Yes I'm a feminist, no I don't hate men

[targaryen24]

Got fed up with the stereo-type of a man hatin, ball breakin' feminist so set up this page a few years back. Bit of shameless advertising here, sorry!

www.facebook.com/pages/Yes-Im-a-feminist-No-I-dont-hate-men/392916050385

[Karin1212]

What do you make of this? The radical feminist blogger openly admits to hating men, and many of the comments agree and admit to hating men too.

rageagainstthemanchine.com/2009/07/05/why-i-hate-men-part-1-and-then-it-hit-me/

[HairyHandedTrucker]

I think in the blog world, you have followers. So one woman hates men her followers will have similar ideas which is why they follow.

Anyway, I read the article and she doesn't hate all men./ She hates entitled behavior of some men. Did you read the article? Masculine entitled behavior is behavior that abuses women- hates women. So why shouldn't she hate it?

[HairyHandedTrucker]

Oh and for the record I actually think that between the two of us..you (ironically) are the hairy handed trucker. Worth mentioning it before another thread goes off the rails.

[Cybermob]

I agree that men that claim they love women often mean something other than the words say. They seem to love to have sex with women and look at women, as long as the women look a certain way. Women with opinions are not so loved by them, specially not feminists, like you point out.

What I meant by my remark is that it silences those feminists that hate men to say that no feminists hate them. I know its better for the feminist movement in general to get rid of the stigma of being man hating lesbians ? but then again I don't see feminists disowning lesbians.

FTR, I'm a female feminist who have hated men. Not all the time and not all of them, but for long periods of my life I have hated them with a passion. Today I mostly despise them, although I make exceptions for a few individuals.

[FastidiaBlueberry]

You know what, I'll worry about the women who hate men, when they start doing to men, what men have done and do to women. How is their hatred manifesting itself? How is it harming men? Are they raping or sexually assaulting 1/4 of them? Do they live with 1/4 of them and beat them up regularly in their own homes? Have they murdered 2 of them a week? Have they cut their genitals? Have they set up laws and social mores which establish the status of men as being less human than women and ensured men's less than human status was re-inforced by law, religion and domestic and public violence and the threat of violence? I don't fucking think so, does anyone else?

[FastidiaBlueberry]

And before anyone says "but men have their genitals cut too" it's not because women refuse to marry them if they don't, it's because of the bizarre demands of a patriarchal religion.

[BubblesOfBliss]

I think it is healthy to hate your oppressor... I mean, "love your oppressor" is a seriously fucked up S&M weirdo notion.

If women aren't aware they are actually systematically oppressed on the basis of their sex to the benefit of men as a group, then they are among those who have been brainwashed into believing the emperor is wearing clothes... which is seriously going to hamper their feminist consciousness raising...

So on balance I think the world would be a better place if we had more card-carrying man-haters out there. Find your ovaries sisters!

[SisterRay]

There is still a huge preference for circumcision in the USA, parents are deciding this for their sons for non-religious reasons, such as 'hygiene'. American women prefer their partners to be circumcised. I don't want to derail, but thought it was worth a mention. It's not always down to a 'patriarchal religion'. FGM & MGM are unnecessary and cruel IMO.

[HairyHandedTrucker]

There is still a huge preference for circumcision in the USA, parents are deciding this for their sons for non-religious reasons, such as 'hygiene'. American women prefer their partners to be circumcised. I don't want to derail, but thought it was worth a mention. It's not always down to a 'patriarchal religion'. FGM & MGM are unnecessary and cruel IMO. .

Can I just counter that sister that most women I know (I am American and I live here) do prefer men circumcised..because it is what they are used to but everyone I spoke to who had it done to their son..didn't want to. They let their husband decide, because he is the one who has a penis. Therefore he knows better about someone else's penis . Further to that the hygiene myth aspect of circumcision surely comes from the religion even if it is not practiced for religious reasons today? I have also met men (yes, really) who think their religion dictates it just because it is so standard here.. and no, their religion does not dictate it.

Luckily dh is English so I didn't have to have that argument with him when it came to ds, but even if he hadn't been..ds's bits would have been cut over my dead body.

[PretzelTime]

I don't think male circumcision can be compared to the horror that is female genital mutilation. Little girls die because of it...and the rest has to suffer from the after effects of having their outer genitals cut off and sewn together for the rest of their lives.

[Cybermob]

The best argument I've heard for men wanting their sons circumcised is that they want their son's penis to look like theirs. What on earth are they going to do if their son will grow a bigger penis than theirs? Cut a few centimetres off so they'll look alike?

I'm against male circumcision (except for medical reasons like when the foreskin is too tight or recurring infections) mainly because it is performed on minors who have no say in the matter. But FGM is way worse, like PretzelTime described.

[zwischenzug]

Racist = Somebody who promotes one race over the other.
Islamist = Somebody who promotes Islam other other religious beliefs.
Feminist = Based on the name, most people draw the logical conclusion what the word probably means.

The name is also what attracts a lot of fringe man-hating loonies who undermine any of the women who truly do want equality. "Feminism" will never be taken seriously until it comes up with a name that doesn't imply discrimination against the other gender.

[Cybermob]

For most people feminism doesn't mean discrimination, but fighting discrimination. But what do I know, I'm just one of those "man-hating loonies".

[FastidiaBlueberry]

You're wrong Zwischenzug.

Feminism is not taken seriously because it is a movement for the liberation of women from male domination.

It's not the name that makes it not taken seriously, it's the fact that it's about women being as human as men.

When it was called women's liberation, it wasn't taken seriously then either, because it was still about women's human rights.

If we call it something else, it still won't be taken seriously because it will still be about women's human rights and we still live in a male supremacist society so the thought of women being taken seriously as having the right to participate as fully in men in the resource-sharing and decision-making of Planet Earth on their own terms, not men's terms, is simply not credible yet.

Also, can you tell me how the man-hating loonies "undermine" the claims of the non manhating loonies, to have women accepted as full human beings? In what way does anyone undermine women's claim to be fully human and have the right to take their place in the world as such?

[SisterRay]

PretzelTime:

Baby boys die too

[PretzelTime]

One poor boy has died. It seems unusual and considered news worthy.

Do you think that male and female genital cutting is the same thing, the same problem, done for the same reasons?

[FastidiaBlueberry]

Actually baby boys do die sometimes as a result of circumcision.

But that doesn't change the fact that female genital mutilation is far more invasive and dangerous than male circumcision and both are carried out as a result of patriarchal idiocy.

Women didn't have an equal voice in how society was organised. The patriarchs decided and they were obviously so stupid that they believed cutting off bits of babies' bodies was a good idea. They managed to get it written into law and culture and religion so that now it's embedded in some cultures.

It's an example of patriarchy hurting men and boys too.

[PretzelTime]

The patriarchs decided and they were obviously so stupid that they believed cutting off bits of babies' bodies was a good idea.

I can't get over how weird and disgusting this is, that people thought it was a good idea to do this to baby boys back then and still do it.

I do understand that those who want male rule find it very beneficial to cut up girls and keep them controlled that way.

Sick stuff.

[SisterRay]

When a baby girl dies in this country as a result of FGM it is also newsworthy, I recall reading news items about it.

[FastidiaBlueberry]

Oh look what I've just been pointed to on Facebook, here's an example of how much men hate women:

But they don't have to reassure any women they don't hate women. Even though they clearly do

Really, you want me to reassure men that I don't hate them? When there are men like that around displaying their hatred of women proudly and not being pulled up on it? When men bond with each other over their sexual abuse of women and make rape jokes about us? This page isn't a one-off, the internet is absolutely full of pages like that.

But hey, there's SCUM, right? And that one tract is equivalent to all the woman-hating in the world, isn't it?

Do me a favour.

[SisterRay]

I definitely believe that FGM and MGM for cultural/religious reasons are unsupportable. I think these issues for both boys and girls are becoming more prominent now, a lot of people are questioning these practices, as they should.

[SplitHeadGirl]

Fastidia - I love your posts. I nod in agreement with so much of what you say.

[FastidiaBlueberry]

Thanks SHG.

[Writehand]

PretzelTime writes: I have found that men who go "I LOVE women!!" are often sexist. Yeah, those tend to be the philanderers. Men who think they're a "ladies man" -- when really they're scared of us.

There are men who love women -- or at least prefer their company. When I was a kid I did that thing of walking round with plates of titbits when my folks had a drinks party. Most of the men were clustered together talking about manly stuff - cars, etc. But my dad would always be part of a cluster of women, making them laugh. It made a big impression on me.

I didn't make a conscious decision, but I married a man very like him. Pretty much all my friends just loved my DH, and would confide in him. He was always chatting to women, and he worked closely with them in the union. He went from 20 years in an all-male environment to Royal Mail, and was astonished by the difference. His take?

"Anyone who thinks women are bitchy clearly can't have worked with men."

He said he loved the way the women on the H&S team worked together for a result. Blokes in the same situation would be trying to put their own individual stamp on it, while the women just wanted to succeed as a team.

Both these men were totally monogamous, btw. Men who like women make and treat their relationships with great respect.

[Writehand]

The OP -- the idea that feminists hate men - is a common misconception. I've heard it so many times. Young women, at the age when they're looking for their life partner, don't want to identify as feminists because, to their mind, being a feminist means an anti-male attitude and might put men they find attractive off.

It depends so much on how the individual understands the word "feminist". My family see it in the same light as "humanitarian" - i.e. a belief held by most educated people -- we assume that everyone's a feminist. But there are also lots of people who equate feminism with a very outdated and extreme anti-male attitude.

My younger DS is currently taking part in a loads of ethical discussions at college as part of his course. He is causing a bit of a stir, it seems, with his anti-sexist passion. Mind you, it's a shame that him having these views is unusual enough for anyone to notice.