My Not Breakup Letter

[colddaye]

I was going to write a breakup letter, but as we all know, I have no passion in my soul. Certainly not right now, having just jumped back into the grind of classes and labs. Anyway, the last time I mentioned Feministing.com, I was pretty thrilled with it.

I think I found it at a time when I was unsure of myself and my view of feminism - it

Comments

[greymattre]

Any idealistic philosophy becomes self-justifying and narrow-minded when it solidifies into an organized entity. It's not the fault of the philosophy, it's a symptom of organized establishments. This partially turns me off to anything that has had a board of organizers for more than, oh, 6 months. On the other hand, I can't really place blame. The first attribute of creating a club, is deciding what is and is not a part of it.

Also, a symptom of online forums is a rash of stupid.

As for individuals that adopt an accepting and intelligent form of feminism, we're out there. I hate the fact that I'm uncomfortable saying I'm a feminist. I feel that the word has been vilified, primarily by individuals who use it to uphold rigid and often negative interpretations of gender roles and sexuality. I wish men were more comfortable discussing feminist issues. Not because I need to win more over to my cause, but because I think these are important issues to be discussed and I want to know if I am alone in that opinion.

So, in conclusion: Down with the establishment. Fuck wiki-internet-truthiness. And boo-hoo I am so alone/you should write more about your feminist viewpoints because they're refreshing.

[d_bone]

I don't know you but here is a man imminently comfortable discussing feminist issues. We do exist and I agree that there need to be more of us.

It's an issue, I think in large part, of males getting over feeling attacked whenever anyone mentions the word "feminism" and realizing that they're not necessarily being accused of anything PERSONALLY but that STRUCTURAL inequalities exist that they can (and should) help work to overcome. Then they can begin to think of themselves as allies instead of enemies. For example, when a woman says "one in five women are victims of sexual assault" or "women get payed less than men for the same jobs", a stereotypical male response is "but I don't rape!" or "but I don't discriminate in the workplace!" "stop accusing me!" etc. and they miss the whole point of the discussion when what they need to be saying is, "That's awful...what can I do to help?"

The "Men Can Stop Rape" campaign is a good example.
http://www.mencanstoprape.org/

[greymattre]

whoops , dyslexia again strikes. I meant to type "more men were" instead of "men were more." Because that would be a very general statement and we all know how wonderful that kind of ambiguity can be.

I do agree with your statement. However, to be fair, I think that men do get "attacked' by feminists sometimes (often, even). Which leads to the impression that all feminists/feminist discussion should be avoided. And that is an unfortunate barrier to overcome after the fact.