by Paralipomenon 74 Replies latest jw friends
of course! men can and SHOULD be critical of the feminist movement. im female, but im not so keen on feminism. im all for equality, but we must acknowledge that we are different creatures. in trying to be like men we have somehow lost who we are. that is in part feminism's doing. so be critical I say!
Right on Sister!
There's a lot of fair arguments feminists make such as equality as you've mentioned, but as you say they are trying to make two things that are very much different to be equal.
im female, but im not so keen on feminism. im all for equality, but we must acknowledge that we are different creatures.
Your post doesn't make a lot of sense, because most feminists do acknowledge differences. You all are using too broad of a brush to paint your picture. It's rather like describing Christians using the KKK.
I do agree that I want to be equal in rights like voting. But I am not the same as a man and I don't want to be expected to lift 60 lbs at work. I want to be able to admit my weakness and ask for help when I need it. And I hope my husband feels like he can ask for my help when he needs something sewn or wants me to bake him some brownies.
I am the only girl at work. I obviously get treated differently and I want to be. He asks me when a retirement party needs to be organized. He asks me when we need to buy a gift for someone. But I ask him when my door broke or I needed a new filing cabinet moved into my office. I like it that way and have no desire to be treated like one of the other guys.
they are all a bunch of weirdos who live off their emotions at certain parts of the month....and their mans wallets the rest of the month
How can these WOMEN possibly really know what a man thinks or feels?
Here's a rule of thumb as to what a man is thinking as revealed in this true-to-life (using a WTS phrase here, btw) demonstration:
Woman: (aloud) Blah blah blah, the boss was a jerk today blah blah blah, I feel that blah blah blah, and you don't understand me blah blah blah.
Man: (thinking) hmmm...I'm hungry, I need a beer, and I need to have sex with something. I wonder how many of these things I can accomplish today...oh wait, she's still talking. Maybe if I pay attention and say something nice, I can kill two birds with one stone.
(aloud) Gee, honey, I didn't realize you felt that way. I'm sorry. You sure look pretty today. You worked hard today. You wanna go out for dinner? I'll drive!
(thinking) I may just get lucky tonight!
Woman: (aloud) Thanks for listening, dear! Sure, let's go to an Italian restaurant.
(thinking) My guy is the best!
----
Erandir
Not without being labeled a mysoginist apparently.
LOL! Yeah, I've taken courses in feminism and I've been critical of it, and I don't really get what most folks in here are talking about. "Man-haters" and "being like men" are some common type of things folks do when they wanna dismiss feminism instead of looking at the core issues- its sorta like when JWs throw "apostate" atus instead of listening what we have to say.
There are MANY branches of feminism so like someone said above to imply that "ALL Feminist" do and say all this crazy stuff is insane. I find that the only real people who are ever really critical of feminism in a fair way are other feminist. No feminist says that women are just like men, but they do say that when a woman wants to she can do the job if need be. And while some women don't want to pick up 60 lbs at work, a lot of woman do not want to be discriminated from getting a job altogether because a person thinks that she can't and is therefore useless. because that happens. and some women pick up 60 lbs at work and can be offended that someone think she needs help. Not every women feels the same way.
And again, you can never say that ALL feminist say and believe the same thing; they is black feminism, chicana feminism, thrid world feminism, religious feminist, lesbian and transgender feminism...
And they all attack each other like hell over the issues and hardly get anywhere. *shrugs* But hey that happens. So, yes a man can be critical of feminism... but first he should LEARN what feminism and its many facest and branches are instead of opening his mouth because you can make a feminist really mad for that by just going off of stereotypes and generalizations of what feminism is really about. Like... not every feminist is pro-choice, it is just that she feels she doesn't have the right to contrict other women to her standards or belief.
. And its not that she (the feminist) automatically hates men, but there's anger and mistrust there...
Just like blacks have to whites, gays have of heteros, poor people have of the wealthy, and all other folks who feel marginalized/discriminated/ and or oppressed. If you can look past that anger and really get to the heart of the issue I find many feminist pleasant. But yeah some aren't and send them on their way.. bt jus because you run into a bitter and angry feminist does not make the study of school of thought invalid.
Depends on what form of feminism you're referring too...
I think there is far too much focus in the media on the extreme forms of feminism, except they usually don't mention they are extreme and try to make it sound as though all feminists feel this way. That's not the case as there are many forms... radical, social, liberal to name just a few.
I'm a liberal feminist, which basically means I believe men and women are equal and that today's society does not truly reflect that. I also believe you don't need to be a woman to be a feminist...
According to Websters.....feminism: 1) the theory of the political economic, and social equality of the sexes 2) organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interest.
Women got the right to vote in 1920...not so long ago. Can men discuss that critically? Absolutely.
Can men critically discuss feminism?
They are not really allowed to do so in the academic setting. In my university days I had a good look at what was considered the "best" in feminism scholarship by a radical feminist professor. She taught a required course in sociology and most of her required reading consisted in radical feminist rants disguised as "scholarly" work. I counted myself lucky to take the class under another professor, unlike my friend who shared his reading list with me.
Most of that "scholarly" work would never see the printed page if it were written about any group other than men, period. In my opinion it was nothing more than hate-filled, misanthropic, tripe which had no place in a civilized setting, much less academia. According to the rants all the problems in the world throughout history were the sole responsibility of men (never mind their is plenty of evidence otherwise). Most of it spewed a warped view on relations between the sexes and had no redeeming value. It offended me to read such blatantly misleading pretenses at scholarship.
That is not to say that all feminist scholarship falls in that category by any means. One of my favorite pieces of research was an anthropological piece done from a Marxist-feminist perspective which had a profound insight into gender based labor division and political power in societies. But in general, my opinion is that academic standards which apply to research and scholarship are simply not followed in gender and racial scholarship. that makes much of what is produced of no value to us as a society.
Forscher
