"I don't believe you can have racism, sexism, or classism without a bit of power to back it up. Without the power, you've just got a prejudice (which is problematic, but nowhere near the problem that racism or sexism cause)." linky
Just been reminded why I joined this community a fairly long time ago. I ended up preferring communities like![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
bad_feminists instead though. The reason is I was unsure of whether this community exaggerates the issue at hand.
It's been a while since I was in long debate with an LJ feminist. Having the above conversation reminds me of the problem that afflicts at least certain segments of the feminist population.
What I'd be interested in is hearing your thoughts about the severity of the problem.
Most the feminists I meet in person are reasonable. They lose the silly academic dogma and are right down to the 'women should be treated as people' type of feminism. Brilliant.
Feminists online, mostly college girl feminists on facebook or those LJ feminists with their closed-doors feminist communities where their orthodoxy is protected at all costs, have a different and more unpleasent story. It's kind of reassuring when they say 'You are not a feminist', because by what they mean by the word, I don't want to be one. By what they mean by the word, I'm happily an anti-feminist.
But I like to think they don't exist much outside of the Internet. Perhaps once they are out of college they grow up and get to grips with the world.
This came to the fore in the above conversation by a particular part of the debate. What is the common usage of the term 'racist' (and this applies just as much to sexist).
When the average person says 'racist' does he mean 'person who is racially prejudiced'? Or does he mean 'racial prejudice + power' et cetera. I was fairly sure of the former, she was sure of the latter. In short, I dismissed her feminism as loony-tunes feminism that people don't take seriously, whilst she thought it was common-place (maybe a regional difference?)
What do people here think? In your everyday life, when a person says racist or sexist which definition are they using?
Just been reminded why I joined this community a fairly long time ago. I ended up preferring communities like
bad_feminists instead though. The reason is I was unsure of whether this community exaggerates the issue at hand.It's been a while since I was in long debate with an LJ feminist. Having the above conversation reminds me of the problem that afflicts at least certain segments of the feminist population.
What I'd be interested in is hearing your thoughts about the severity of the problem.
Most the feminists I meet in person are reasonable. They lose the silly academic dogma and are right down to the 'women should be treated as people' type of feminism. Brilliant.
Feminists online, mostly college girl feminists on facebook or those LJ feminists with their closed-doors feminist communities where their orthodoxy is protected at all costs, have a different and more unpleasent story. It's kind of reassuring when they say 'You are not a feminist', because by what they mean by the word, I don't want to be one. By what they mean by the word, I'm happily an anti-feminist.
But I like to think they don't exist much outside of the Internet. Perhaps once they are out of college they grow up and get to grips with the world.
This came to the fore in the above conversation by a particular part of the debate. What is the common usage of the term 'racist' (and this applies just as much to sexist).
When the average person says 'racist' does he mean 'person who is racially prejudiced'? Or does he mean 'racial prejudice + power' et cetera. I was fairly sure of the former, she was sure of the latter. In short, I dismissed her feminism as loony-tunes feminism that people don't take seriously, whilst she thought it was common-place (maybe a regional difference?)
What do people here think? In your everyday life, when a person says racist or sexist which definition are they using?
Profile
- anti_feminism
- Who said it was about equality anyway?
Page Summary
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
armchairshrink : (no subject) [+1] - onebigorooni : (no subject) [+147]
- dubhouse : (no subject) [+7]
- conceptualpete : (no subject) [+33]
- korean_guy_01 : (no subject) [+1]
- arabwel : (no subject) [+1]
- hexennacht : (no subject) [+2]
- chiss : (no subject) [+2]
- pocketthesaurus : (no subject) [+0]
- fatomelette : (no subject) [+0]
Comments
Anyway, it bugs me that we have people who judge feminism based on the actions of said idiots. Most feminists I know IRL are quite reasonable and are of the opinion that men and women should be treated as equals. I know, BRILLIANT.
Most feminists can use logic and aren't hysterical about stupid shit. See: your previous post.
As for most feminists using logic, um. K.
The reclaiming/educating difference seems important to me.
I know there's an academic difference between gender/sex as well, and a rather useful one sometimes! But I dislike it when people try to 'correct' people by saying they're not synonymous, when clearly in common English they are.
The sexism and power thing is worse because I don't think it's even academically useful really. It's just political semantics and spin.
THE WORDS MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS. Just because some people are ignorant and/or willfully stupid regarding this does not mean we should abandon those different meanings and further the dumbing down of our language.
The only people who paint academics as silly are those who are undereducated and threatened by knowledge. There is a host of good reasons for accepting the academic definitions of racism and sexism, but they don't happen to benefit white boys and white boy apologists masquerading as feminists, so of COURSE you're going to call it political semantics and spin. To do otherwise would force you to confront a white male supremacist culture and destroy the lie of the US as a haven of diversity, equality, and tolerance. And that would fuck with your own self-identity, force you to confront your own racism and sexism, and your world would come tumbling down.
Much easier to do the anti-intellectual thing and dismiss it as "spin." Didja get that from Bill O'Reilly? Such great thinking, here.
If by that you mean how damaged is the feminist movement, then I'd say very. And it always has been. Most of it comes down to inaccurate self identification.
By the way, if you think power is a binary attribute, you're retarded. Everyone has power to some extent.
binary attributes: Ya know, as in black/white, no shades of gray, etc etc...
Between anti-transgender feminism, the issues of whether transsexuals ought to be recognised as women, whether or not certain styles of cross-dressing are patriarchal, quite ripe for discussion! :oD
Also; potentially something of a real social issue.
Seriously, shut up, the lot of you; this is making me want to reclaim stupidity. Or maybe I'm just jealous. :(
Oh, I'm not. I'm well-read and know a trade. I'm set.
it just brings more ego.
More?
2) Becoming an American is hard. :(
3) lol.