Gender

[Cuyir]

I'm just going to post about a distinction I made in another thread (seeing how It was referenced by Abraxas) and leave it there because I have said everything i've wanted to say and Bridge, Paddy and Mechavomit have said everything else I would have said anyway (cheers).

Pseudo-feminism.

That's a distinction I make when feminists types miss the point, demonize men, use HIGHLY generalized descriptions of men, require qualifiers to be able to discuss an issue (ie ''men can't understand us because they're men and they're part of the oppressors"), have highly paranoiac views (see Mechavomit's crossed out comment) and generally use feminism as a tool to skew rights instead of striving for actual equality.

Equality is inviting and accepting discussion from everyone, not berating men for being born with a penis and testicles. Pretty sure that's why men are pretty fiery when feminism comes up and it turns into a clusterfuck.

If I was as terrified as Abraxas is insinuating she is (she's probably not, she's just rattling off the same issues/problems women go through), I would never go out. Indeed, in an early stage of my life I WAS afraid to go out. "Will a drunk driver crash into me and kill me on impact? Will I be mugged or far worse? Will I be attacked JUST for being from a certain part of the city? Will I be in the worst possible place when rival drug dealing outfits are fighting against each other?" A lot of things can and will happen everyday, worrying about them to that degree (or more likely in this case, using these scenarios as arguing points in a discussion about whether feminism has some negative types) is moot. Yeah, I live in a place where crime is rampant. Yeah, I have to be careful. But that's that. I'd be holed up in my home if I gave TOO much thought to it. Yeah, I can be raped, murdered, assaulted, mugged, crashed, targeted and a host of other such things but you don't see me rattling them off as a qualifier for something. It happens. I know. It sucks. I can still function without seeing people of a certain ethnicity as ''out to get me''. I have jewish friends, they don't see germans as ''out to get them'' because of The Holocaust but they KNOW some people still have some hatred towards them but they function without resorting to exaggerating.

If anyone's noticed, I haven't identified as male or female in these forums. Why? There's no reason to. I see every human as a human being. In my book, we are all humans (and in the context of this forum, we are all users on this forum). Our genders have some plus and minuses to them but to reduce a person to a gender (again, "men just can't understand") is completely paradoxical to feminism. Feminism SHOULD be about women's equality to men. About women's rights and treatment; it's not about exaggerating the behaviors of SOME men and then attributing said behavior to everyone else (I know Abraxas has already discussed this but her comments were still highly accusatory to men). It's not about having MORE rights than men (there are some feminist groups out there that see men in a pretty unequal way, to put it ever so nicely) or seeing everything society has done as some patriarchal conspiracy ("you are making us to be foolish children for wanting to save females first! We can save ourselves!"). Feminism is simply put, a tool for which to strive for equality.

Pseudo-feminists are ruining it for everyone. I don't consider myself a feminist, but a humanist. I don't see feminism as this group of evil and loudmouthed shrews and white knighting males (which exist, sadly), which is WHY I make a seemingly offensive and needless distinction. To reiterate, I see feminism as a tool that can and has been used for good reasons. Shame that it has also been used for some pretty negative and generally paradoxical reasons. Summed up, my distinction between "feminism" and "pseudo-feminism" is a personal construct BECAUSE I like the ideas feminism brings and it would be depressing if I bundled together real respectable feminism ideals with the shrieking harpies that seem to be loudest (not calling anyone here a shrieking harpy). A distinction that has gave me some piece of mind.

This is why I mentioned that I never see us reaching a consensus on this. Some men will always be pathetic little shitbags and some women will always seek to demonize men, try to have more rights than men (basically treating men as inferior) and just missing the point of feminism. Maybe that's a highly negative view for a humanist, but that's what I think.