Has anyone changed their views on Feminism/women's role in society as a result of things they have read on here?

[Janos]

Because I have.

MN has been a real eye opener for me here. I would say that I had, in the past, always thought of porn (for example) as harmless and using prostitutes/going to strip clubs as just one of those things men do.

But after discussing it on here and reading round the subject, I've given the subject more thought, done my own reading round the subject and it's really affected me. Another example...I remember once stumbling upon a link which an ex boyfriend mentioned to me he had looked it. It contained images, words which really disturbed me. They were just horrible. I honestly had no idea this stuff existed before and was a real eye opener.

And a few threads on here too (recently) have provided a horrible insight into how some people's minds work. Specifically, I'm referring to the thread about a 12 year old rape victim. People were actually coming on there defending him. I couldn't believe it! My reaction when first reading about the case was 'of course..he would say that wouldn't he?'. And I came to MN expecting people would universally be thinking the same thing..which of course they won't.

And the casual objectification of women everywhere..now I'm in my mid 30s and I don't remember it being so bad when I was a teen. Thats not to say the attitudes weren't there then...just now they have a new outlet.

I feel angry about all this but at the same time pleased that there are people who care aboiut this sort of thing and want to fight against it.

So, thank you to everyone who cares about this kind of thing and is trying to make a difference. And for enlightening me. Keep going!

Made me realise that I am not a feminist even though I thought I was.

I haven't read the whole thread, but a few threads have changed my understanding and opinions on women wearing veils. Particularly posts by riven. she truly opened my eyes to an entirely different perspective. One that I now embrace, wholeheartedly.

I don't feel like a lone voice inside my head, diluted by everyone around
I don't feel isolated
I have started to believe I have power in my one voice, when that voice is joined with others.
And I have started challenging things
I think this section is the best thing about MN in a long long time
[must do some reading though, I really must join the bookclub]

Totally agree with your OP Janos. MN and the feminist section has changed my views on some of the organisations I am involved in and made me realise how patriarchal they actually are rather than thinking they are just "competitive" or even just the normal status quo (in fact how patriarchal most of the world is). I have realised why I am uncomfortable with porn. I becoming much more articulate as to why something is misogynistic and now challenge casual misogyny (sophable - with you on the lack of humour comments and certainly the open hostility!).
And thank you to dittany for being harsh, but fair to me on a thread and making me sit up and take notice.

sorry Getorf
You made a SAHM comment that I can'T let pass.
I'm a rad feminist and a SAHM. In a patriarchal society the work of mothering has been reduced to zero and the people who do it are seen as being pond-life amoebas.

I'm glad you don't think SAHMs are lazy anymore, but I just want to clarify that many women don't care for their children because it makes them 'happy", but because they have reverence for the importance of the job (i.e they haven't been duped into lining the pockets of some conglomerate) , even if it means they have to live in relative poverty in order to do it.

It's not a SAHM/WOHM thing, it's just a comment on the current patriarchal set-up, and how it has been designed to be inimical to women and what women do.

"duped into lining the pockets of some conglomerate"...
What was that for?

StarExpat, Please don't misunderstand my point. I tried to word it as carefully as possible because you can only get what I mean if you try to imagine a non-patriarchal, non-capitalist society.

Under patriarchy-capitalism specific jobs are regarded as "work" and other jobs are not and the only criteria for the defintion is that some jobs are paid under a capitalist system and other jobs are not.
MOthering as work is one of those jobs that doesn't count because it doesn't create revenue for the economy, therefore it has been devalued to zero under our current system.

Some people, the kind who think mothers sit on the sofa eating crisps all day (as if), of which there are many, have been duped into accepting this patriarchal view of the world and therefore believe any paid job, anything constitutes "work", whereas mothering does not. This is despite the fact that a mother cannot be anywhere else or do anything while she is doing the work of mothering. She's not a student, she's not an unemployed man.

So the idea that mothers are lazy or not working because they take care of their children themselves is just plain wrong for a start, but we all know that.

Then ideology that "real" work is at the check-out of Macdonalds and caring for babies is "non-work" and mothers must get back to "real" work ASAP only makes sense if you ascribe to the world-view of a patriarchal-capitalist system.

Thank you. I agree with that and that makes sense. I did misunderstand and read that much differently in your first post. Thank you for clarifying :)

Sakura - I do apologise for my comment if it pissed you off, it was justa sweeping generalisation of what I used to think, and didn't mean for it to cause the age old WOHM/SAHM offence.

This place has helped, despite the fact you are polarised here by the fact if you work or not.

What I understand now is that there are an infinite variety of reasons why women chose to work or not, and they are different for each woman. It is as unlikely that a woman choses to be a SAHM so she can sit on her arse all day wathcing Jeremny Kyle, as it is unlikely that a woman goes back to work FT when she has a 3 month old baby (as I did) because she is a venal, selfish witch.

The SAHM/WOHM arguments on here do get me down sometimes, I am 100% happy with my decision not to stop work, but some people do like to judge, and that perpetuates the row. I think the feminist approach is to encourage choice and not to dismiss someone as being wrong, selfish or misguided, whether they choose to stay at home or not.

My views haven't changed, but that's because I've spent a LOT of time watching conversations on feminist blogs over the past few years, and that was really the thing that crystallised my thoughts. All the reading and thinking I'd done prior to that was nothing compared to watching intelligent, unapologetic women duke it out in unapologetic terms. And a lot of what posters here have said was true for me, too - the sheer audacity of the more radical/forthright posters gave me the space to expand how I thought, and the courage to actually think the things I wanted to think.

MN has been really interesting in that people like dittany and Sakura have done a brilliant job of articulating views I have never understood before, especially around the transgender issues. I still don't agree with them, but prior to MN I'd sort of thought that all feminists regarded trans issues as allied, and so it's been really interesting to see where the other side of that schism is coming from.