Notes on Cant XXVI
I, for myself, wonder how the 'feminist' label got so toxic. To the point that people say stuff like 'I'm for equal rights for women but I'm not a feminist.'
This sort of thing is part of the problem. The sheer priggishness of it all, and the drive to inject unanswerable personal drama, are simply unhelpful. ("Tone argument". Yes, I've heard it before. That's another part of the problem. Have you heard the news about another gospel of Jesus Christ?) Labels like "mansplaining" exist because the people who use them want to control the conversation. Dissent is met with canned doctrine, slogans, and labels.
My take remains that he was a clever but somewhat awkward fellow who got an awesome birthday present and may not have the world's best social skills, but up to now has lived in a world where his eccentricities are tolerated. Now he's been made a target of Internet bullying and been forced to grovel. He's too sympathetic a figure; he did not deserve this. Amanda Marcotte called his shirt "pornographic", and it surely is not. It's a piece of lowbrow pinup art. Camp, in other words. I want a world that's safe for camp.
This entry was originally posted at http://ihcoyc.dreamwidth.org/205695.html. You may comment there using OpenID.
This sort of thing is part of the problem. The sheer priggishness of it all, and the drive to inject unanswerable personal drama, are simply unhelpful. ("Tone argument". Yes, I've heard it before. That's another part of the problem. Have you heard the news about another gospel of Jesus Christ?) Labels like "mansplaining" exist because the people who use them want to control the conversation. Dissent is met with canned doctrine, slogans, and labels.
My take remains that he was a clever but somewhat awkward fellow who got an awesome birthday present and may not have the world's best social skills, but up to now has lived in a world where his eccentricities are tolerated. Now he's been made a target of Internet bullying and been forced to grovel. He's too sympathetic a figure; he did not deserve this. Amanda Marcotte called his shirt "pornographic", and it surely is not. It's a piece of lowbrow pinup art. Camp, in other words. I want a world that's safe for camp.
This entry was originally posted at http://ihcoyc.dreamwidth.org/205695.html. You may comment there using OpenID.