu vax as the year BEFORE I'd gotten the flu AND bronchitis and narrowly escaped the bronch turning into pneumonia (which has happened to me before) It was a hellish few weeks and one which I, a pregnant person, did not want to repeat. (I wound up finding a place that claimed to accept my destitute state insurance and gave me the special pregnancy thimersol free shot, even though I had to go to a different pharmacy for it. They refused to give me a shot WITH thimerisol because OMG TEH AUTIZIMS, then said that my insurance didn't actually cover the flu shot, but I made sad eyes at them and they comped me.)

I just finished reading "Wisconsin Death Trip," which features articles and obits and photos etc from turn of the century newspapers. The frequency of deaths associated with diphtheria is astounding and terrifying. We are so protected and coddled when it comes to deadly childhood (and adulthood) diseases. We act like it's a perversion of nature when adults bury children, but until VERY recently it was incredibly common... and it remains so in many parts of the world.