silverflight8 | Entries tagged with feminism

re: the Julian Assange thing -

lookninjas says it better than I do:

And then, if you're lucky enough to find yourself accusing a well-known public figure like Julian Assange, It gets even better. Because then everyone hears about it, and the speculation starts. WikiLeaks groupies! Golddiggers! CIA AGENTS! Everyone from Michael Moore to Keith Olbermann to ignorant fuckheads on Gawker will go on and on about what a slut you are. What a liar you are. What a conniving, golddigging bitch you are.

What makes me sickest is that there's so much speculation of well, no maybe it didn't happen and she's making it up. That it couldn't possibly have happened, because, well, he's famous. (I wonder why I'm having a flashback to Polanski?) Where is the speculation that, oh, perhaps women don't like making these statements? Don't like having their name dragged through the muck? That for once, can we please, please, believe the victim before the aggressor?

Current Mood: enraged
Crossposts: http://silverflight8.livejournal.com/71757.html

Someone posts to fandomsecrets about Disney Specifically, that the song Kiss the Girl isn't sexist.

In this scene Ariel is consenting silently, as she's been rendered mute, but holy cow those lyrics are creepy.

Yes, you want her/ Look at her, you know you do/ possible she wants you, too/ There is one way to ask her/ It don't take a word/ Not a single word/ Go on and kiss the girl

In the context of the WHOLE ENTIRE MOVIE, they're acceptable, as her whole intent is to get Eric to kiss her.

The premise is troubling: girl wants to transform into another species (approximately) altogether, leave behind everything she's known, all her family, makes a deal with what she considers evil, just to win the boy. Courageous, yes. The fact that the boy doesn't do anything, doesn't need to do anything? And she has to give up her whole world to do be with him?

If we lived in a world where we don't have a history of one gender with greater privilege over another (HINT: misogyny is the word) this movie would be fine. The problem is we don't live in that world.

But to those people who are arguing that this has no real life repercussions? (raaaaaage: Sexism does not manifest itself with blatant slurs or outright assault alone. It's obviously more subtle than you can pick up.) The people who don't want to admit that Disney is sexist? (I'll be back; I just need to check to make sure this is the same universe I woke up in. You are so oblivious I can't believe you're serious.)

I have news for you.

One single movie about a woman who has marriage as the culmination of her dreams is fine. A hundred movies saying that is okay. It's not an unreasonable dream, and we are not all the same and do not agree on dreams. But when nearly every Disney movie (qualified because I have not watched them all) does end that way, there is a big problem. Belle, who is a heroine I love (the admiration for Page's voice is helpful) dreams of something bigger, better, and ends up marrying. Cinderella wants to escape her life of drudgery - she marries, and it's all a magic dream; it's nothing she's really done. Snow White is rescued by someone riding by at random; for Sleeping Beauty, ditto. Meg gets married; Mulan gets married. As examples build up, you cannot claim that this is only one girl's dream, and not the silent expectation in society, women and men alike.

I do not believe the Disney producers intended to be sexist. *Intent is magical! But the fact that even The Princess and the Frog, a movie released in 2009, has the girl predictably happily-married only shows that nothing has really changed. The message underneath it all is: for a happy ending, you need to be married.

One Disney movie like this = not a problem. All Disney movies with the subtle implications about how one can live a good life = a very, very big problem, and I am sorry that you cannot see this.

*Thank you also for the side helping of ablism.

Current Mood: disappointed
Crossposts: http://silverflight8.livejournal.com/66757.html

Link to misogyny and ignorance. Click with caution.

I made it halfway down the first page of comments and then gave up.

My reaction, helpfully summarized:
DEAR EVERYONE ON THE PLANET (minus those already armed with The Clues):

1. Words have meaning.

2. Words have two types of meanings: one is a dictionary (or scientific, or otherwise defined meaning). There is a second meaning, connotation. These are associations attached to words.

3. Generally connotations are the most important.

4. Pulling dictionary definitions when people are clearly talking about the connotations is neither helpful nor clever.

5. We are not separate from our history. Even if you think there's no misogyny in your world*, by using words that historically** carry misogynistic intent to describe someone you don't like, you are using the term in a way that is misogynistic. Even if you don't mean it. I'm sorry, this is the legacy we've been handed down with.

6. Live with the awareness that yes, while you wish you could totally throw around "whore" and "bitch" and all the rest without worrying about PC POLICE***, don't.

7. For the last time, the history is why words like "dick" do not garner such reactions. No, really. You're not pointing out anything that has not been brought up before in these conversations.

8. Please for the love of all that is holy stop telling anyone they're overreacting or oversensitive.

9. If you know nothing about this issue, I would advise your library or Google or another person who knows you well and this issue.

10. This applies wonderfully to just about any -ism you can think of; just change some of the words!

Regards,
silverflight8

*OH MY GOD HAHAHAHAHA YOU MUST BE JOKING JUST GO AWAY
**They still do, by the way.
***Someone forgot to send me the uniform, obviously; I still don't have any weapons for these things...

tl;dr: *puts head on desk and thinks of happy thing*

Current Mood: angry
Current Location: apparently, in a land without gendered insults
Crossposts: http://silverflight8.livejournal.com/65613.html

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: a ticking clock

After having the

wtf_sexism community spot-lighted on the front page every time I log in, I think I ought to write something about feminism.

As far as I'm concerned, feminism is not about squashing men like bugs (as if it'd be that easy, anyway) and giving women supreme power. That'd just be misogyny turned on its head, and we'd have another major problem on our hands. Blah. In my opinion, feminism is giving both genders equal opportunities.

That means, if you mess up, then it's your fault you didn't land the job. It means that the reason you are denied a service is because of your own actions, not something you have no control over. If there are safety standards that need to be met, both men and women can 'try out', so to speak, and be judged capable or not based on their actions, not gender.

What makes me angry is the perception that feminism is "women versus men", or "a [organization, group, class, specialty] must be split precisely down the middle in terms of gender, where there have to be a certain number of women", or "females should have a lower standard in order to enter". That's not feminism, in my opinion. Feminism is equal opportunities (and opportunities are always chancy) for men and women. Moreover, things like: "Hillary Clinton should have won the election so that America could have a female president" is not feminism. Why? Why would you elect someone based solely on an unchangeable, fixed-at-birth characteristic? It would be far more intelligent to vote for someone who knows what they're doing, is smart and courageous enough to do it, and understands what America needs. If Hillary Clinton fulfilled those requirements (and I didn't follow American politics very closely), by all means vote for her. But vote for her because of what her actions say, not what body parts she has.

I don't want exceptions made for me because I'm female, or I'm male, because my gender is irreversible and I did nothing to "be" one gender or another. I want to be recognized for what I earned. Not for an arbitrary fact decided long ago.

I have a dream, said one visionary man forty years ago, and it seems like that dream is slowly being fulfilled. I hope feminism will achieve the same, but first, we must clear the waters. Feminism is not women against men.

Current Mood: rejuvenated

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silver

Entries tagged with feminism

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It's a point form letter! For YOU!

Let me say this to you once, and clearly, and for the last time.

Clearing the waters

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April 2025

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