Feminism chat thread

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Hello

Been saying for ages that it'd be nice to have an area for just saying hi, letting off some steam and sharing the little things that don't warrant a whole thread.

So, I'll start...

My brother made me :o:o:o last night when we were talking about some crap sexist song. And he said (in all honesty) - well this is just one of the millions of ways the patriarchy keeps itself going.

Also got the updated email from the Feminism in London conference this morning - can't wait.

Anyone else?

Cheers

If we're all agreeing that nobody knows until it's gone to trial, that the plaintiffs were outed by bonus-seeking journalists and that the Assange case has more complications than normal - why do I feel as though everybody's saying I'm wrong??

I seem to have swapped the thread subjects around. Sorry. (Must be wine o'clock!)

Male survivors under-represented in the sense of having little voice and getting insufficient support. Now I'm starting to wonder if my main concern is anti-bullying rather than pro-feminist. Argh - I'll think about that while I go out for some wine

AgeingGrace - "Innocent until proven guilty" seems to have no meaning here."

It sounds like you were reading a different thread to the one I was reading.

AgeingGrace, keep on posting. We are all learning from each other. It is important to feel free to ask questions and think differently, even if we are proved wrong, because that is how we all learn. There is not one voice and one answer. We all have faulty reasoning on some aspects and not others. It's not nice feeling that we are getting a kicking, but I don't think anyone is intentionally dishing kickings out.

What HerBeX said basically.

grace what rights do you think that feminists want /have that are more than men? The only thing I can think of is maternity leave. That is being altered though so the other parent can have more time off. Pension age is being equalised too (although report today says women still have much lower pensions from the state than men due to childcare, and the removal of child ben for quite a lot of women will impact future pensions as well unless the govt changes the rules but they haven't mentioned it yet)... What things are you thinking of?

AgeingGrace wrote - "Male survivors under-represented in the sense of having little voice and getting insufficient support."

I suggest we could have a thread comparing the hard facts per victim (including a male/female comparison) of:

• number of "refuge beds"
• government expenditure
• availability of support organisations

On that last point, I'd like to see a count of refuges started by people of the opposite sex to the victim, i.e. number of women's shelters set up by men, number of men's shelters set up by women, to address allegations of feminists apparently caring less about men than men care about women and men.

I'm worn out. I appreciate the efforts you're making to push me (I think!)

I confess to not really caring about the Assange case until it goes to court; I haven't read about it in detail because I suppose more stuff will emerge before then. I feel sorry for everyone involved in it.

To answer your questions about what 'extra' rights I perceive Feminists (as vilified by Melani Philips ) wanting, I'd have to trawl through past threads picking out bits to hold up for inspection. I'm not going to do that. But I will try & brace meself to raise them as I (think I) see them, in future!

That sounds like a plan grace

'I confess to not really caring about the Assange case until it goes to court;'

IKWYM.... I keep getting drawn in again when someone says something really outrageous (like the Pilger article Prolesworth linked today) but basically I want to just wait and see.

Ohhh is it?

I wanted to see it but it hardly came to any cinemas round here. Have been lent a copy of "Election" - anyone seen it?

Election is very good. I love Reese Witherspoon.

I have just got in from an 18th party. Full of young girls getting very drunk and wearing very little. Made me feel old. I'm sure even in my younger, naive, pre feminist days I never wore that little. Its sad that they think they need to look like they have forgotten their trousers.

Legally blonde is brilliant. I've been to see the musical too.

Morning all I have a sick toddler on my lap . She's only just fought off scarlet fever as well!

Did anyone see last week's Lark Rise to Candleford? It was a comment on women's rights 'back then' and was interesting, I felt.

I saw that FB. It was interesting with women not being allowed to play cricket in a "man's" team. Something similar was mentioned on the football thread in that football used to be a woman's game until the FA took over and banned them!

And Laura standing up for her rights to be heard by her boyfriend and not just bow to his decision even though he was being an arse.

MRAs (men's rights activists) believe that feminists control the world.

I wonder if those misogynists think that Mumsnet feminists secretly substituted our own feminist Manchurian Candidates in place of the genuine mainstream politicians, when they were questioned on Mumsnet before the General Election? Thus giving us a supreme veto on all non-feminist government policies. Now there's an idea.

Megalomania is the medical condition in which someone believes they possess unlimited power.

Is there a medical condition that anti-feminists can have that makes them think that feminists are all powerful? Misogynymania or femomania, perhaps?

Megalogynophobomania?

I just posted this on the Raab thread but it follows quite nicely from Vesuvia's point so am reposting here:

I wonder if ever, when the moon is blue, I will meet an MRA who doesn't misquote Harriet Harman.
it's amazing how she is like this witch hate-figure for them that completely overstates the amount of power she has ever had and the extremeness of her pronouncements (which weren't that extreme at all).
it's like, they needed someone to blame, and at a certain moment she was the only one with her head above the parapet, so she has been arbitrarily adopted as a kind of scapegoat for the MRAs. If I was her I would actually be quite worried about my personal safety because there are some very loony people out there who really hate her.

by the way you lot, just so you know, I have just completely destroyed my feminist credibility on here with a thread about my dh and teatowels.

so if anyone ever brings it up in order to make MN feminists look silly, you will know who to blame

sethstarkaddersmackerel wrote - "Megalogynophobomania?"

Wow, that's quite a word you've got there! I think you've got all bases covered with that one.

Will MRA's feel discriminated against because feminists have ordered the OED editors, on pain of death, to include it in the dictionary?

yeah cos they are all totally under our thumb, the OED editors, aren't they?