when you engage with the trolls

[MitchiestInge]

. . . is it a personal thing (actually engaging emotionally) or are you communicating with a wider, more silent audience or are there other motivations?

I can't work out why more people don't ignore them, but every now and then the exchanges are unintentionally funny or interesting - although mostly it gets very dull very quickly. Wondering what's in it for them too.

Oh, just boring theory that uses bits and bobs of the two but marries them with a more aesthetically-based approach. Often goes back to Vladmir Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale, blah blah.

More back on topic, would I be correct in assuming that Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (the idea of the "male gaze") is well known in these here parts?

I'll agree, was a brilliant comment!

Oooh, don't forget the bit about Prince Naveen being what she "needed" (Mama Oodi) Because, y'know... No one really wants to be single...

And pah...

Why does DS like this film? WHY?

Haven't read Morphology of the Fairy Tale...

I'm trying to remember who wrote the fairy tale critiques that I liked... Can't even remember the name of it...

*Folk Tale

Folk Tales and Fairy Tales = not the same thing.

Hmmm wasn't Carter. But must get round to finishing The Bloody Chamber and One Night At The Circus soon.

Absolutely loved this site during my dissertation on the access course...

Marina Warner - From Beast To Blonde. That's the book I was thinking of.

Ahh, it's really interesting - 1970s article which uses Freud's theory of phallocentricism to look at ways in which the viewer is positioned 'as a male' (even if they are a woman) while viewing, thus naturalising and normalising the de-centring of female experience and activity in these narratives. And how the characters are 'coded' to inspire voyeuristic/erotic attention in both genders, producing a particular kind of scopophilic response.

It's fascinating how much of feminist theory has very directly influenced all (i.e. not marginalised) ways of thinking about cinema over the last twenty-five years. Works like Mulvey's (she never claimed it was a definitive statement, but a jumping off point) have changed the way we think about visual representation, not just of women but of all those who are 'othered'. And it's offered a great deal of nuance to contemporary studies of masculinity too.

Now, I shall take a lunch break, I don't want to be too try-hard on my first day in the Feminist forum.

Well, I'm now off shopping (got to buy something to wear for my cousins wedding) so will be back later.

And Cotes, no such thing as a TryHard here.

I fell asleep at Avatar too. In fact I have fallen asleep to it three times - thanks to these most excellent comments, I know that I need never bother trying to stay awake to it again.

Laura Mulvey's essay would be a good piece of writing for the book club SGM.

I know this has moved on now, but I've just read pretty much the whole thread and would like to say that this is an excellent example of how this board is being undermined by people (cough, men, cough) with their own, obvious agenda. It is literally pages and pages of some bloke(s) whingeing and disproportionately dominating the discussion.

It is unbelievable that MNHQ think this is acceptable and maintain the pretence that this is the same as, eg, The Doghouse/AIBU. The feminism section is being targeted by some truly pathetic people and, although there may not be many of them, they seem to have an unlimited amount of time to dominate, derail and provoke the posters here. This board has threads that many people spend a lot of time and thought posting on, and people post some very personal things. To just not bother moderating it at all, or just keep repeating the Troll rules, is a cop out. And I'm with Dittany (I think it was) on not using the term troll, as we just get derailed into a semantic discussion about the term troll, for fucks sake.

Surely, MNHQ, if people are talking of setting up their own website, even knowing, as we all do that this is exactly what these derailers want, then you should be questioning if you need to deal with this in some other way. Not because feminists want to be treated differently just because, but because this board is subject to a particular sort of low level malice and spite that other sections arent.

Have they gone?

Or just sleeping?

They do seem to be like people on a mission. And that'll be because they are.

Time to hide the thread.

Dear MNHQ.
Please take these threats / invasions of the Femboards seriously.
I want to read reasoned discussions, debates, and yes, arguments - over the years MN has educated me on lots of things from bf, to relationship issues, and now radical feminism.
Reading this thread has been very difficult because of all the post deletions. It used to be that you had to be seriously and personally insulting to someone to have a post deleted - can you please clarify whether all the deleted posts were actually "obscene, racist, disablist, homophobic, contain(ing) personal attacks or break(ing) the law", or were they robustly defending feminist principles?
Please take dittany et al seriously in their explanation of anti-fem derailing. Real debate in this section is being stifled.
I'd like you (all) to know that the feminist boards are approximately 90% of why I'm still visiting MN: I've done bf / weaning / toilet training and tantrums to death. There is important idea-sharing going on here (which I guess is why some posters dislike it so much).

I've been rounded on here for daring to offer a different viewpoint to radical feminism on some topics and TBH it did seem like if you aren't a nodding dog you'll get ganged up on, and when you continue to say why you think your POV holds some value you get branded a Troll/antagonist for daring to disagree on the feminist board and not so politely asked/suggested that perhaps you'd best post elsewhere.

If this is the sort of tribalism that MNHQ are trying to get a handle on then I applaud them.

All the deleted posts were deemed to be troll-hunting, I believe. Or just used the T word. I searched mine from yesterday, and one is deleted. If I remember correctly, I wondered aloud what that lonely obsessive anti-misandry guy was up to, and whether he had managed to find a kindred spirit to post alongside him. That was IT. No direct accusations. And I believe dittany pointed out that the derailing posts were being allowed to stand, but any which pointed out said derailing were being deleted.

I think (in for a penny in for a pound) if one is actually arguing the finer points of differing variations of/potential contradictions within/implications of feminism, grand job, knock yourself out.

I do believe that arguing that feminism is wrong/unecessary/misguided/detrimental an an effort to stifle thought and fragment a community is a different thing entirely.

in an effort to

Have you seen any of the Friends threads, Côte? I'd love to hear your take.

I fear I might have to rip my own eyeballs out, LeBOF. I will take a look at it over the next few days.

I'm soooooo putting off writing my dissertation right now, aren't I? Damn you, MN, you fateful seductress.