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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism for dummies

115 replies

Nigglenaggle · 26/11/2012 21:46

Hi. I have never really read much about feminism, but I always thought, in its essence, it was about bringing equality for men and women. however reading threads in this section has lead me to believe in fact that is not the case. In fact I've come to wonder if that is even a large part of it. Please explain to me, in plain English, what feminism is. An overview of the different schools of thought within it would be welcome, however please stick to simple terms, for a simple girl Grin

OP posts:
HullyEastergully · 27/11/2012 10:58

Gracious me!

I have to say I think IT'S ALL GONE TOO FAR.

MENZ are being forgotten and left behind. WHO WILL IRON THEIR SHIRTS BEFORE STEALING THEIR CHILDREN?

AnyFuckingDude · 27/11/2012 10:55

How surprising that child custody has come into this...and so early in the thread too !

Supermann · 27/11/2012 10:53

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namechangeguy · 27/11/2012 10:46

If we encouraged critical thinking in our schools, instead of using them as exam-passing factories, then choice would not be such an issue.

HullyEastergully · 27/11/2012 10:39

IT'S ALL ABOUT CHOICE

It doesn't matter what kind of shitty woman-hating choice you make, it's your RIGHT to make it.

Apparently.

AnyFuckingDude · 27/11/2012 10:37

I wasn't referring to you, ncg

I was just musing on the new (or not so new) feminist-goading double tag team we seem to have picked up from somewhere

namechangeguy · 27/11/2012 10:35

I hope my post wasn't seen as bashing. It wasn't meant to be.

AnyFuckingDude · 27/11/2012 10:30

ooo, goody

a feminism bashing thread, haven't had one of those for a while Hmm

namechangeguy · 27/11/2012 10:16

Okay, he goes another man poking his oar in.

Society (and only living in the UK, that is all I can speak about) does not treat men and women equally. It should. There are some areas where women now have a better deal - education is one. Most feminists seem to want equality, which would mean that the education system would not see girls out-performing boys. The same should go for healthcare, wages, societal attitudes towards the roles we should perform etc etc. Why shouldn't my daughter have every opportunity that my son has?

What equality should not be is a race to the bottom, so there should be no problem with campaigning for women's rights, if it means bringing them up to the level of men's rights. What we should not have is an erosion of men's rights down to the level of women's.

Feminism is also a one-issue philosophy/movement, so it can appear a bit narrow at times. In my extremely limited reading of it, it can be difficult to raise issues that do affect men too - poverty, class, social divides, race, regionalism to name a few. But then often we are all guilty of concentrating on the issues that affect us directly.

Is there men-bashing? Maybe a little from time to time, but we should be aware that this is a personal point of view. Most women here are married with sons and daughters. One a personal note, the 'men hate women' phrase is trotted out far too often for my liking - I think it's an incredibly divisive thing to say, and is bound to get anybody's back up and put them on the defensive. Overall though, I think that it's a point of view held by a small section of feminists, and you get extreme views in almost all political movements.

So there you go, Niggle. You have now been put on the road to enlightenment by three men! Just like every other day in your life, no doubt Grin. I hope you stick around. It's an interesting place.

Sausageeggbacon · 27/11/2012 10:13

There are different views within feminism. You have the liberal feminists who want equality and changes where necessary but don't want to force other women to change their lives or lose their jobs (lap dancers and models as an example). We tend to believe the sight of flesh does not turn a man into a raping beast. For me I am against all domestic violence, street prostitution and female genitalia mutilation (examples). There are different views and strong opinions into what is called radical feminism, this is the Ban page 3, lap dancing and all man are rapists (not all them believe this but there have been interesting statements made in the past).

Things as simple as all women short lists in politics can cause issues as many are for it but some believe it indicates that we cannot compete against men on an equal level and have to have protection to be sure we get political roles. Everyone has different opinions, which makes it interesting. Basically every woman will choose the bits she want to believe and disbelieve in. Everyone will quote research which backs their position, unfortunately a lot of research on both sides in biased.

Welcome to the minefield called feminism. There are good videos on youtube that discuss feminism. Personally I watch a lot of the GirlWritesWhat videos which will not be popular but she does have an interesting perspective on the world.

Leithlurker · 27/11/2012 09:06

Frans and superman, are you some sort of double team?

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 27/11/2012 08:54

Wow, really, Frans?

Nigglenaggle, somewhere in this section, forkful started a thread called something like "a gentle thread for questions", I'll try and have a look for it when not on the phone, or you could Advanced Search.

Frans1980 · 27/11/2012 01:46

Feminism in theory= equality between the sexes

Feminism in practice= privileges for women, bashing men at every opportunity and criticizing women who make choices feminists don't like

Supermann · 27/11/2012 01:38

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ecclesvet · 26/11/2012 22:02

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

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