Anti Feminist Bingo!!

[TheFeministParent]

Elephants had this idea!!

So I'll start

"we're not a homogeneous mass..."
"I don't like to be too narrow..."

I liked the clarity of thought HB

Of course calling a feminist a man-hater is only an effective silencing trick because it has the institutional weight of the patriarchy against it.

Which is sort of ironic when you think about it...

I think people should be careful about tossing around offensive and loaded terms such as 'man-hater', with regards to the politics of others, if they can't be bothered to have an actual basis for those claims.

Using man-hater to describe feminists and feminism is not subjective - it is patriarchal and propagandist.

See above post about the irony in such a situation.

To spell it out - calling people who uphold politics of equality as 'haters' is justification, in and off itself, for the necessity of said equal rights movement.

The day a woman can expect to be treated like an equal human, without being insulted and called names, will be the day that feminism might begin to no longer be needed.

No TSH it's not subjective. People come on to these threads all the time, shout "man-hater" and run away. No-one is asking them to spend hours trawling through archives. Just to justify the label at that time, then and there, to point to the post that demonstrates the justification of the label.

They don't do it becuase they can't. There is nothing subjective about it. Calling someone a man-hater, is a recognised anti-feminist practice and it goes on a lot. Calling someone anti-feminist, generally refers to a specific argument or set of arguments that they have used. I would say that your standpoint is anti-feminist, because you deny the systematic discrimination faced by women in the west, preferring to pretend it only exists somewhere far away. You make no bones about it, you have said so in this thread. Your standpoint therefore, is anti-feminist. (And I don't think you'd argue with that, would you? You've said you don't mind being defined as anti-feminst, you're just concerned for other posters who apparantly need you to fight their corner for them, who do mind.)

I think lots of people do mind having their opinions called out as anti-feminist. They mind because they think they are by consequence being considered to be anti-equality.

In reality what is happening, most of the time, is that it is being pointed out (by a feminist) that a woman is repeating patriarchal views, values and notions.

To do so is pretty normal given the powerful, all reaching, insidious, historical, institutional and normalized nature of patriarchy.

It is however, entirely normal that feminists point out that this is what is happening.

I think sometimes people take the hump because they don't have a wider view of the patriarchal context within which these discussions are taking place.

Yes, calling somenoe's views anti-feminist, doesn't mean I think they're the spawn of Satan or anything.

It just means that I don't think they've thought it through from a feminist perspective.

Which is fine if they're not a feminist, but if they do identify as one, then having their views called into question should set off thinking, rather than upset. It certainly has done for me. I don't mind if someone tells me I'm coming from a sexist/ racist/ homophobic place - it makes me think about my views and question if that's true, or if it was just a silencing tactic. Mostly it's the latter.

I think things like 'choice-feminism' are also to blame for this sort of situation.

Women have been fed the idea that female perspective = feminist perspective.

There seems to be an idea that feminism doesn't have fairly de-marked tenets and a history, and that anything a woman says is a feminist view because it is being said by a woman.

Yes, it's a deliberate technique to ensure that feminism is as ineffective as possible. If you can confuse everyone, they won't challenge the power structures and work on changing them.

For a full house, read the comments below this article in the local paper today:

Bristol Evening Post

Jess, not read the comments yet but just wanted to say Jan Martin rocks for refusing to be in that photo and does Babs Janke realise her wonderful choice of words, 'hysterical', I am still laughing. Maybe should could have said 'shrill' too

The Bristol feminists just rock, they are always in the papers - great stuff!
(and yes I know you get misrepresented and the comments are ridiculous, but the visibility is brilliant).

Absolutely Jess, you are doing a great job. Keep it up!

Thanks all for your support. It is unbelievable that Barbara Janke has labelled us "hysterical". This is a woman who stormed out and refused to look at the artwork done by survivors because it didn't include men. And apparently those present were bullying Cllr Poultney, who voted in Hooters, a lap dancing club and who refused to opt for a nil cap on SEVs despite sitting on North Bristol's Domestic Abuse Forum. All a bit of a joke.

poor little Cllr Poultney. Is he a delicate flower?
of course you are hysterical, you are a feminist.

"I just do not accept that women (on the whole) are disproportionately affected (in the West)." How can you call it nonsense to say that that sentence is a denial that women are disproportionately affected by discrimination?

"In using the word "disproportionate", I was inferring that women, as a group, are no more marginalised than any other subjections of society. Women can be subjected to discrimination, but then again, so can homosexuals, disabled people, ethnic minorities, the poor, those of a specific creed and even men..."

Um yes, you see the problem with that, is that within most of those groups, half of the group are women. Who suffer a double whammy. To deny that (which you appear to be doing, for all your contention that it's nonsense) is to take an anti-feminist stance. I have no idea why you are trying to argue that it isn't TSH, just own it why don't you.

Oh and well done on getting back to discussing whether feminism needs to exist at all btw.

So - back to the original topic. Can everyone post their (least) favourite/most heard three phrases for the feminist bingo card? From this thread or IYE.

Are you going to put together some actual cards elephants, then send us off into the interweb to collect urls until we get a full house?

Well, the idea that because black people and disabled people are discriminated against too, in western patriarchy, that somehow makes things ok, seems to be a recurring theme for the bingo card.

Plus;

'you hate men'.

'When you talk about 'men' you obviously mean every man in the world you sexist caaaahhhhh.'

'you have suffered psychological damage and that is why you have been sucked into Feminism by Feminists and their Dogma'

'but I'm a woman/know a woman/have sat next to a woman on the bus, who doesn't agree with you'

'but patently not all man are rapists therefore all feminist theory and analysis is Wrong'

Sorry got carried away!

"These so called feminists are just like spoilt little girls. How selfish can you get."

A few more anti-feminist bingo terms:

witch
family destroyer
child killer (i.e. pro-abortion)