What are feminists actually like?

[breko]

Before I start, I'm not here to bash on about anything or anyone.

So, I'm not a woman myself, and i'll probably get banned for being a man on a 'mums' website, but anyway.

What are feminists actually like? There seems to be varied and mixed feelings towards you feminists. I've visited many sites and know many people who claim feminism is simply the idea of superiority and entitlements for woman, from posters, demonstrations and the media, im honestly starting to believe this. Can any woman actually give me a real insight into what you believe and what you think, and if feminism is actually needed in first world countries.
This is a pretty much useless post, just wanted to get thought from both sides.

Thank you. Its also quite late at night and i'm tired so this may not be worded perfectly.

Feminists are very diverse. Some of them are men.

Feminists, like women, are individuals soxohupe.

I think banning urinals is daft, and a man tax unworkable.

A male feminist??? That makes as much sense as a black KKK member.

I'm sure you're right, dear. I expect you have a willy, so of course you're right.

Then you need to meet my DS and my DH sox

They are both well rounded individuals with the ability to show empathy and compassion beyond their own privilege.

They make me proud every single day.

A male feminist

Yes, I know some. Some of them even like football and drinking pints and stuff, too.

Oooh, that was so subtle I almost didn't get it with my tiny lady brain. Black KKK member because feminists hate men. So, so true.

And at least the KKK were honest with their agenda. They didn't go around pretending they wanted "racial equality"

NIce little combo you've got going there, Sox- KKK sympathies and don't agree with feminism. You must be quite a catch.

Disclaimer: if I'm a feminist at all, I'm an equality feminist.

If women have been corralled into certain areas of life because they are female, and feminism is in part about ending that kind of process, then by default or by design, men are also corralled either into certain areas of life or away from certain areas. So, for example, to most people it is profoundly anti-feminist to object to men working with children. There was a thread on here not very long ago by a mother who was horrified to find that a man was employed at her child's nursery and asked whether she should 'report him'. She had never even laid eyes on the employee in question. That sort of prejudice could have resulted in a man losing his job. It is based on the assumption that only women know how to look after children or are safe with children, which is the flip side of the assumption that women only know how to look after children and are only safe if they are preoccupied with looking after children. In fact, that women who don't have children, don't want them or have them but don't care for them 24/7 are somehow not female at all. And despite the fact that this is generally a feminist-friendly site, you will see quite a lot of comments like that on here. Women are not all feminist, and not all the same type of feminist, because women are not a homogenous group - which kind of proves the point.

Likewise, the man-hating, 'all men are bastards', 'he only thinks that because he has a tiny penis' 'it's little man syndrome' 'girlpower' stuff that is sometimes cited as being examples of feminism, is actually antifeminist, again because it assumes gender trumps everything else and that biology is destiny. You can find examples of that sort of stuff all through history. Look at the stories in the Malleus Malleficarum, some of which are highly preoccupied with penis size and talk about women only wanting huge cocks and casting spells to get them - equating witchcraft and female sexuality and implying that both are extremely dangerous unless controlled.

Feminism is about women and men taking a full part in all areas of life, and taking responsibility for that. It isn't, however, quite as simple as 'pure' equality feminism and the sort of men's rights statements that say that women don't actually like being treated equally and keep demanding 'entitlements', because there ARE biological differences between men and women of course, and because women bear children. That fact has been used against women throughout history and continues to be used against us. It is a first-world country, after all, that keeps passing laws saying that woman have to have a probe put up their vagina for no medical reason at all before they are eligible for an abortion. These are largely publicity stunts, and get repealed again, but are designed to prevent women being seen as autonomous human beings, but instead as incubators with fewer rights than real humans who don't do weird stuff like grow things inside them.

gender equality- until it comes to getting the green out to pay for a meal at an expensive restaurant. Then the feminist is more than happy for the inequality of chivalry to take place and for the man to pay up.

(just one example from many)

There was actually method to the madness of the me peeing sitting down in office loos campaign- and it was nothing to do with feminism. The reasons were 1.If men sat down there would be less pee on the floor of loos. 2. Some people think it's better for men's health to pee sitting down because they empty their bladders more completely and 3. If there were only loos not urinals, all public loos could be unisex, which would same money.

So nothing to do with feminism. And frankly, if the best the anti feminists can come up with is a proposal put to and rejected by the equivalent of a county council by a male member of a very minority political party in Sweden................

Martorana I didn't realise what was behind the campaign, neither did I realise that it was suggested at county council level.

These pesky feminists with their huge power bases stopping men doing what they've been doing for centuries.

"gender equality- until it comes to getting the green out to pay for a meal at an expensive restaurant. Then the feminist is more than happy for the inequality of chivalry to take place and for the man to pay up."

Just one example from the made up world inside your head?

1. And female public bathrooms are spotless clean. Doesn't the "squatting" women do on toilet seats cause even more mess?

1. Really? And the scientific evidence is what?

1. Actually men's urinals take up less space, are cheaper and use less water to flush than sit-down toilets. Replacing them would cost more space, money and water.

Is it worth noting that men can stand up to pee even if all toilets are in cubicles?

Just like no one polices "Bottom wiping: standing up or sitting down?" as long as it's in private...

Nothing to do with feminism?

Considering some feminists think men standing to pee is "a nasty macho gesture," reduces women, and "is deemed to be triumphing in his masculinity I would say it is a lot to do with feminism.

blog.lib.umn.edu/puot0002/3004/2010/04/this-is-a-feminist-issue-becausepeeing-standing-up.html

And I don't think it's a coincidence the country wanting to ban men standing to pee happens to be one of the most (if not the most) feminist countries in the world.

"Is it worth noting that men can stand up to pee even if all toilets are in cubicles?"

Exactly. Even if urinals are removed there's nothing feminists can do to force men to sit down when they go to a cubicle. I don't know maybe they could lower the ceiling so men can't commit that misogynist crime of standing up to pee

This is something Swedish politicians actually do spend work time debating. Has that country got nothing better to do?

Goddessdammit, my assimilation beam has turned up its nose and said "meh" at this one.

Sox- you may have missed the bit of my message where I said that the idea was put forward, and rejected, at a very low political level by a member of a very minor political party. I listed the reasons that politician gave for his proposal. I do not speak for them. I merely enumerated them.

Oh, and Viggo's a man, by the way.

"Oh, and Viggo's a man, by the way."

Maybe he's one of these male feminists you speak of.

Oh, and Viggo's a man, by the way.

I did think it was a bit odd that a woman would have such a masculine name.

But, let's not let the truth get in the way of telling the wimmin they're doing it wrong, eh?

OP, don't be such a lazy git, educate yourself for god's sake

Feminists are busy, generally

Feminists are busy being offended by things that most normal women aren't offended by.

Young women in Sweden, Germany and Australia have a new cause: They want men to sit down while urinating.

This demand comes partly from concerns about hygiene avoiding the splash factor but, as Jasper Gerard reports in the English magazine The Spectator, ''more crucially because a man standing up to urinate is deemed to be triumphing in his masculinity, and by extension, degrading women.'' One argument is that if women can't do it, then men shouldn't either. Another is that standing upright while relieving oneself is ''a nasty macho gesture,'' suggestive of male violence.

A feminist group at Stockholm University is campaigning to ban all urinals from campus, and one Swedish elementary school has already removed them. Some Swedish women are pressuring their men to take a stand, so to speak. Yola, a 25-year-old Swedish trainee psychiatrist, says she dumps boyfriends who insist on standing. ''What else can I do?,'' said her new boyfriend, Ingvar, who sits.