Really, so which side in the Spanish Civil War was more in favor of women’s rights? How about the Russian Civil War? How about the Paris Commune vs. their (often monarchist) opponents? Japan’s Showa-era monarchists weren’t exactly keen on feminism, and the far-right in Japan today is fiercely patriarchal. Contrast the status of women in the secular republic of Syria with those under the Saudi monarchy, or even most of the more worldly regional monarchies. Iran is a different story, as the monarchy was toppled by the religious right, and in Afghanistan’s case, the generally pro-woman monarchy was toppled by a Leftist regime that was at times aggressively feminist, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule.
He’s given more than enough information for you to find it on your own. You really think the mods would let him get away with a direct link? It’s apparently “advocating for a board war” just to say negative things about the place or to bring up things people say elsewhere, even in the Pit.
The way to voice your disapproval of a bigot or troll is to block them. It’s not to give them the satisfaction of getting you all riled up. Sometimes you can pull off responding in a way that lets them know their trolling failed or informing them of their problems, but you still should block them after that. Sometimes you have even the perfect comeback to something stupid they say. But, still, you should block them afterwards. Actually engaging with them is stupid.
The same thing would have happened anywhere else online if you had posted those sorts of things. It’s not Twitter that’s at fault.
You have to realize that these sort of people are a loud minority that are prevented by the majority from doing any of this stuff in real life. You can’t engage in every battle to win the war. You definitely shouldn’t engage in the battles specifically designed by the other side.
Do you also stop alongside of random lunatics on the street corners shouting to all passers by about how the Lizard People are controlling our bodies through Starbucks lattes and engage them in reasoned discourse? Because that’s the equivalent of engaging random loonies on Twitter.
(emphasis mine) But as you may have noticed, there will be suspicion as to whether you **do **come from a place of sincerity. That’s the damage done by the people misusing or misappropriating the discourse.
And twits on twitter are not worth engaging in *their *discourse. They have all the time in the world to seek to get the last word.
And this is why you’re a “male vagina” and a “pussy”: because you’re soft, squishy, damp and pink. Also, you probably have that old tuna-fish/mustard gas smell that most vaginas don’t have.
You are such a snivelling little gynophobic patriarchal douchebag that it turns my stomach. How dare you tell a woman how she may or may not think. I understand that your belief is that since you have a penis, you know that all women should emulate your political views, but: newsflash–women are allowed to be individuals, even if you don’t like the “malicious backward” things they’re thinking in their pretty little heads.
OurLordPeace, this is a very, very liberal message board. And yet you don’t come across well here. Let me put it as simply as I can.
You are a white, suburban male who thinks he has the right to lecture women on what it means to be a woman. The story in the OP is you lecturing a woman on how to be a woman. People are going to laugh at that.
Oh shit, you once had a coworker who was at a university fifty years ago where there was sexism and racism? Wow. I take it all back, you definitely need to scold people on the Internet every chance you get. I can only imagine what it was like for you to go through that.
Don’t listen to these hooligans. They are caught up in their unconscious actions because they are angry, scared and in the grip of destructive forces in their psyche. Don’t be like them. Choose to no longer contribute to those forces nor to be run by them in your own life.
Twitter is not where you should be doing your feminist crusades. 140 characters takes all nuance out of positions, nuance that is absolutely integral to prevent any sane ideology from become a shallow mockery of itself. Feminism is already struggling with increasing degrees of insularity, fracturing, and hostility. All Twitter and Tumblr feminism do is reduce this to soundbites and inane tribalism.
There’s nothing wrong with writing about feminism, but read a few books and if you still feel particularly inspired, then join an actual community and write a blog. I’m still not confident this will turn out well, but it’s a hell of a lot better than crying about rape culture and the patriarchy in 140 characters.
“Patriarchy”, “rape culture”, and similar terms are jargon. Jargon that is frequently misused (or used maliciously) and misinterpreted during casual activism. They have their place as terms during legitimate feminist discussion with educated peers familiar with these terms. They’re still not that well defined, but they work within a community. Where they emphatically do not work is when yelling at people on Twitter, or when trying to communicate your views to people who don’t share them.
Feminism is one of the only activist fields I can think of that insists on using its jargon to people outside the field as a way to frame the issue to their favor. It’s gotten increasingly malicious as of late with new terms like “mansplaining” (which, by the way, is edging on pretty close to what you did to that chick in the global warming discussion). When used outside the field, terms like “patriarchy” are used as nothing more than smug ways to make an argument your opponent doesn’t understand, and then criticize them for misinterpreting what “patriarchy” actually means.
There are things you can do to be a feminist, you can even write about it. And yes, sometimes you should do things that make you look a tad obnoxious, like taking your friends to task if they catcall women. This sort of activism has to come from a place of respect. You have to call out people who respect you, and whom you respect. This is not only more effective, it also takes far more courage because you risk losing a friend.
Random, aimless activism calling random internet people out because they used gendered insults in slightly poor taste does nothing other than annoy them – in far too many cases nowadays it can even devolve into internet bullying pile-ons far worse than the baseline poor word choice or mild offense on the part of the person you’re taking to task. It does nothing to further any cause, and probably does a lot more to weaken it because it just confirms the stereotype of feminists being humorless nazis.
I consider myself a feminist, and I consider this kind of gung ho aimless Twitter activism far more harmful, and annoying, than helpful. Though you criticized Tumblr earlier, you certainly strike me as the Tumblr stereotype of the sort of social justice warrior who is so up their own ideology they wrap around from tolerance to unintentional hate. Perhaps not quite as strongly, but on the same spectrum. Here’s an article from Meghan Murphy on some of the problems with Twitter Feminism. I don’t particularly agree with Meghan’s views a lot of the time, but regardless of her specific feminist views I think she offers a rather excellent takedown of the sort of extremist, polarizing, annoying, feminism-in-140-characters-or-less vibe I’m getting from you.
“We need to take action and not stand idle to make a difference” doesn’t mean you should call out random strangers (or at least not ones that aren’t prominent public figures). It means that when people you actually have some influence over do bad things, you need to have the courage to speak up. Yelling at people on Twitter about the patriarchy is not refusing to sit on the back of the bus, it’s sneaking a drink from the wrong water fountain while nobody is looking.
And yes, I realize the irony of “not calling out random strangers on the internet” given my earlier post in this thread, but I found that article really interesting and wanted to share it so whatever.
For the most part, this is exactly what I needed to read, so thanks for posting it. I never criticized Tumblr, and for what it’s worth I don’t entirely understand it. Also, the Nazis repressed feminists. With that said, all in all, I get your point. I only started using Twitter to try and spread things I wrote (on other topics entirely!), but then I started noticing trending topics, and on several occasions I’ve seen topics that send me out there seeking monsters to destroy. It’s like that cartoon caption says: “Wait! Someone is wrong on the Internet!” It’s a bad habit.
To clarify, I wasn’t looking for a woman to educate. If I had found a male Twit saying something similar, I would have responded pretty similarly.
I’m not technically suburban. I’m also not a liberal. I was at the NYC Anarchist Book Fair last year, and I had a front row seat to some sordid drama that involved accusations like “MANarchist” being thrown about. I realize I picked the wrong way to try and prove my feminist bona fides.
That’s not a position with a large consensus, feminist or otherwise, is it?