Feminism 101

Well, the fallout from Alison's abortion article continues. I try not to look at what people are saying, but just like when a person plays "see food" or there's some particularly grizzly roadkill, i can't help but look: It's just too compelling.

Mostly I look just to feel superior, although every once in a while someone will say something helpful or thoughtful. Mostly, however, it's the usual suspects of God and his special needles just for us, hell's a-waitin', Alison is a monster, and the new but wildly creative Walter has no balls.

I have resisted the urge to comment and correct fallacies (e.g. the libel concerning my balls), subliminated most of the feelings of superiority into empathy and love, and have stuck to the clinical "market research" attitude i like to use when taking the temperature of conservative America. However, out of the jangly bunch of comments made, one in particular just really grabbed my attention. So here, for your reading pleasure and edification, i offer the author H's very special non-paraphrased understanding of feminism and feminists:

I regularly read several radical feminist blogs and message boards — feministing.com, iblamethepatriarchy.com, womensspace.org, etc. ... (they amuse me — I have a slightly twised sense of humor).

I assure you such selfishness and callous indifference is not uncommon among feminists — generally, the more radical they are, the more self-centered and obnoxious they become. Many are so selfish or mentally scarred (many have been driven to radical extremist feminism because of horrible abuse at the hands of an ex, a father or a stranger) that they can do nothing but live by themselves. Others are lesbians — and some are “political lesbians” or “lesbian separatists” ... i.e. they aren’t actually attracted to women, they’re just so anti-male that they must choose between a relationship with a woman or being a hermit. Generally, they are a pitiful group in need of serious psychotherapy ... not the extremely unhealthy bitch-fest they participate in on these boards.

For the scant few that are in heterosexual relationships, their relationship is exclusively about their satisfaction and what their husband does for them. There is little give and take, and their castrato is on a very short leash. Should he say anything even remotely sexist, he’ll be the topic of conversation on webboards for months — and he’ll be called abusive, patriarchal, a rapist, etc.

Their sex lives (they talk about EVERYTHING on very public message boards) are exclusively about their own pleasure. They do nothing specifically FOR their spouse or partner unless there is something in it for them. THEY control the sexual spigot — and if their husband doesn’t stop at the first sign of trouble, he’s a patriarchal rapist. Any sex that requires ANY urging on their husband’s part is rape. Any act that they don’t find appealing (such as an act that Ms. Lewinsky specializes in) is off limits, and a male that would dare request such an act is a rapist.

Abortion is sacrosanct. To them a fetus is unworthy of any consideration whatsoever. I have LITERALLY read the quote ... [paraphrased] “I step on cockroaches without a second thought, why should I be worried about a glob of cells?” They have referred to fetuses “using” their body “without their permission”, and have likened them to rapists. They are without conscience — a well oiled machine of narcissism.

Honestly — I pity these people. They are immeasurably and uniformly unhappy. They take any bad thing happening to any woman anywhere VERY personally (to the point of having to have “trigger warnings” on any news articles about a rape or murder — so that they won’t accidentally read something that literally tears their life apart). They can be set off into seething rage by anything from a beer commercial, to a Hooters restaurant, to an unwelcomed come-on at a bar.

They live in constant disproportionate fear of men — fear of being raped, murdered, beaten. They fear catcalls. They fear what men are THINKING about them — because “that guy may have just watched pornography and now he’s mentally raping me”. They disdain anything society considers beautiful or healthy as entirely patriarchal beauty constructs. They are cold, callous, calculating — and pretty much entirely incapable of being in a relationship with a non-doormat.

In essence ... they have become matriarchal - and they embody a mirror image of everything they disdain in the supposed “patriarchy”.

H

Whew!