To all those who say on threads 'I am too scared to go into feminism' - this topic isn't scary!

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I think it's a shame when I see threads where the OP says 'I am too scared to put this in feminism' or something.

I am certainly not knowledgeable about feminist theory, but have never felt that my opinion on this thread wasn't wanted or I was vilified for stating what I believed.

I think this topic is pretty inclusive - yes some people are forthright with their opinions, but nobody's word is god, and I would hate to think that mumsnetters were put off contributing to threads in this topic because they mistakenly think the posters on here are viragos.

Excellent - lenin let's do that, ok? . Btw, LaWeasel just posted in a thread saying she's new on here (but she sounds nice).

Well,let's see what happens next. If posters are saying that Dittany and sakura frighten them, let's see what happens when dittany is on a break and sakura is sticking to Japanese time.
Presumably there will be an influx of newbies asking questions and finding a place here. Unless it is a fallacy that it's the radical feminists that's putting people off.
I hope dittany is having a fantastic time and recharging her batteries.
Possibly even a picnic. I'd like to see her back too.

Anyway, I literally can't stand any more and am going out too, so if I stray across in future and see stuff, I will simply do as Lenin suggests and point it out and report it. Keep it simple.

MsC, where would you like those of us who do like the 'academics' to post, then? Should we just shut up?

Call in the sistas Proles, call em in.

Context too. Let us remember what preceded my comment on that occasion. And shall we also remember my subsequent regret and explanation?

Or shall we do the usual and dredge up the past all over the shop? So undignified and bitchy.

yay - I'm not so seethrough anymore!!

And I do hope that for Dittany (for the third time), cos you know what? I believe in change and kindness taking people onwards to a better place. Your way sucks, frankly.

yep-i think you may of somehow upset HQ SGM-
they are now making you read all of my posts!!

Bye bye.

I wish everyone love (you can take that the wrong way, Proles, if it brings you joy).

LRD - there is room for everyone, no?

Yes, for me (a dyspraxic dyslexic) the academics are too much, for others they are fine. That's why I said there should be room for all. But the academics need to understand that some of us just don't get it (and can't actually read and make sense of most of it) Don't sneer if someone doesn't grasp it, you don't have to hold our hands and lead us through it, just accept that not everyone is interested in that side. It doesn't make us antifem

oh bloody hell not another one of thse threads. I knew no good would come of it.

Yes, lenin, we can - but I think MsC posting about 'our arguments' and hully posting about 'your way' come across as an us-and-them thing.

The irony here, for me, is that once again someone has brought together this argument that dittany/feminist regulars are too nasty and too academic ... yet I have been absolutely slated those very people for being unfeminist by being interested in academia. It gets very wearing to have the same straw men slung around with neither side bothering to check if those straw men bear the vaguest resemblance to reality.

Which is, yet again, why I think it is ultimately just destructive to discuss this without the context of a genuine on-thread issue.

Most people on here aren't academics. There are about 3 I think. To my knowledge anyway.

I like the reading lists and the academics, but the same should apply really. If someone is recommending a book and someone else says' wow, great' and a third poster says 'not interested, enough please' then poster C should just ramble off somewhere else or ignore the recommendation.
Not take it personally as an attack or a barrier to understanding.

Hully, your 'I believe in love' posts get less convincing every day.
You believe in love and winding people up with snide insults. Whatever.

MsC, I understand where you're coming from and I tend to ignore most of the threads that become academic debates. There are plenty of others that aren't.

However, sometimes I think it's very difficult to refute arguments without the links to academic studies. For example, so many rape myths are just a given in the culture we live in and treated a common sense, the first time you hear someone try to argue against them, you naturally want to see some proof. Sometimes, the only way to demonstrate your point is to quote the research.

MsC, I honestly don't know what threads you've been reading ... dittany is violently anti-academia, several posters who post regularly are not interested in academia at all, and we don't all have university education.

If you come across a thread and can't read/understand it, what do you expect the posters on it to do?

I'm dyslexic too, btw.

the funny thing about the book recommendations being slagged off as too academic is that when you talk to actual academics teaching gender studies you find they haven't even read Kat Banyard and Natasha Walter and the books that get recommended on here every day, because they're too mainstream and not academic enough