to think the 'F' word is one we should be proud of......

[PosieComeHereMyPreciousParker]

Thanks to MN, especially dittany, Lenin, BoF and Anyfucker, I have been made aware of my casual attitude to misogyny. This short journey in my reclaiming my old values recently lead me to the London Feminist Network Conference on Saturday. And Oh my God it is one of the most inspirational things I've ever done.

Having money and being relatively attractive in my younger days I was mislead into thinking that being a feminist was irrelevant, after all we had a female PM and then 'girl power' where we were fooled into thinking with the right body shape and a little wit the world was our oyster (farm).

My husband's and friends' response to my recent activities have ranged from being mystified to mockery, from resentment to full on stereotypical prejudice. I am alarmed that barely any of my friends think feminism is relevant.

Am I being unreasonable to reclaim the word feminist to mean a person that wants to rid the world of gender prejudiced?

oh do pipe down with name calling.can you converse without your bp going off scale or is any divergent opinion such a challenge

the shame is the inability to converse without high expressed emotion and name calling

thats the shame

A few random late night thoughts:

I agree that the oppression of women has been historically more systematic but at the same time do we know that what is happening to boys in Sudan and men in American and Iranian prisons hasn't been happening to males of all ages in every culture and time, regardless of the political situation?
(I cringed when I read "every now and then" as obviously too many people also still dismiss female rape as such).

Are there any equivalent statistics for male rape and if so how do they compare? Is there a lower non-reporting and/or non-conviction rate?

If fighting against different kinds of discrimination is not mutually exclusive, how many feminists do so for other groups as proportionally as they feel the focus should be? How many of those from other groups do the same?
I note some in feminist media but not a lot of return, for example, in disability media.

X-posted with loooaaaddds of others (including especially Prolesworth who answered some of my questions) while trying to carefully compose mine

im not writing a socialsciencetastic essay its discursive forum.you want neuro-psych and a&e correlation data.nah dont think so

if you were in rl,would you demand someone scurry off and find peer reviewed reputably sourced data prior to any point of view?

what are you on about?im discussing this thread.in the here and now,the words on this screen.this screen right now

are you harking back to some wither post of yore

see i dont really drag the detritus of one post to another.do you?

you do so love to paraphrase.spuriously,and erroneously

a subjective and flawed assessment. nil points

you carry over other threads,bit o this.pattern of that...and et voilà!

and how clever how this concurs with your current opinion,my you are good to yourself hen

how wonderful you can rely on yourself of past posts to back up self of present posts

how endearing

i have never been stuck for words or unable to elucidate an opinion

i dont however respond to demands

Posie, (and I've only read the first page, so apologies if this has been covered already) I'm just wondering why you see TOC's DP's statement as 'masculine'?

Scottish Mummy - you keep avoiding the analogies with racism.

Because some white people suffer racism, do you feel that people from other races and ethnicities should stop focusing on their plight?

It seems to me that some people are anxious to disavow any connection with feminism, and yet be only to keen to reap the benefits that feminism and the women's movement have brought us over the years.

I have read this whole thread and replaced male/man/men with black and female/women/woman with white.

Scottishmummy talks about not aligning herself with as many white people as some black, other posters saying whilst black people are suffering they shouldn't have their own cause because some white people are attacked too....

What if black people could not reach the top of their profession or were paid less when they did? What if black people were massively affected by the recent cuts?

I am very saddened by the fact that sexism is so inherent in today's society that women are too brainwashed to even defend their own kind. Too frightened that a feminist position weakens them. Feminism is an everyone issue, it enables our sons and daughters have successful relationships, it enables our children to not be confined by gender bias in their chosen occupations, it means that either one could stay at home and raise children...by shifting balance to an equal one I won't have to hear any of my dcs to be limited by what society may have chosen for them.

ryuk....Have to say I dfid really think about whether or not to use that word, and then I thought bugger it!

I don't think I can engage with TSH, far too many battles there....and scottishmummy doesn't surprise me either. I feel embarrassed for them both. Why can't women recognise themselves as a group? Is what a man thinks so important? We're certainly a group when it comes to femicide, religion, rape stats, DV, employment....other forces see us as a group and the reason we are vulnerable to these injustices is that some of us can't even see ourselves as a group.

Yes, when women far and away outnumber men when it comes to certain (negative) issues, it seem disingenuous at best to say, 'well, men are suffering too!! I'm going to call myself a humanist'.

If more men were as taken up by the issues and called themselves humanists, them perhaps there genuinely wouldn't be a need for feminism any more.

But they're not, funnily enough...