FAQ: Don’t women have “female privilege”?

Short answer: No, what is commonly called “female privilege” is better described as benevolent sexism. Systems like the draft and chivalry often seem advantageous to women at first glance, but when examined more closely they in fact reinforce sexist institutions that keep both women and men from true equality. Also, it should be noted that, [...]

FAQ: But doesn’t evidence show that women are just as likely to batter their partners as men?

A: No. This is an often repeated claim based on either faulty understanding or outright misrepresentation of a few studies made using the CONFLICT TACTICS SCALE (CTS) or similar self-report surveys. One of the authors of the original study, Richard Gelles, categorically rejects this interpretation of his research, and has done ever since these [...]

FAQ: But don’t all these DNA exonerations mean that women lie about being raped?

A: No, what it means is that some prosecutors in the past proceeded to court solely on the basis of identifications without corroborating physical evidence, mostly in cases of stranger-rape, and that they convinced the juries in those cases that the identification was valid, when later evidence shows that the identification was mistaken. New [...]

Soundbites

A few links to posts addressing particular points of feminist theory and activism, tied together by the fact that they included memorable soundbite rebuttals:
Jill (Feministe):
Deni’s argument is that prostitutes can’t be raped because they sell sex — which is kind of like saying that merchants can’t be robbed because they sell goods.
Richie (Crimitism) on women’s [...]

Feminism Friday: that “why are Western feminists such cowards about atrocities in other countries?” lie

Shorter Pamela Bone: feminists are such cowardly hypocrites for being against FGM and rape in war whenever any culture does it instead of just specially castigating Islamic societies where such brutalities occur.
I posted over at Hoyden About Town a few days ago with more background to Bone’s article about how she bravely spoiled a literary [...]

Rape and Evolution

A rather interesting discussion is developing in the comments to “Ask A Question“, but it’s becoming more and more off-topic, and I’m also concerned that it is inappropriate for the discussion to be in that thread with no PTSD trigger warnings, so I’m going to shift all the comments here and delete their text there [...]

Feminism Friday: Humour as a tool for shaming and silencing

Last week’s Feminism Friday post was on why Rape Jokes Just Aren’t Funny, based on a series from Melissa McEwan of Shakesville, and at the crosspost on Hoyden About Town Bernice made a telling comment.
Humour - the final frontier of colonialisation. You really now you’ve co-opted someone into the frame of dominance from which [...]