What's your number 1 feminist ishoo?

The fact that in so many parts of the world women are not considered human beings in their own right, and have no rights over their own lives. That they will be the ones put to death if they are raped. That their own fathers and brothers will kill them if they behave in a manner deemed to damage the family's honour. That throwing acid in their faces is seen as acceptable and normal if they are not suitably compliment and submissive. That millions of Chinese and Indian female babies have been killed before or at birth for being female.

There's a thread about prostitution at the moment, which I can't comment on because we're not supposed to be cross and agrue and I can't think of a nice response to women who say that those 'other' women can be used as wank socks by misogynist men because 'agency'.

I agree.

I am finding this thread very interesting and nodding along. Jenny I have heard this from friends with girls with SEN too.

Violence against women/Sexual harassment.

I have never had my bum slapped or my cheeks pinched or my hair pulled by a woman. Keep your hands/eyes/comments to yourselves you male scrotums.

I should also have said in my first paragraph that obviously both the sex industry and the pornography industry are poor working environments for the women within them and that the debate which surrounds them regarding liberation and freedom of women to work where they please diverts the real issues. Generally these things get lost in the midst of the token sex workers who appear happy in their work or at least happy to tell the media or forums they are happy in their work.

Housework. Because you're treated as bonkers by most of society if you even bring it up, and there's the hypocrisy of it all - you can live your life and do what you like, but there's this 20 hours of manual work per week which you have to fit in and not even discuss...

thanks, Lotta

it's not only sexist to make assumptions about her, but disablist because they are using her gender (or is it sex? that's a whole other thread ) to minimise her additional needs. If she's not doing so well in maths, that's fine too - being a girl, with SEN - she's not going to really need maths, is she?

if i try to bring up the sexist argument, i get shouted down and mansplained at...it's bloody exhausting, but i won't give in

I think that the issues of pornography, the sex industry and rape culture are inextricably entwined and that the first two issues create the conditions for the third to exist. I believe that the porn industry creates an unrealistic expectation of women, this could be with to do with appearance in the case of soft or main stream porn or of actions within relationships of the more misogynistic porn which exists (the 'tear the b*** in half' genre.) On a larger scale it has gradually crept into main stream culture and ever so insidiously normalised the idea of woman as object or a things for men.

From this ideology so many things follow; page 3 as a tradition and a right; human trafficking;the 'cool girl' syndrome; the idea that teens must expose or 'put out' to be considered sexually alluring; the idea of breast feeding as something to be banned in public because breasts are merely sexual... and so on. There are so many issues which stem from the sexualisation of women for enjoyment of men. It invades our society at every turn and it is one of the main issues which has created a backward step for modern feminism.

That isn't to say that I don't find other issues pressing and extremely important I do. I really do. However, I believe that this issue above all creates a toxic environment for women in general all over the world and it makes it difficult to deal with other equally important issues effectively.

For me, the myth of free choice and the denial of context as an influence of women's choices e.g., "nobody forced me to pose naked." It's bullshit, and dangerous at that.

Jenny, that's not selfish at all. Being a feminist doesn't mean being a martyr and only thinking of other people's problems.

I work with young children - just don't get me started on gender stereotyping, especially from professionals who should know better FFS. It does absolutely no-one any favours but the example of what your daughter's PE teacher said is a particularly damaging one.

'she is being given the vocabulary to 'fit in' without her understanding what it means to be 'her''

It does make sense and its very very sad. I wish I had some advice for you.

I think my no 1 bugbear is the general issue of people (male and female) just not seeing the sexism that's right in front of them or being enacted in their own workplace, relationship, school, the way they are raising their DC etc.

Sexism is a deep and intractable problem that can't be rectified overnight, and we're all mired up in it - but we need to at least see that, for starters. People just accepting that women get a worse deal, and an unfair hand, and not even being able to see that clearly because they are so conditioned to expect it that they don't even realise they are.

I don't think I always see it all myself either. I'm always realising new examples of it that I didn't really take in before.

Often if you take "woman" out of the situation and replace it with "black", or reverse the male and female in the situation, you can suddenly see how ridiculous it is - as in the recent thread about some people not wanting a female pilot. Yet people still shy away from it.

Jennyontheblocks- x posted, but yes, behaviours being explained away by sex rather than individuality, it's unavoidable :(

Mine would be the sex stereotyping that's endemic these days. Girls must have pink, like dolls, crafts and glitter. Boys like wheels, rough play and physical activity.

Imo that's the base to change many of the other issues. People think it's harmless but we're teaching children from birth that females are the weaker, gentler sex who like babies, while men are tough and macho.

Teach girls (and boys) that they are equal from the start and hopefully they will learn that they don't need to take lower pay or crap off men. They will stand up and say the deserve the same treatment...

It makes me sad every day, Lotta

I know in the big scheme of everything feminist, it's not massive, that it's very selfish, but it's very real.

like i say, she has a dx of ASD.

she struggles with PE lessons and having heard her teacher ask 'is it a girl thing, you'd rather be drawing?' she now says this is the reason. Not because she struggles with transitions and sometimes getting dressed and that her co-ordination isn't always comparable to her peers.

she is being given the vocabulary to 'fit in' without her understanding what it means to be 'her'

does that make sense?

i'm really upset and angry about it today

Mine would be reproductive rights, specifically the disgraceful lack of them for women as close as Northern Ireland and the RoI, and the terrifying erosion of them in the US.

most people understand racism and why it is wrong

But it still exist and brutual to black women. The worst form of discrimination I have faced is because of my skin colour, followed by sex.

It's amazing how women who will never experience racism are quick to dismiss the impact race discrimination has over black women

Can I have two? In the UK, I think equal pay is the most important because we do live in a capitalist society and it disadvantages women in every aspect of life from accessing childcare to having the financial independence to leave abusive relationships (although I appreciate the emotional constraints are just, if not more, restrictive).

Overseas, it's the right of self-determination; the right not to be considered a chattel of your husband or family.

Rape, domestic violence and intersectional feminism

'the fact my DD doesn't get the full support her SEN would warrant if she were a DS (ASD related)'

Jenny, can you say more about this?

bigkids, excellent point about Saudi Arabia. I think that most people understand racism and why it is wrong, and much progress is being made with homophobia too. Sexism often seems to be at the bottom of the pile and seen as a joke by many people.

Capitalism- because every other issue from pornography, unequal pay, dual exploitation of work and home, violence and inequality in the home, objectification of women...etc, all stem from this. The way in which capital relies upon a false division between the public and the private sphere allows liberals/politicians/men to deny too much. The idea that we all have free choice stems from this liberal philosophy that in the end is a form of ideology for capitalism.

For me it is violence against women and girls, and the attitudes around it such as glamourisation, victim blaming and the reluctance to call out male violence for the massive problem it is in the way we would label it if it was another 'group' doing such killing. Recent example that has wound me up-the banker in Hong Kong who has been charged with the murder of two women. I have seen articles where they have been just called 'prostitutes' not women, it has been labelled a 'sex murder' and his ex fiance has been blamed for turning him bad by cheating on him and dumping him. Alongside all the scantily clad photos of these women. And no mention in these articles that it is yet another example of brutal male to female violence. If a religious extremist had killed someone it would be called the hate crime that it is and recognised as part of an ongoing problem, yet the prolific killings of women by men are never connected as part of a wider epidemic and always just treated as stand alone crimes.

it's true but i guess in reality actually a lot of the ones that others have mentioned besides our own come a very very close second

Obviously I see all of the above as serious issues but the one thing I get so livid about is the way women are portrayed in music videos and popular media.

The attitude that women are nothing more than sex objects and that all women should aspire to be as made up and scantily dressed as possible is what's directed to the young people of today.

A lot if the other issues are an extension of this.

I don't know if it's the number 1 issue, and it's not so much an issue for me (I suspect it is an issue for me in an absolute sense but in a relative sense then I really can't complain) - the sex-based pay gap. Witholding economic power from women allows many of the other issues to happen and flourish.

obviously VAWG affects me personally, but i have not been directly on the receiving end in as large a way as disordered eating etc