DISCUSSION FORUM:
feminism and its influence on the portrayal of sexual power



This is an archive page for April 2001.

Where reader comments are of interest or raise significant points I will publish my response in dialogue pages such as this one. (Private comments are not published.) Reader comment excerpts are in black text and my replies in red text.
Please send your scathing critiques and observations to sarcasmo@bigpond.com


From: Sarah winterlionin@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001

Dear Sir, I am assuming you are a sir, perhaps unfairly, but I can't really imagine a woman in this day and age projecting the beliefs you project.Firstly, I would like to point out that Feminism is as subjective a term as "Pagan". Not all feminists conform to the sterotypical man-hating, white-male bashing, militant sexless lesbians the media(the common source of blame in these affairs I realize) may insinuate.I consider myself an ardent young feminist, along with the other titles of socialist, civil -rights activist, and that ever so touchy of terms, Liberal. To this I'm sure I must come off like an ogre. But, I must point this out. I am a feminist in the sense in I believe women and men are equal and hey, we aren't getting treated that way. When I say we, I mean we, men and women. Women have a harder path to climb, yes, but we both have our struggles with what is fair. Women alledgedly had their liberation back around the 1970's or so, according to popular belief. That's fine, everything's fixed and the term feminist can now safely be used for insult, especially when paired with "lesbian". This from an age which reinforces the message that women are worth nothing unless they are sexy at whatever time they can also manage to be revolutionary, intelligent and qualified. (I point out here the use of the word "sexy" over "sexual") If an instance of this is needed, merely look to history's telling of Jacqueline Kennedy, a woman with no historical impact other than a role as a fashionable arm piece for her phallandering husband is deified over Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman who among other things, was an advocate for civil rights, gay rights and acceptance long before it was fashionable and yes, feminism. But there is always the snide remark about Roosevelt's looks. Apparently while she was marching with the Colored Children's Coalition, she should have been outfitted in Dior.

Why am I so angry? I am angry because I live in a society where for centuries women have been overlooked in history, only for a small paragraph at the end of a history textbook chapter or a "Woman's Studies" (How I hate that word!) course that is supposed to be the result of a bloody and poignant revolution, only to be taken away by the same people (Not necessarily white males, thank you) who have so little a sense of history as to complain about this meagre bit along with the well-intentioned affirmative action. I also am angry that the country has shifted so sharply to the right the last 20 years or so (Scandal aside, Clinton was still the Conservative's Democrat) that the term "Woman's Liberation" is camp fodder for hiliarity in sitcoms everywhere.

I'm so tired of people's memories being so short they can't see why a need for women in history is undervalued. I'm tired of complaints of white-male bashing thrown in my face every time slavory, or the post-war de-evolution is brought up. Are we as not just a nation but as a world so short sighted we can't see a need for feminism? Women are still on the market as sex-objects the only difference is now it's considered empowering to be considered sexy and it's starting even younger,it seems. Pretty soon that period before puberty many women are in therapy trying to recapture will be gone forever.

I realize this may seem as a whole like I'm putting down your beliefs. I suppose I am. I welcome your well-founded arguments, however. It would be a pleasant change to spar with an educated opposition for once. I'm sure you'd understand that my peers in high school have no direction for politics. I can't blame them really, their parents don't care either. But then mine don't seem to profess much of an interest, and look at me.


From: From: angie_loves_che@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001

You say you don't categorise people, but you are categorising feminists.

I mean really, where did you actually get all of this information? You obviously haven't done any gender studies and quite frankly I believe you made all of this crap up.

You don't know anything about the women who killed their husbands in self defence. In countries like Afghanistan and Iran, it is perfectly legal for husbands to murder their wife, simply because she was speaking to the male neighbour next door or speaking of another man. This happens more than wives killing their husbands.

Have you even heard about stove deaths, female circumcision, trafficking?? There is more to feminism than you think.

What gives you the right to emply that feminists don't care about black people. I am a true feminist and I love women, men and black people. I was named after a black feminist, Angela Davis, who was a member of the communist party and a supporter of the black panthers and I believe you should do some study on her and her achievements because you are obviously anti-communist and know nothing about it.

I also believe you should do some studies on the women in Afghanistan and countries like that so you can understand the importance of feminism today. You can't just make a site like this without knowing anything of the facts and simply say other people's opinions are irrelevant.

Skip to next entry or continue with my reply.
You've said a lot of things on your message and I have difficulty replying at length to all of them. I agree to some extent with some of your comments. obviously there is poor treatment of women in some countries that we, in advanced industrialised countries, feel appalled about. But we might feel equally appalled at some of the things that affect men in those countries. However let me focus on one issue you raise in particular. You say you love women and blacks. I am sceptical that any person CAN love or cherish a whole group of people with the dedication you profess. They are usually too diverse to warrant such an uncritical affection. But more importantly, you are harking back to an era of feminism when the notion of solidarity with black struggle was quite strong. This notion is not only delusional it is downright reactionary.

If there is one group in society that treats women most badly it is black males, with specific reference to the US and several other countries, such as South Africa and Australia. You profess solidarity with an "oppressed" group, who are precisely the group most likely to oppress you, or your "black sisters". In Australia, where I come from, black women experience domestic violence at what has been rated 40 times the rest of the population, including whites and a variety of other races. From what I have seen of black culture in the US things are probably not so extreme, but it would still be unacceptably high because that black culture positively revels in sexism to an incredible degree.

Now I will accept the argument that as blacks are broadly on the bottom rung of society that they are likely to display unusually high levels of violence and poverty as a social phenomenon. But we should not excuse those things anyway. That is the big cop out of white left liberals and their black friends. I suggest you also do some soul searching on this one.


From: bayfolk@ihug.com.au
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001

Of course some women make more money than some men! I can honestly say that I have never heard a feminist say that all men make more money than women. But what the feminists argue is that overall men make more money, which is quite true!

Maybe if this site would stop categorising everybody we could actually get somewhere. This is where the whole problem started, women and men had "roles" and were constructed into something they're not. If capitalist bullshit was thrown out the window, maybe the world could finally get on with life.

In case you hadn't noticed, it's like one in a million that a woman actually kills her husband in SELF DEFENCE. Women are still burned and tortured all over the world.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself and just get on with life. Men, white men, haven't nearly suffered as much as women, people of colour and the elderly. Of course some men have had it tough and no one has ever put them down. If you don't agree with someone's opinion, don't listen. Stop attacking these great women (the feminists).

Skip to next archive (March 2001) or continue with my reply.
The act of categorising involves identifying human traits and placing them into categories that ostensibly provide insights into power and behaviour. Of course not all categories are insightful or accurate or fair. This is frequently called "pigeonholing".

"Categorising" is exactly what I do NOT do. The aim of this site has been to take men and women out of the very rigid and doctrinaire and uncompromising categories established by feminism. I have taken men out of the cateogory of always being powerful, always earning more. Individual men can be identified and "categorised" but it is often unfair to categorise all men or all women as having certain characteristics. You should have noticed that the site does a hell of a lot of "decategorising".

You do not want to categorise men and women. Yet in the following paragraph you yourself once again categorise women as: the sex that has suffered more. Women belong in the category: more suffering than men.


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