Senate Let's Talk: Feminism

Exactly. My biology professor said that that is not what Darwin intended for people to take away from his theory of evolution. Gender and race are social constructions, anyway.

 

Quite.
Yet, the same people who oppose evolution are the same who want to apply its principles to society.

 

Yeah. I've noticed that since high school. They claim to believe in Adam and Eve, and yet they say that we're programmed to reproduce. It's weird. Some of us believe that people--gay, bi, trans, asexual, whatever--are here to keep the population from exploding, and that's a component of evolution.

One of the things that disturbs me is the sexism, subconscious or not, of some who support gay rights. Some tend to support gay men over lesbians, and lesbianism is accepted by some simply because they find it attractive. Furthermore, when one examines that bisexual women are abused at far higher rates than other women, I am one of those who is disturbed. We all know how many people harm trans women, but I'm sickened that more people don't defend bisexual women. It's tragic.

 

If you were an alien watching our movies & tv shows, I think they would believe that women are superior warriors, although most action movie do have male leads, I think when there is a male/female fight on a tv show or movie, I would guess the woman wins about 95% of those fights.I can image an alien commander saying according to the transmissions were getting from Earth, the male' s do most of the fighting but watch out for the female of the species , even though they fight less often than the males, look out when they do decide to fight.

 

I'm not sure an alien species would base their strategy on TV shows/movies. I'm also fairly sure that, if they do, they might be less concerned about humans and more worried about, say, Godzilla. Or Brian Blessed.

 

True

 

Great article. I'm going to share that. We women shouldn't have to be fake.

 

My sister and I were brought up in that same manner, so that definitely is a great and true article.

 

Today is International Women's Day.

So... happy International Women's Day.

Never knew this was a thing. Google teaches us many things.

 

John Boyega posted this on International Women's Day: "When women support each other, incredible things happen." He received quite a bit of praise for this, but there were some creepy, nasty people who critiqued him. His response was wonderful: "To praise the loyalty between women does not mean disregarding the loyalty between men. I'm just not talking about frigging men today! So, butt hurt sexists, please, remain in the shadows of your stupidity, and within those shadows you are free to have failed dreams about estrogen-free world."

Kudos to Boyega! He's a good man. He's my kind of feminist. Also, International Women's Day highlights the need for women to have more rights in certain countries. Many women are still oppressed throughout the world. As we've often discussed, just because women have more rights in the U.S. than they would elsewhere does not mean that people are not trying to limit our rights here. Unfortunately, misogynists can be male or female. It is true that there is some misandry against men, but it's often not the kind that sexists claim.

 

So, on the train home yesterday, flicking through the evening standard, a free paper and this is on one of the comment pages:

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/c...ist-can-be-a-funny-old-business-a3216286.html

The short version?

Posting it just for the Highlander ref, but also because that ref really works.

 

The Gambia has outlawed FGM, following Nigeria's earlier outlawing.

 

That's definitely something of which more people should be aware and oppose. I hope that more countries will outlaw it.

 

Mother of two boys won't support feminism

 

lol

 

Do you also teach them that it's polite to go through a door held open for them, regardless of who is holding it? And that it's not polite to try and hold a door open over someone's head in such a way that you expect them to pass under your armpit to go through it?

 

Yup! Totally agreed. I've had incidents in the past ( quigon70 ) where men refused to walk through a door I was holding open for them. I found it super insulting and disrespectful to have a gesture refused like that.

 

Dani, you have to pass under my armpit... at your height, you'd just crash into my arm if I held it open at a normal height...

 

No. I mean, in certain situations when two people are approaching the door at the same time, either from the same or opposite directions, because I'm so short a lot of men think it's polite to reach up and hold open the door at the top of the door while they're blocking the direct passage so that I have to walk under their arm to pass through the doorway. The obvious alternative is either just stepping out of the way or letting me catch the door for myself. It's a terrible compromise and MUCH ruder to expect me to duck (or walk directly) under your arm than to just let me hold the door for myself.

 

Was the fact I grabbed the door from you, slapped your ass and said "I've got it, sugar ****"?

Because I'm done apologising for that.

 

I was thinking a lot about feminism during April. I was reading about Lana Del Rey's views, since she has been accused of being "antifeminist." She may well be of that frame of mind, or, perhaps, she is merely being contrarian to be outrageous. (If she is, I can see why she would be a friend of Marilyn Manson. He is contrarian to be shocking all the time, albeit in a different way.) I liked her Maleficent song, but now that I've heard her other music, I just don't like it. I'm not sure if she's talking about the past or acting as if it's okay for women to be abused by men. (When Amy Lee, Sharon den Adel, Chib of TBM, and 2004 Avril sang about certain things, you could tell when they were being literal or figurative.) She mentioned how she doesn't know much about the history of feminism. The articles were interesting. She has a beautiful voice, but I have to admit that I learned some valuable things (about domestic violence and the like) from the second-wave feminists and the so-called T.E.R.F.s I may identify more with the transfeminists, equity feminists, and fourth-wave feminists, but there's always something to learn from any movement's subdivisions.

Equity feminism really ought to be more well-known. There was this dude on my Facebook page who called himself a humanist as he strongly, vehemently denounced feminism. He called it a form of supremacy and inequality. Well, that was weird, and I ignored his comment for two days before replying with brevity. I've always seen feminism through the lens of equity feminism since about 2002. Feminism is part and parcel with egalitarianism to me, and it's about highlighting the needs, protections, and the many issues we've discussed on this thread. It's just as empowering as studying African American history. I'm not sure why I never found LGBT history as inspiring or interesting as black history and women's history. That's just me.

But as I go through life, I meet people who claim to identify with Daisy Buchanan and, in some instances, even Harley Quinn, and they have crushes on Charlie Sheen. It's sad to meet such self-loathing folks in passing or to listen to them for a year. But humanity is beautiful, despite its imperfections, and we have to strive on for equality.

Other than that, I believe Amber Heard's claims about Johnny Depp. I was really disappointed during January 2014, when Depp claimed that "diamonds" could "cure" a natural, private aspect of Heard's personality. I gave him one more chance after that, and I liked Transcendence and his performance. I liked his roles in the first three Pirates films and in things like Public Enemies. But #ImWithAmber. Given how I've seen the photos and how the cops gave her a restraining order against him, I find it extremely unlikely that she would lie. I don't care if she is trying to get money out of a divorce. Any financial compensation/restitution does not make up for domestic violence like this, but survivors deserve more than most fo sho.