Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Take it like a man, again

So! Been a while. Busy year. Actually do have stuff still in progress for this blog, believe it or not.

For now, a quick message, since gender politics has become a recurring feature on this blog. I often see feminists lament that men don't understand that feminism is not about despising men, or treating men as inferior, or hypocritically defending traditional female privileges, or denying or condoning or endorsing harms suffered by men. So, in the spirit of amity and cooperation in this festive season, let me offer a suggestion as to how progress might be made on this front:

When Meghan Murphy is at least as marginalized, reviled, and rejected within the feminist movement as Cathy Young, I will listen to claims that actual existing feminism is not a bigoted anti-male movement without bursting into loud, utterly mirthless laughter. If it happens at least partly as a direct result of her revolting, repeated statements about rape, and not solely because of other issues like her attitudes towards sex workers or her coziness with the "trans women are the infiltrating T-800s of the Patriarchy" school of radical feminism, that would be a plus.

This can be via Murphy and her publication Feminist Current becoming much less acceptable among feminists, Young becoming much more acceptable, or some of both. Nudge that Overton Window so feminism is no longer a movement where "it isn't 'rape-rape' when the victim is male" is part of the respectable range of opinion but "the wage gap isn't caused by misogyny" can get you cast into outer darkness.and "I think suicide among boys and young men is worth actually addressing seriously" summons a screaming mob.

I may or may not find the claim convincing, at that point. But it might at least become a claim worth considering, and no longer so brutally, self-evidently false that it doesn't even deserve a respectful hearing any longer.



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