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FEMINISM


                                                                        Late 80s
                                                                        (An old bboard rant.
You don't think feminists are a homogenous group?                       Definitely feeling
                                                                        cranky that day.)
Well, I checked in at the Feminist Registration Bureau, and they
gave me a list of all things that feminists are required to do:

         Explain why govenment censorship of pornography
         doesn't violate the first amendment and isn't as
         dumb as it sounds.

         Insist on the media's responsibility to provide
         positive role models and to self-censor anything
         else.

         Reject any public display of heterosexual
         behavior, on the grounds that it is demeaning to
         women, and makes closeted homosexuals feel
         uncomfortable.

         Demand the right to convict men of rape based on
         accusation alone, irrespective any lack of legal
         evidence.

         Demand legally mandated equal pay for equal work,
         despite lack of any means of objectively measuring
         ability, training or experience.  Don't forget
         gender quotas for all professions...  football
         players, politicians, etc.

         Rationalize taking money from men on dates as
         being the fair redistribution of wealth.

         Be fanatical about enforcing the use of approved
         terminlogy (e.g. "The pre-women at the Junior High
         completed a symbolic mural depicting the
         castration of the ruling class.").  The greater
         contortion of the language required the better.

         Complain about "objectification of women" when
         general interest magazines show the kind of photos
         that women's magazines do.

         Defend women's right to be what they want to be as
         long as it's not a traditional house wife.

         Demand government subsidy of child care,
         socialized abortions, and free tampons.

         Pretend that leather-clad S&M lesbians who don't
         hate men don't exist.  If confronted by one, be
         prepared to explain why they are not real
         feminists.

         Display no understanding of humor or satire,
         particularly if it involves sexuality or gender
         roles.

         When feminism comes under attack, deny all of the
         above and insist that feminism just means "equal
         rights for women."


                             ((Like the weird defense amongst PC
                               types:
                              You are not allowed to complain about
                              PCness,
                              Because PCness does not exist.

                               Feminism has no center, no definition,
                               Saying feminists are X is indulging in
                               unfair sterotyping,
                               One can not be anti-feminist.
                               And therefore one cannot be
                               profeminist? ))

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No, of course "feminists" aren't quite that homogenous.

You got your Hairy Feminists, you got your Weekday Feminists.
You got your man-hating lesbian types, you got your
man-not-hating lesbian types.  There's radical feminists,
raging feminists, and probably closet feminists for all I
know.  There used to be a lot of male feminists, back when
they thought it would get them laid.  Maybe there still are
a few.

But anyway, it's pretty clear the word means something,
right?  There's been a number of people representing
themselves as feminists over the years, and quite a few of
them have been extreme enough to make feminism a dirty name
in a lot of people's books.  If they've been abusing the
term "feminist", maybe you should've been arguing with them
and not snarling at the rest of us whenever we say something
vaugely critical about them.

----------

This is what's really been bothering me:
"feminists" want credit for their successes"
without taking responsibility for their excesses.

They're doing the politician's shuck and jive...

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