Anyone like to help me with a politics exam?

Leila you had a valid about reading the posting history. I often do before replying.

There is a tendency on FWR to dismiss a poster who goes against the grain that they are a man. Saw one recently where a well established poster was accused of being a man - if the poster were a man, "he" had gone to considerable effort to build up a profile over years , including posts about leaving "his" abusive ex husband with "his" children. So yes, good to check first.

Clearly the OP here was bona fide but you are just being rude now.

Righty-ho. Message received.

meh

Au contraire, Leila. You're being quite rude to me, and I was helpful to the OP.

I have only been 'rude' to people who were being rude to someone else. It was unpleasant and I pointed that out. That's it. If you can't take it, don't dish it.

I have now checked out some posting histories, and I feel very enlightened.

See, I'd agree with you on pro-porn, pro-prostitution feminism having a malign effect. But your posting tone is so confrontational that you got right up my nose before you even got the point where we agree. Which is pretty ironic on a thread that you joined to castigate other people for being too rude to bother engaging with!

Talking of looking at talk history, it's interesting leila that you appear to have only joined to post on the feminist board about how mean we all are.

Well, maybe you should check out the facts before jumping to a conclusion. The OP said nothing offensive.

And of course we should feel comfortable calling out 'feminists' who aren't actually feminists as full of shit. Okay, maybe it's best not to put it that vehemently - sorry - but surely we can assert our opposition to them in no uncertain terms?

I would say, for example, that pro-porn, pro-prostitution, pro-capitalist liberal 'feminists' are betraying feminism and having a malign affect on a generation of young women.Thank God for Banyard and Dines.

Leila, I don't search everyone's talk history before I respond to them. I just look at what they've posted and then I respond to that. Ironically, considering that you're scolding people for their tone, I also read a lot of hostility in your posts - like this: no end of stuff spouted by women calling themselves feminists is complete shit. You can disagree with how other women see their feminism without telling them they're full of shit.

The other thing you have done is look at her Talk history - which shows quite clearly she isn't a troll.

Yeah, that was nothing to suggest that the OP was such a troll at that point was there? Once they say: 'what is it with you feminazis ganging up on the menz' then they get booted out. So what's the problem? As it was, this was someone who possibly wasn't a natural English speaker - maybe of migrant status - doing a course and seeking some company online. And you lot overreacted and failed to give her the benefit of the doubt. If she was an MRA cretin s/he would have gone on and on and on and on, as they invariably do.

And her lecture might have been shit; no end of stuff spouted by women calling themselves feminists is complete shit.

Some sisterly solidarity. 'Take no prisoners'? Get some perspective on yourself and stop justifying knee-jerk hostility.

Exactly mostly

The day this thread was posted, there was another one going about "Why do we need feminism?" started by a troll who then started sock-puppetting. This was the deletion message: "Message from MNHQ: This thread has been removed as the OP was talking to themselves under various names on the thread" We get multiple such threads every week. Even when sensible threads are started, they get trolled. I'm not going to apologise for being shirty with someone who posted in such a stupid manner in the first instance. I'm not on here to give trolls the benefit of the doubt, I'm not on here to do people's homework (and I have worked in higher ed and know exactly what sort of student does this sort of thing instead of getting off their arse and going to the library). This is not me being a mean girl feminist, this is me being a human being who has had enough of online shit and takes no prisoners any more.

Ok, my bad and stand corrected.

She was asking for exam prep and essay help, and that may or may not be homework.

I have been (mostly lurking) on this board for years and I have never, ever, ever thought there was anything to the accusations that FWR can be unduly hostile...until this thread.

OP, I understood what you meant the first time. I can't even roll my eyes hard enough to express how I feel about the thought that one must never mutter "bollocks" about a "feminist" lecture. There are scores of women calling themselves feminists who make me not just mutter but scream bollocks. Umm, Everyday Feminism website to pick an example most posters will be familiar with.

And also, people crowdsource ideas on Internet forums all. the. time. OP was hardly asking us to do her homework. FFS seriously.

I don't care too much for drama and not trying to stir it up. Just letting OP know some people got it.

Sorry I haven't got any suggestions. I don't have a fancy degree and not even sure what people do at university exactly. I can't picture anything except high school, where we never wrote our own exam questions.

That's not what it originally says, Leila. That's with punctuation added, which makes the meaning clear. The original post was not clear. (And no, I'm not a pedant asking for perfect punctuation, but sometimes meaning gets lost completely without punctuation.)

Lella, I agree with you.

But I also think that this is a chat site, not a 'do my homework for me' site.

And just one more thing: suppose the poster isn't in favour of feminism? Don't you think it's good to engage with such people in debate? Nothing will come of a load of people in an online bubble adhering to a consensus. I personally enjoy debating with anti-feminists, Tories, Brexiters and all sorts of other people whose views I'm not in agreement with. Heck sometimes, you can persuade people through a process of debate that feminism is urgently needed. Then someone goes away thinking differently about power and gender in this society. Isn't that what it should be about? I'm a big girl - I get told to fuck off by teens with behavioural issues on a daily basis. Someone disagreeing with my feminist politics on an internet forum is quite survivable. Of course you do not want some arsehole completely hijacking the thread, but then the MNHQ do a pretty good job of kicking them out.

But there's too much 'oooh, someone doesn't agree with us. Rather than engaging them in debate let's just bully them out'.

And also, we don't know anything about this woman. It sounds like she's not a good English speaker and she wanted some help. We should give her the benefit of the doubt at first. If she does turn out to be a he on a troll mission, then we'll deal with that then.

I've decided that the question I'm going to tackle is: "Is feminism still needed? Discuss".

What's wrong with that? There's no implication she thinks it isn't needed. People are so touchy on here. Even if some MRA wanker does sneak it I'll sure we'll all cope.

Not sure I agree, Leila, I had to read it a few times before I understood as the sentence construction isn't clear - I interpreted "'I've decided the is feminism still needed. Discuss. Type of question is one of the two I'm going to tackle" as "I've decided that the question I'm going to tackle is: "Is feminism still needed? Discuss". Which again, doesn't automatically read that the poster is in favour of feminism.

As we get posters here in bad faith with questions that read just like that just about every day, the first instinct isn't to try to dissect them and say "Well, it sounds like this poster is saying feminism is bollocks, but let's suppose I've misunderstood they post, and they aren't".

As I said, we get trolled a lot. So I probably jumped to the conclusion that she didn't think feminism was needed based on her OP. Her second post has helped a little bit. It would still be nice if she came back and added her thoughts to why feminism is still needed.

Just think some of the responses were a bit snide. I'm respectfully assuming english isn't the OP'S first language but 'I've decided the is feminism is still needed' is clear enough to me. She said nothing wrong.

There's a 'homework corner' topic for people who want assistance with their education.

It's not meant to be sprayed all over other boards (as this is a chat, not a tutoring, site)

She didn't say that in her op. And we're taking slight as this forum is trolled regularly so maybe we're a bit suspicious.