Anti-Feminism, Bitch, a Gendered Shooting, and Writing
This article was fun. It was written in response to evo-psych dude's blog article (not an actual article on Psych Today): "Why Modern Feminism is Illogical, Unnecessary, and Evil."
I've read his other stuff before. According to some, he's something of a concern troll-"purposefully politically-incorrect"--drama-(lama)-monger. It's the internets, hey.
What's more disturbing is to see the kind of positive comments he gets in response to his blog posts. Ick.
Why Anti-Feminism is Illogical, Unnecessary, Evil, and Incredibly Unsexy
But even understanding that the world identified me first as a woman and only secondly as anything else didn't stop me from being horrified the first time somebody called me a "feminist." I thought being a feminist meant I couldn't wear lipstick or crave men with small behinds. I thought that "feminist" meant I couldn't send "Peanuts" cards to guys who I was afraid wouldn't call back, or buy stockings with seams. I thought "feminist" meant no more steamy flirtations or prolonged shopping trips. I thought it meant braided hair and short nails, maybe mandatory tofu. I certainly associated feminism with humorless, dour, and--worst of all--unblinkingly earnest women. That was because I was accepting the male version of things, which was sort of like believing the mouse's version of the cat, since it entailed being given access to a vision that could see nothing besides teeth and claws.
I was warned about so-called feminists. I was told by boyfriends, relatives, professors and other disreputable sources that such women were ambitious, sharp-tongued, a little too smart for their own good. They told me that only women who couldn't get laid got political. They told me what was perhaps the biggest and most interesting lie of all: that independence and ambition were unattractive in a woman. They also suggested, subtly but seriously, that too much of a sense of humor in a woman made her unattractive (a comment to which comedian Elayne Boosler would reply "Comedy is very, very sexy when it's done right"). Luckily, during a moment that eclipsed all earlier illumination, I heard a female graduate student repeat a wonderful line from writer Robin Morgan, "We are the women that men have warned us about."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Ta-Nehisi Coates' writes: I'm late on this, I know, but I'm trying to figure out what the hell Dana Milbank was thinking. With few exceptions, the "bitch joke" is the marker of a male mind confronting its own limits and a formidable woman, at the same time. It is the fuel gauge on the dashboard sagging past "E."
~*~*~*~*~*~
And on the shooting of women at a gym in Pennsylvania, Jennifer L. Pozner writes Once more with feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivation for Mass Shootings
Today, the Associated Press’s Genaro C. Armas reports that the alleged shooter, George Sodini, maintained a website detailing his desire -and plans - to kill women. The calculated nature of the crime, and the gunman’s stated intention to target only women, is eerily similar to the Montreal Massacre of 1989, in which a man opened fire on students after screaming, “You’re women, you’re going to be engineers. You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.”
Perhaps it takes this level of hit-us-over-the-head bluntness for media to notice that a mass murder is also a hate crime, when the victims of that crime are solely women. In contrast to many other shootings in which similar motivations have gone unreported over the past two decades, the AP (and several other news outlets picking up Armas’s story) have chosen to discuss the extremely relevant role of misogyny as the root cause of the bloody tragedy in Collier County.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In other news:
I'm scribbling a set of interconnected flash fiction pieces that are (I think) helping me work on some character development in Within a Forest... (That needs a title change, badly. Later.)
It's not much, but I've managed to write 1,000 words in the last 30 hours or so due to it; it's helping me keep my word count moving.
It also takes place of some of the journaling I though I might need to do to help me flesh out the world, though I'm sure I'll still scribble out my thoughts in non-narrative format as it's needed.
Also, I'm trying to make a plan for my...er...I don't want to say "professional," really. My other blog. The one that's supposed to be dedicated more toward talking about writing than all of the other shit that crosses my mind.
I've drafted one post. Noodling on others.
In still other news: I forgot how much kittens don't let you sleep.
I've read his other stuff before. According to some, he's something of a concern troll-"purposefully politically-incorrect"--drama-(lama)-monger. It's the internets, hey.
What's more disturbing is to see the kind of positive comments he gets in response to his blog posts. Ick.
Why Anti-Feminism is Illogical, Unnecessary, Evil, and Incredibly Unsexy
But even understanding that the world identified me first as a woman and only secondly as anything else didn't stop me from being horrified the first time somebody called me a "feminist." I thought being a feminist meant I couldn't wear lipstick or crave men with small behinds. I thought that "feminist" meant I couldn't send "Peanuts" cards to guys who I was afraid wouldn't call back, or buy stockings with seams. I thought "feminist" meant no more steamy flirtations or prolonged shopping trips. I thought it meant braided hair and short nails, maybe mandatory tofu. I certainly associated feminism with humorless, dour, and--worst of all--unblinkingly earnest women. That was because I was accepting the male version of things, which was sort of like believing the mouse's version of the cat, since it entailed being given access to a vision that could see nothing besides teeth and claws.
I was warned about so-called feminists. I was told by boyfriends, relatives, professors and other disreputable sources that such women were ambitious, sharp-tongued, a little too smart for their own good. They told me that only women who couldn't get laid got political. They told me what was perhaps the biggest and most interesting lie of all: that independence and ambition were unattractive in a woman. They also suggested, subtly but seriously, that too much of a sense of humor in a woman made her unattractive (a comment to which comedian Elayne Boosler would reply "Comedy is very, very sexy when it's done right"). Luckily, during a moment that eclipsed all earlier illumination, I heard a female graduate student repeat a wonderful line from writer Robin Morgan, "We are the women that men have warned us about."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Ta-Nehisi Coates' writes: I'm late on this, I know, but I'm trying to figure out what the hell Dana Milbank was thinking. With few exceptions, the "bitch joke" is the marker of a male mind confronting its own limits and a formidable woman, at the same time. It is the fuel gauge on the dashboard sagging past "E."
~*~*~*~*~*~
And on the shooting of women at a gym in Pennsylvania, Jennifer L. Pozner writes Once more with feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivation for Mass Shootings
Today, the Associated Press’s Genaro C. Armas reports that the alleged shooter, George Sodini, maintained a website detailing his desire -and plans - to kill women. The calculated nature of the crime, and the gunman’s stated intention to target only women, is eerily similar to the Montreal Massacre of 1989, in which a man opened fire on students after screaming, “You’re women, you’re going to be engineers. You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.”
Perhaps it takes this level of hit-us-over-the-head bluntness for media to notice that a mass murder is also a hate crime, when the victims of that crime are solely women. In contrast to many other shootings in which similar motivations have gone unreported over the past two decades, the AP (and several other news outlets picking up Armas’s story) have chosen to discuss the extremely relevant role of misogyny as the root cause of the bloody tragedy in Collier County.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In other news:
I'm scribbling a set of interconnected flash fiction pieces that are (I think) helping me work on some character development in Within a Forest... (That needs a title change, badly. Later.)
It's not much, but I've managed to write 1,000 words in the last 30 hours or so due to it; it's helping me keep my word count moving.
It also takes place of some of the journaling I though I might need to do to help me flesh out the world, though I'm sure I'll still scribble out my thoughts in non-narrative format as it's needed.
Also, I'm trying to make a plan for my...er...I don't want to say "professional," really. My other blog. The one that's supposed to be dedicated more toward talking about writing than all of the other shit that crosses my mind.
I've drafted one post. Noodling on others.
In still other news: I forgot how much kittens don't let you sleep.