Better to complain about white men sitting with their legs open on the subway, or Margot Robbie not being nominated for an award. You won't be called a racist or have your career derailed. You'll probably get a pat on the head and a gold star from college professors or HR department. Why bring up Palestine when there's so much low hanging fruit?
Yep. The incentive to criticize truly patriarchal cultures and the sexual violence that comes out of them is just not there... which is why we should point it out and shame them for their failure to do so!
It's Intersectionality in action. You don't punch down, and brown is down. If necessary, blame sexual violence committed by brown men on colonialism, then accuse anyone who brings it up of racism, or of perpetuating settler colonialism, or of whatever it takes to remind them of their place in the Intersectional moral hierarchy. It's not about the truth value of your claim, but the a priori right to an opinion according to your immutable characteristics.
"The importance of protecting women’s right to choose in all aspects of her life is a key part of any feminist movement I support. "
"But regardless, a failure to consistently and stridently fight for the rights of women who are actually and obviously struggling within patriarchal societies makes it extra hard to get the more nuanced concerns about sexism as it exists in the west taken seriously."
Ok, but given that a society (the Western European world) where women have full political power is less concerned with the interests of the most oppressed women; than it was when only male sexists had the vote --- what gives? When someone mentions the link between Islam and FGM in class it's not the male chauvinist that screams bloody murder, but a woman who lived under what is close to the most formally feminist society anywhere.
Given that this experiment has been run in basically every western country, and that feminists always choose to support the oppression of women; don't you feel a little like a 1980s Soviet workers advocate at this point? Doesn't it feel strange that, in light of such terrible conditions in the factories/muslim world you can only get a hearing by emphasizing how bad it is for communism/feminism's image ("extra hard to get the more nuanced concerns about sexism as it exists in the west taken seriously.").
Thank you for this. I joined up prior to the Surge in Iraq and was proud when I saw a lesbian couple walking hand in hand in my town. Proud that my culture allowed and protected people like this.
As time went by, the intersectional attacks on my race and gender have accelerated. I've lost a great deal of my empathy as I've observed men who interceded in assault such as Sgt Jacob Pentland, Daniel Penny, etc be prosecuted for doing so.
The abuse of women outside the Western sphere is appalling and the silence of so called feminists both incomprehensible and infuriating. Had to explain FGM to some of my younger soldiers and couldn't believe they were unaware of it in our deployed area.
Reading something like this makes me want to care a bit once more, though it will be hard.
Thank you, Bill! I appreciate this comment. Outlining what a feminism that can be widely supported and honestly might look like is a big part of why I'm motivated to write.
Well thought out. But I wonder with all the rationalizations, the failure of feminists (here’s you NOW, Michelle Obama and others) to voice one tiny thing about the brutal orgiastic Hamas violence against Israeli women is just purely modern day antisemitism. Maybe we shouldn’t look too deeply. It is what it is on the surface. Israeli women don’t get human rights.
I think antisemitism is part of it, or not so much active antisemitism as a willingness to write off the suffering of Jewish people (because they’re privileged) that mirrors the willingness to write off the suffering of white men (and sometimes women). But there’s also a willingness to ignore the suffering of vulnerable women and sexual minorities (as well as children) within conservative societies and to preference the majority view or the view of the relatively powerful segments within those societies. And there’s no dependence on antisemitism in those cases.
Thank you. Well written and thoughtful. And I think your analysis is correct. I would add that nearly all war is likely to contain acts of sexual violence. Committed against women and men.... though certainly far more frequently against women. More good reasons to oppose war and support diplomacy.
Better to complain about white men sitting with their legs open on the subway, or Margot Robbie not being nominated for an award. You won't be called a racist or have your career derailed. You'll probably get a pat on the head and a gold star from college professors or HR department. Why bring up Palestine when there's so much low hanging fruit?
Yep. The incentive to criticize truly patriarchal cultures and the sexual violence that comes out of them is just not there... which is why we should point it out and shame them for their failure to do so!
It's Intersectionality in action. You don't punch down, and brown is down. If necessary, blame sexual violence committed by brown men on colonialism, then accuse anyone who brings it up of racism, or of perpetuating settler colonialism, or of whatever it takes to remind them of their place in the Intersectional moral hierarchy. It's not about the truth value of your claim, but the a priori right to an opinion according to your immutable characteristics.
Kinda like how we can talk about missing Native American women but not who is committing these crimes.
"The importance of protecting women’s right to choose in all aspects of her life is a key part of any feminist movement I support. "
"But regardless, a failure to consistently and stridently fight for the rights of women who are actually and obviously struggling within patriarchal societies makes it extra hard to get the more nuanced concerns about sexism as it exists in the west taken seriously."
Ok, but given that a society (the Western European world) where women have full political power is less concerned with the interests of the most oppressed women; than it was when only male sexists had the vote --- what gives? When someone mentions the link between Islam and FGM in class it's not the male chauvinist that screams bloody murder, but a woman who lived under what is close to the most formally feminist society anywhere.
Given that this experiment has been run in basically every western country, and that feminists always choose to support the oppression of women; don't you feel a little like a 1980s Soviet workers advocate at this point? Doesn't it feel strange that, in light of such terrible conditions in the factories/muslim world you can only get a hearing by emphasizing how bad it is for communism/feminism's image ("extra hard to get the more nuanced concerns about sexism as it exists in the west taken seriously.").
Thank you for this. I joined up prior to the Surge in Iraq and was proud when I saw a lesbian couple walking hand in hand in my town. Proud that my culture allowed and protected people like this.
As time went by, the intersectional attacks on my race and gender have accelerated. I've lost a great deal of my empathy as I've observed men who interceded in assault such as Sgt Jacob Pentland, Daniel Penny, etc be prosecuted for doing so.
The abuse of women outside the Western sphere is appalling and the silence of so called feminists both incomprehensible and infuriating. Had to explain FGM to some of my younger soldiers and couldn't believe they were unaware of it in our deployed area.
Reading something like this makes me want to care a bit once more, though it will be hard.
Thank you, Bill! I appreciate this comment. Outlining what a feminism that can be widely supported and honestly might look like is a big part of why I'm motivated to write.
Well thought out. But I wonder with all the rationalizations, the failure of feminists (here’s you NOW, Michelle Obama and others) to voice one tiny thing about the brutal orgiastic Hamas violence against Israeli women is just purely modern day antisemitism. Maybe we shouldn’t look too deeply. It is what it is on the surface. Israeli women don’t get human rights.
I think antisemitism is part of it, or not so much active antisemitism as a willingness to write off the suffering of Jewish people (because they’re privileged) that mirrors the willingness to write off the suffering of white men (and sometimes women). But there’s also a willingness to ignore the suffering of vulnerable women and sexual minorities (as well as children) within conservative societies and to preference the majority view or the view of the relatively powerful segments within those societies. And there’s no dependence on antisemitism in those cases.
Thank you. Well written and thoughtful. And I think your analysis is correct. I would add that nearly all war is likely to contain acts of sexual violence. Committed against women and men.... though certainly far more frequently against women. More good reasons to oppose war and support diplomacy.