Hello, My Name Is Ms Oread LadypersonOkWhatever and I am Here to Turn In My Feminist License.
I am done with you, all of you, every single fucking one of you, at least the ones on the internet.
Or at least the ones that post. Lurkers I might be OK with.
I have never felt so alienated, disenchanted, and like the only person who believes in things like prudence and rationality and careful thought tempered with objectivity in the Twentyish Feminist Age Bracket or Group.
I can't be the only one, right?
I can't be the only one who thinks, "Wow, that's fucked up that guy called some women a Ho in a rap song, but it's your responsibility as a parent/thoughtful human being to say 'I don't agree with that, and I am gonna turn this off now and not give you my money' ". Because what I see is people like Tipper Gore and her ilk trying to get FUCKING WORDS banned.
I can't be the only one who thinks, "Jesus, rape sucks and I never want to endure it. If I want to make sure I am not easy prey, I should do cunning things like run around carrying a switchblade/mace/sack full of oranges to keep on the offense and endeavor to avoid finding myself alone in town drunk with scanty clothing on. Coz, well, there's a lot of crazies out there, and I don't like to be vulnerable." I don't think that's blaming the fucking victim, I think that's being a fucking safe individual who understands how to take care of themselves. Have you no street smarts? Do you not understand we are all still animals and this is indeed the fucking wild, ladies? It seems that way, because when I attempt to advocate the role women have as responsible humans on this planet, I get blasted for being a Paglia incarnate (I like her, she's got vim and vinegar and gigantic fucking brass balls, so...whatever). I don't blame anyone, I advocate being smart and safe, because you just can't count on everyone to be sane.
I can't be the only one who sees a naked lady in a picture and goes, "huh, I wonder why that image is shown that way; why can't she look like Carmen Miranda or Stalin? what do we have here???" Instead, I see the knee jerk reactionary screams of OBJECTIFICATION and SUPPRESSION OF WOMEN. Really? Fucking really? Are you that big of a prude? What if this is a picture of a nude woman with a book title scrawled across her stomach? Does that make it better somehow? Hm. I might be more worried by women being suppressed by a culture that is geared towards giving the most money to those with dangly bits between their legs.
I can't be the only fucking one who says, "You know what, I refuse to be a one issue voter. I am willing to sacrifice one goal and meet halfway with a politician in order to make incredible gains elsewhere. I have been fighting my whole life for things, and narrowing the field at all is great." What I hear now is "I love him, but I can't trust him to give power back to the states to make decisions on abortion or wages or assfucking". You don't think you'll be able to yell and protest loud enough so a small, state gov't can hear you? Don't you think a small battle against a state is more easily won that one fought against the clusterfuck bureaucracy of the United States? Really, now. Grassroots means nothing, I guess.
I am tired of narrow mindedness.
I am tired of the lack of strategy.
I am tired of upper middle class white girls leading the charge.
I am tired of people equating degrees with smarts. Yes, ok. You pay for one, you do some homework, you get one. Brava.
I am tired of college "intellectuals" thinking they know how to run things, because they once took a class last quarter on it. You, and two hundred or more others, chick. Many of us are educated. We choose not to be pompous. We choose common sense, and you can't pay for that with college loans.
I am tired of women who did not grow up with feminism and equality as their religion. I didn't get religion, I got the mantra to go out there and kick some fucking ass intelligently.
Right now, I am avoiding Feministing, where the women are shrill. They come hard, they come loud, and they come without thinking things through most of the time.
They come with no fucking battle plan. They come scattered, they come scared angry shrieking. They come ready to be worn out in five years time from fighting so hard so quickly. They lack the femi-ninja fu it takes to infiltrate, to slide in the cracks and expand until the foundation cracks and the white towers come the fuck down.
I am avoiding Jezebel, where the readers - supposedly educated third wave urban women - are vapid enough to see satirical articles selling the "Poor Diet" ( ie: you're poor, you eat ramen, you lose weight and your health sucks!), and then bemoan that they gained so much weight since being dirt poor, or that they purposely eat shit food in small amounts to keep thin. I am avoiding the commenters who would rather squabble amongst themselves and stroke egos than get down to brass tacks.
Is satire beyond our reach?
Is the ability to think on one's own lost?
Is it too difficult to pick up a book from an opposing view and give it a shot, even if just to learn?
Know thy enemy, ladies.
I see that, like our mothers' generation, it will soon be ourselves.
6 comments:
You make me proud.
it bears repeating:
you make me proud.
Why cant there be a degree in common sense? or is that what the rest of us get when we dont finish college and we start living life with our eyes open.
Ma - thank you! I make me proud, too.
IV - I don't know, why can't common sense be more common? I think that is what one is supposed to be doing while they are instead going to University.
Rim - A female? I don't know, possibly her name, barring that, Steve is nice.
CB - prefreakincisely. I am not into the feminist tag so much, either. Humanism works ok. I am bothered by the "i dress this way to get attention and am empowered" or the "i bought a pink toaster for breast cancer research and it's empowering!" scene. It's a marketing tool now, it seems. Sad. Mostly I hate ivory tower feminists.
Point taken but imagine a world where no one was doing even so much as shrieking. I agree that some of the knee jerk reactions are sort of lame but they do feature real activists doing real work. They do call women to arms by letting them know of rallys and campaigns.
Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. You make detest Jessica Valenti but at least she is raising the awareness that the worst thing you can call a woman is a woman (see the first couple paragraphs of her book). Today's young women dressed in A&F fuck me clothes and spouting the 'I'm not a feminist but...' rhetoric need that message. They need it bad.
I disagree. Feministing is bullshit.
women like Valenti create rules and criteria that are very divisive and exclusionary. It's bullshit, and I think she's full of shit. Just another person needing something to yell about to make them Unique.
As a female in a "man's" job/field, I can tell you that most of it's bullshit. Act like a decent human, and you are usually treated as such. Act like an asshole, and you reap what you sow.
To quote Serenity, "We're all just folk now" and I try to live by that, not letting my gender define me or my abilities, and fighting inequities but not blaming their occurance on my possession of a vagina, only other people's dickery.
thanks for stopping by.
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