In this post I want to address two related issues. The first is the standard feminist cop-out when publicly confronted with some truly egregious comment or action by a self-identified feminist. That default response is to assert that the feminist in question is some sort of outlier or crank, and not representative of feminists generally, viz. “yes, but, not all feminists are like that!”.
Of course it is damning of feminism as a movement that the ‘real’ feminists never seem to criticize the ‘bad’ ones. In fact it seems to me that the only women or girls that feminists ever criticize are the ones who are openly critical of some or all aspects of feminism.
A related feminist concoction arises in the form of the term ‘straw feminist‘, as used to describe (what feminists claim to be) an evil and inaccurate caricature of a feminist invented and used by MRA to denigrate the feminist cause. What an insult to our intelligence … why would we need to invent such a person when we can see and hear them with our very own eyes?! Denial on a grand scale or simply ignorant of reality?
See also:
Suzanne Moore: Why I was wrong about men (5 September 2016) Another hater. Related Reddit discussion thread here.
I’m Sick of Having to Reassure Men That Feminism Isn’t About Hating Them (9 August 2016)
“Nice” feminism: How a hate movement uses its grassroots against men, by Hannah Wallen (4 June 2016) Recommended reading
Everybody Hates @PennyRed (And Really, How Can You Blame Them?) (22 March 2016)
Why Do People Hate #Feminism? #8 – Yes All Feminists, by Sargon of Akkad (8 March 2016) Video
Feminists don’t hate men? (5 March 2016) Video response to a male feminist
Conservative Feminism, by Nina Silander (19 August 2015)
Guardian Columnist Julie Bindel Says Put All Males ‘In Some Kind of Camp’ (6 September 2015)
5 Feminists Who Will Completely Amaze You (14 May 2015)
‘Not all feminists are like that‘, a video by John the Other
An open letter to feminists: “What are you doing about it?”(25 January 2015)
Sex trouble: Radical feminism and the long shadow of the ‘Lavender Menace’ (14 July 2014)
“Nice” feminists: How a hate movement uses its grassroots against men, by Hannah Wallen (10 February 2014)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQWoNhrY_fM (by GirlWritesWhat)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6qg8Up3PnU (by A Voice for Men/John the Other)
http://reyekomra.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/the-national-organization-for-women/
http://breakingtheglasses.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/yes-all-feminists-are-like-that.html#.U0oDOlWSySo
http://www.reasonobeysitself.com/blog/feminism/on-not-all-feminists-are-like-that/
http://www.reasonobeysitself.com/blog/?page_id=1531
http://it-goes-both-ways.tumblr.com/post/56899376763/not-all-feminists-are-like-that-johntheother
http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/not-all-feminists-are-like-that-3/
See also this reddit discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/23a4p2/an_example_of_feminism_done_right/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
The flip side: Not all men are like that Once again, some great insights amongst the readers comments at the end of the article
Take the test: Feminist shenanigans or satire? (30 April 2014)
The second thing I want to do in this post is to profile some feminists who really ARE not like that. These are people who do support equality, and are on the same page with many of the issues of concern to MHRA. It must also be recognised that many of those now active in the Mens Human Rights movement were formerly feminists but crossed over upon realising the flaws and hypocrisy of both feminist doctrine and feminist activism. An excellent example of such a person is Warren Farrell, the author of the seminal work ‘The Myth of Male Power‘.
Another example of a feminist who saw value in the message of the Mens Human Rights Movement is provided in this video interview
Doris Lessing (See also http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/14/edinburghfestival2001.edinburghbookfestival2001)
Christina Hoff Sommers is an American author and former philosophy professor who is known for her critique of late 20th century feminism, and her writings about feminism in contemporary American culture. Her most widely discussed books are Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women and The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men. Although her critics refer to her as anti-feminist, Sommers thinks of herself as an equity feminist who faults contemporary feminism for “its irrational hostility to men, its recklessness with facts and statistics, and its inability to take seriously the possibility that the sexes are equal – but different.”
“The orthodox feminists are so carried away with victimology, with a rhetoric of male-bashing that it’s full of female chauvinists, if you will. Also, women are quite eager to censor, to silence. And what concerns me most as a philosopher is it’s become very anti-intellectual, and I think it poses a serious risk to young women in the universities. Women’s studies classes are increasingly a kind of initiation into the most radical wing, the most intolerant wing, of the feminist movement.”
Christina Hoff Sommers is mentioned in this article: http://masculistfeminist.hubpages.com/hub/Is-Antifeminism-Useful-For-Mens-Rights-Mostly-Yes-Sometimes-No
http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/why-still-a-feminist-a-question-for-christina-hoff-sommers/ (16 June 2014)
And here is Christina is in an interview and profiled in a more recent article (13 April 2015)
Camille Paglia, who was recently asked “what’s wrong with American feminism today, and what can it do to improve?“, to which she replied:
“After the great victory won by my insurgent, pro-sex, pro-fashion wing of feminism in the 1990s, American and British feminism has amazingly collapsed backward again into whining, narcissistic victimology. As in the hoary old days of Gloria Steinem and her Stalinist cohorts, we are endlessly subjected to the hackneyed scenario of history as a toxic wasteland of vicious male oppression and gruesome female suffering.
College campuses are hysterically portrayed as rape extravaganzas where women are helpless fluffs with no control over their own choices and behavior. I am an equal opportunity feminist: that is, I call for the removal of all barriers to women’s advance in the professional and political realms. However, I oppose special protections for women, which I reject as demeaning and infantilizing.
My principal demand (as I have been repeating for nearly 25 years) is for colleges to confine themselves to education and to cease their tyrannical surveillance of students’ social lives. If a real crime is committed, it must be reported to the police. College officials and committees have neither the expertise nor the legal right to be conducting investigations into he said/she said campus dating fiascos. Too many of today’s young feminists seem to want hovering, paternalistic authority figures to protect and soothe them, an attitude I regard as servile, reactionary and glaringly bourgeois. The world can never be made totally safe for anyone, male or female: there will always be sociopaths and psychotics impervious to social controls. I call my system “street-smart feminism”: there is no substitute for wary vigilance and personal responsibility.” (Source)
Karen DeCrow (1937-2014)
http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/a-karen-decrow-appreciation/
Some other relevant posts within this blog:
About feminism & how it’s not about hating men
On the censorship of non-feminist perspectives and opinions
Beware the ire of an angry feminist
If feminists have a genuine case then what’s with all the distortion, lies and exaggeration?