[Hey girl, the hegemonic relationship between the state and the prison-industrial complex cannot hold if we plan to develop as a nation, but I’ll always hold you.]
This Open Thread has been brought to you by Internal Conflict.
[Hey girl, I know that Luce Irigaray is deepy into some Jacques Lacan type stuff with regards to a critique of the masculine subject, but I thought she’d go out with me anyway.]
On one level, I find Feminist Ryan Gosling hilarious. However, it’s Ryan Gosling. Whenever I see Ryan Gosling I remember The Notebook and end up gibbering in the corner like the survivor of a Lovecraftian story, muttering the kiss in the rain, the kiss in the rain.
God, that was a terrible movie.
[Hey girl, I know how Judith Butler feels about subverting the dominant paradigm and rejecting the naturalization of heteronormativity, but I got you this flower.]
So I think someone should create Feminist Hugh Jackman instead. He’s Wolverine! He does Broadway! He combines the best of masculinity, femininity and sheer awesome! And, besides, you couldn’t say that this wouldn’t be awesome as “hey bub”:
[Hey girl, nolite te bastardes carborundorum.]
“Because our society is crappy with dealing with gender, and violence, and especially both at the same time, that’s why. And feminists aren’t immune to that.” Yes, feminists are susceptible to unconsciously leaning on popular views on gender that they should be opposed to. But this susceptibility overwhelmingly runs in one direction. That’s what’s worth pointing out. An insignificant little .gif like this nonetheless wouldn’t get so much as a thoughtless reblog or a ‘Like’ or a Digg if the scene depicted were male-on-female. In that case, they’d be hyperaware. In other words, popular gendersphere dialogue as run by feminists… Read more »
Welp, check your subterranean thermometers, folks because I made a blog. More relevant to this site, my most recent post is gendertastic. Girl Toys for Boys or Toy Girls for Boys? Clear a little time though. If my comments are tl;dr for you, then this post is probably a bit much.
@Adiabat
Re: feminist philosphy – I see a lot of flaws in a lot of places, but I don’t want to take the worst aspects of the worst theories and paint the whole thought process in that shade. Otherwise I’d have to ignore everything Aristotle ever wrote because he thought women didn’t count as real human beings. I describe what bits of feminist theory I see as they present themselves.
Danny: “Similarly speaking you would think that feminists wouldn’t use such an incident to show that Harry Potter is better than Twilight. I’ve only seen half of the first Twilight movie but I’ve seen all the Harry Potter movies (caught them all at the theater even) and I’d bet money that that out of 8 movies they could have some other display of Herimone doing something that would show why she is better than Bella, thus arguing HP is better than Twilight.” In addition, Danny, they could also choose a more tasteful headline instead of one advocating that broken hearted… Read more »
BlackHumor: If I were to pick through Tumblr enough, I’m sure I COULD find a doctor using the word “nigger” unironically. But to hold that quote up as an example of everything that’s wrong with medical practice is profoundly dishonest, even if that particular doctor really WAS being racist. While there is an expectation that a doctor would not engage in racism its not their supposed primary function. Now if you want to make an analogy with a doctor find one posting on Tumblr about how they made so much money by pushing a certain drug on their patients and… Read more »
” Okay. It WAS unfortunate that LF reblogged it. That in turn doesn’t change the fact that holding up LF out of a population of thousands of people is unfair to feminism. ” No, it has nothing to do with feminism as a whole. It has to do with these particular feminists. They have made themselves succeptible to criticsm, and the criticism is fair. “If I were to pick through Tumblr enough, I’m sure I COULD find a doctor using the word “nigger” unironically. But to hold that quote up as an example of everything that’s wrong with medical practice… Read more »
Blackhumor: ““WHAT DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN DOING?” To be frank, nothing. So far, you haven’t done a single thing to support your charge that Feminist Critics is anti-feminist except impose your standards of what makes someone an anti-feminist or a prosecutor. And to be frank, that’s all you’ve ever done in every single thread. When someone, or a group of people, critique an aspect of feminism that’s problematic you proceed to leap into the fold as a knight in shining armor, prepared to slay the “anti-feminists” or “Moby Dickers”. Instead of actually looking at their arguments you’d prefer to… Read more »
“Feminist Critics is strongly pro-egalitarian. To the extent that feminism is egalitarian, we support it. Then SAY that. In your posts. With some regularity.” Oh, BH, I don’t think you wanted to go there. You basically are saying that it’s not already obvious enough that feminism is gender-egalitarian, that the FC bloggers have to assert that every time they mention feminism. Because if it were broadly recognized as egalitarian, a blog that is so clearly and vehemently egalitarian would not have to go on and aver its support of that egalitarian movement. would it? Maybe some of feminism’s formulations are… Read more »
Okay, I read the second half of the most recent article on the guy and that was rather bad of him.
My main point still stands, however…how much energy is being wasted on trivial stuff?
I think I’d take certain progressive ‘movements’ more seriously if they didn’t have the problem of not knowing how to pick their battles. I just had this revelation while glancing at Feministe and seeing them still going on about some dudebro and his OWS videos about ‘hot chicks.’ I recently was watching some video about something unrelated, specifically a response video, and this woman made a good point: it’s immature to feel like you have to answer everything. As in, if someone says something, do you HAVE to always answer them back, shout them down, whatever? You can deem my… Read more »
Jay Generally: “I wouldn’t personally state feminist theory=bad philosophy, but I’ve run across several dialogues that felt like the speakers were proud of the feminist invention of free thought in the face of some sort of monotone Patriarchal hegemony. Most academic feminist works I’ve read were good about acknowledging the groundwork previous philosophies laid for feminist philosophies to be built on” Mmm, I’m curious as to why you disagree that feminist theory is at least based on bad philosophy. I agree that they like to reference the groundwork, because a curious aspect of feminist theory is the use of authority… Read more »
@BlackHumor, I think your notions of being “anti” a movement and “prosecuting” it are too broad and black-and-white to be useful, and I think they are unfalsifiable. The prosecutor can acknowledge the defense is correct about things, and often does. If it couldn’t it would instead have to deny obvious realities often, which would make them look less reliable when they came to places where the facts were actually in doubt. You’re quite right, acknowledging the strengths of an opposing argument can be an effective rhetorical strategy. I’m well aware of the power of damning with faint praise, and backhanded… Read more »
@Blackhumor You don’t focus exclusively on feminism’s flaws? That’s funny! Why are you going around calling yourselves “Feminist Critics” if you don’t focus on feminism’s flaws? Is there something wrong focussing on feminism flaws? “WHAT DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN DOING?” Honestly I dont know. It seems to me you are more offended by the name than anything else. And a lot of interpretation on various topics posted on FC. All based on the myth anti-feminism = misogynism (witch is a lie). Can you be more precise and objective? “Because our society is crappy with dealing with gender, and violence,… Read more »
No, I’m saying that people who believe in gender equality should be more sensitive to gendered violence. I hold people who support gender equality in higher esteem than I do people who don’t, and therefore I expect more from them. Well, maybe, but it’s hardly fair to get mad at the LESS crappy people FOR BEING less crappy, is it? Certainly it’s okay to get mad at anyone who reblogs that GIF, but doing it while holding ideas that say it’s wrong to hit men may make you a hypocrite but it doesn’t make you a worse person. Whether or… Read more »
Blackhumor, why don’t you actually post evidence that Feminist Critics is anti-feminist if you’re so fixated on it? WHAT DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN DOING? By the way, that gif you mentioned; lipstick-feminists may not have started it, but they certainly re-blogged it. Now, why would they re-blog it? Tells you something, doesn’t it. Why would any of the 50,000 Harry Potter fans reblog it? Because our society is crappy with dealing with gender, and violence, and especially both at the same time, that’s why. And feminists aren’t immune to that. By the way, Blackhumor, you really think critiquing feminism… Read more »
“…so what you’re saying is, it’s okay to punch men if you don’t say it’s wrong to punch men beforehand?”
No, I’m saying that people who believe in gender equality should be more sensitive to gendered violence. I hold people who support gender equality in higher esteem than I do people who don’t, and therefore I expect more from them.
Whether or not it was singling out LF does not change the fact that it was unfortunate that LF reblogged it.
By the way, Blackhumor, you really think critiquing feminism means being anti-feminist?
Blackhumor, why don’t you actually post evidence that Feminist Critics is anti-feminist if you’re so fixated on it?
By the way, that gif you mentioned; lipstick-feminists may not have started it, but they certainly re-blogged it. Now, why would they re-blog it? Tells you something, doesn’t it.
…so what you’re saying is, it’s okay to punch men if you don’t say it’s wrong to punch men beforehand?
Of course, in both those posts, I mix those acknowledgments in with criticism of feminism, or of certain tendencies within feminism. But if I really was a prosecutor in an adversarial justice system, I doubt I’d be making such acknowledgments at all. The prosecutor can acknowledge the defense is correct about things, and often does. If it couldn’t it would instead have to deny obvious realities often, which would make them look less reliable when they came to places where the facts were actually in doubt. Defense: “My client was at this party an hour before the murder, according to… Read more »
@Blackhumor: Why focus on feminists reblogging the gif and not Harry Potter fans? Simple. Because Harry Potter fans do not have gender equality as one of their tenets.
@BlackHumor, What ballgame said. But they clearly ARE prosecutors, partly because the blog is named “Feminist Critics” and party because they go out of their way to be critical about feminism and feminists but I have almost never seen them defend it except for that single page. Your idea of a “prosecutor” seems a lot nicer than mine. You’re right that we don’t broadly defend feminism, but there are cases where I acknowledge certain feminists or feminist ideas I like, which I don’t think a real prosecutor would do: Being inspired by feminists concepts: Like feminists, I believe that we… Read more »
I look at feminist theory and it annoys me. It’s just bad philosophy, and it’s like the Enlightenment and the philosophy of epistemology never happened. I’ve felt like I’ve run face first into that specific wall a time or two. I wouldn’t personally state feminist theory=bad philosophy, but I’ve run across several dialogues that felt like the speakers were proud of the feminist invention of free thought in the face of some sort of monotone Patriarchal hegemony. Most academic feminist works I’ve read were good about acknowledging the groundwork previous philosophies laid for feminist philosophies to be built on, but,… Read more »
BlackHumor, the only way Feminist Critics could be accurately described as “anti-feminist” would be if feminism was a monolith. The whole ‘FC is anti-feminist’ slur is simply an attempt to sidestep engaging in our analysis of issues. A site can be “anti-liberal” (and many are) despite “liberalism” covering a very broad range of political positions. So “X site is anti-feminist” does not imply “feminism is a monolith” (though it does imply feminism is a meaningful term in that it does not include all possible positions, which I hope we were assuming anyway.) Feminist Critics is strongly pro-egalitarian. To the extent… Read more »
Here’s some MRA activism that seems to be bearing fruit
http://ncfm.org/2011/10/action/ncfm-at-san-diego-hope-in-the-park-domestic-violence-prevention-month-event/
And note some related progress; the article says that a man got help from the YWCA!
Now the bad news
http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2011/10/chickens-have-come-home-to-roost-some.html
The predictions about Schroedinger’s False Rape Accuser are coming true.