I am a feminist.

[redqueen]

This was posted yesterday, in remembrance of 14 women who were killed on December 6, 1989.


http://theindependent.ca/2011/12/06/i-am-a-feminist/

In my schooling and in my profession I have seen women consistently devalued. I have had to force male colleagues to stop watching pornography in public labs. I have had to yell at TA’s for making comments about their female students. I have had to explain to men twice my age that I am disappointed and ashamed that they believe that a female astronaut is less qualified than a male astronaut.

(snip)

The problem isn’t just the actions of a few, it is systemic; it is an ideology of society. I want it to change, and I want your help. I want you to believe that women are equal with men, that is the foundation of feminism.

I also want you to go one step further. It isn’t a lot to ask, but I promise you it will work; I want you to act. I want you to actively tell people when what they say or do is wrong, and I want you to do it privately and publicly.

The next time you go to tell your niece, your cousin, your daughter, that she’s pretty, I want you to tell her that she’s smart. I want you to promise her that she can be anything she wants to be, and I want you to hold yourself to that promise.

More at link.

[seabeyond]

1. and be tough cause the insults will come if you do speak out. my niece, 4

everything about her is her looks and being pretty. i stopped saying to her.... youa re so beee u teee full. i would say it to my boys often and when feeling such love, at their beauty, you know, the inner spirit. i stop myself from saying it to my niece. for a while now. that makes me sad, but more importantly is for her to hear all the wonderful she is in what she does, her being active, using her brain, then how she looks.

and yes, to all this post is saying.

[redqueen]

4. I am just so very thankful that there are men out there that get it.

Because it seems like that's the only way that most men will ever get a clue, is if other men start speaking up.

And the same goes for men's issues ... I see more women speaking out against macho culture than men.

[Quartermass]

2. I would love for society to learn to see people as more than just slaves to their biology for both

men and women period.

so I've got news for you ladies, you are not the only ones who are judged. That's the thing about victims is they always think they're the only ones who are victims.

I hate being expected to prove that I'm a man by going out and sowing my wild Oates with as many women as possible in order to be taken seriously as a man. I hate that I have to be super macho in order to be taken seriously as a man. I hate society's expectations of living up to our gender roles and would love to be able to see the day when we are allowed to just be ourselves and not be berated and insulted to no end just because.

But that's just a pipe dream.

[redqueen]

3. No, you haven't got any news.

We all know this already. And as for the victim-shaming, save it.

seabeyond and I both, as well as many other women, go above and beyond when confronting those Tough Guise concepts that pop up repeatedly. Not many other men do it, even for their own sex.

Even fewer men bother to say anything when the sexist crap about women comes up.

So yeah, stow the us vs. them attitude, at least with respect to feminists, because you're preaching to the choir. Save that crap for the knuckledraggers (male and female). They're the ones who need to hear it. Often.

[redqueen]

5. And as for it being a "pipe dream"...

I'm just glad not all men are so committed to capitulating to the baser people in society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI

To me, giving up that way, and communicating that it's impossible for people to evolve, is just as damaging as pushing the stereotypes.

[seabeyond]

6. the problem there, is you will hear many many women on du call that shit out. and the men

defend it with all they have.

if i EVER miss a post calling out this bullshit conditioning men experience, then please let me know. it is something i have addressed with the men/boys in my life, and there is nothing healthier for male to find their own manhood instead of allowing society to dictate what a man is, for them

i agree with you whole heartedly

and thank you for this post

[niyad]

8. unfortunately, this sounds like another "but what about the MEN?????""

whenever anything is posted about women.

PLEASE do not equate the expectation about how many women you are supposed to have sex with, with the daily reality of patriarchy for women.

it is MEN who set this system up, so please don't whine to the women about how unfair it is to MEN. don't like it? change it.

[niyad]

7. a belated thank you for the reminder about that massacre that somehow never seems to get

remembered.

periodically, time or some other similar magazine, will run an article like "is feminism dead?" (they wish). My response "not as long as I draw breath.

[Feldspar]

9. Males can be Pro-Feminist and/or Anti-Misogyny,

but not “feminists“.

While I agree that men MUST take responsibility within their male realm for the damages they continue to inflict on girls and women, it is offensive and oppressive for men to claim a political membership in the political class Female.

If Mr. Pant’s intended audience was exclusively, vastly male and he was in a position to hold any true political sway over that vast male audience AND he identified as a Pro-Feminst man then I, as a feminist, would gladly applaud his efforts. As it stands, a very short opinion piece (mostly reproduced in the OP) containing no fewer than 23 references to himself and things he’s done for *feminism* and what he wants *you* to do is an exercise in vanity and a Pro-Feminist fail.

He doesn’t “get it” at all.