Academic attainment and feminism?

[suwoo]

I have wanted to start this thread all day but have been scared that it is stupid or I will be flamed. I want to ask if people feel there is a correlation between academic attainment and feminist principles. Is that a valid question?
I had no idea that I was a feminist. I knew I had these thoughts and principles but didn't know what they were or the significance of them until we did feminist literary theory this semester- it was like an epiphany and my whole world made sense

Had I not gone to uni at the grand old age of 35, maybe I would never had these revelations.

What do you think? Those of you that identify as a feminist, what level of education do you have?

I never said it says 'all men are rapists'. It fed into the whole equation of penetrative sex with rape that the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group published about in 1981.

LRFG was Jeffreys, of course.

(There were, I have to tell you, scurrilous rumours about Jeffreys spread around by perfectly right-on lesbians at the time, but obviously they were scurrilous and apocryphal.)

motherinferior,
How many women on MN have sex with their husbands because they know if they take it off the table he'll find someone else and leave. His right as a man to have intercourse trumps all.
Now if that's not coercion I don't know what is.
And what is the difference between coercion and rape? Not much.

what is controversial about that?

take away the Cognitive Dissonance Factor SaF... It's only controversial if you're desperately invested in it not being true

in other words, if you really need to believe that a man who has intercourse with you without caring whether or not he makes you pregnant loves you. It's obvious today that such a man does not love the woman, but perhaps back then women had such a lot invested in believing he did.

If I had a penis I can't ever imagine putting it somwhere that could make another human being pregnant because of all the life-risking complications that come about in pregnancy. Pregnancy should only ever happen if the woman expresses her desire for a child

I've always thought of myself as a feminist, from when I was little!! I'm from a modest background, and lucky enough to go to University in the days when most people didn't. My aunts were from very poor backgrounds (born in the South wales Valleys just after the depression) and were excellent positive role models.

I had to stick my neck out a bit in my very conservative family and upset my mother by leaving the Valleys after university to find work. I've been independent ever since, always had jobs in male-orientated fields, and now invest in property. I have two degrees, work as a lecturer but I don't see myself as an academic as such.

I see myself as a very ordinary person who has been lucky enough to be able to make a decent life regardless of gender. I've never had a chip on my shoulder about my sex, and treat people as I feel they should be treated, be they men or women.

I find the process of making the most of myself empowering, love clothes and makeup, and mostly enjoy the attentions of men. I also love to be able to put down those men who only see me as an object, because I know I am not.

I see myself as a feminist because I have made the most of my abilities and I have competed with men on an equal playing field. I feel that many so-called feminist women are too quick to hide behind rhetoric and take themselves way too seriously. I was in a meeting once where a woman left in a huff because someone innocently referred to "manpower!!"

"and how frequently does a woman climb on a man make herself come and then climb off and consider the act to be over?"

This a really good point. "SEX" the word literally translates into "When A MAN COMES INSIDE A WOMAN"
That's the literal translation of the word sex. IN the English language.

I think that tells us all we need to know about the power dynamics involved in intercourse.

SHocking, when you think that a clitoris is the only organ on the human body designed for sexual pleasure. Why shouldn'T "sex" be, when the woman is satisfied through cunnilingus?

HI biryani,

"I've never had a chip on my shoulder about my sex,"

Neither have I! It's the men I've come in contact with that have a chip on their shoulder about it.

sakura - sometimes it is

interestingly, and yes I do know this won't resonate with everyone, that postmodernist readings of the world really underlined for me in my own lived experience, that there is no one size fits all, and that it would be beyond ridiculous to think that there would be a definition of sex as limited as the one you quote. I know it is in the dictionary - but not in my world.

yes, I know it is melezka but men don't. And mens truth= society's truth

Not in our house

Oh yes, "our own narratives" malarky.
Feminism is a political movement, just like racism. Patriarchy is a tangeible political and economic construct held in place by violence. YOu can actually see it scientifically in figures. So whatever narrative you have about your own life does not magic you out of patriarchy

sakura: just looked up "sex" in the Compact Oxford - says something like "manifestation or playing out of sexual desires". With respect, I think your take on sex is somewhat prescriptive. Other areas of the body can be sexually responsive surely - depending on the woman - and sexual pleasure is by no means limited to the clitoris. What about boobs? Or neck? Or feet? Or mouth?

And what about masturbation? Perhaps the most empowering means of satisfaction of all? you don't even need a man for that!!

as SaF says, Sex= intercourse makes it a real marriage. Any other type of sex and it can be anulled.

I never said narratives magic you out of patriarchy.

I did say that they gave me a structural way of understanding patriarchy. Can't challenge without understanding.