Open Thread: Feminism, Sexual Orientation and Social Hostility

This thread is a response to a comment from Astrodyke in the Suggestions thread:
I don’t see tags for “lesbian” or “sexual orientation”. It’d be nice to have some FAQs about lesbianism and how it relates to feminism.
There are the straw questions, “Don’t all feminists hate men?” or “Aren’t all feminists lesbians?” But there are also [...]

Feminism Friday: Occasionally Conversations with my Man Are Instructive

This is a republication of a post originally published at the author’s blog that I had linked to in the FAQs. That blog is no longer a general readership blog, but the author has given permission to repost this article here.
Author: Ilyka Damen

He came home from the store this afternoon and asked, “So, what’s [...]

FAQ: Aren’t feminists just sexists towards men?

AKA Aren’t feminists just “reverse sexists”?
Short answer: Neither feminists as a group, nor feminist theory, engages in sexism or “reverse sexism” against men. Often times the feminist focus on women’s issues, as well as their recognition and continued efforts to correct the imbalance of power (see male privilege), are seen as looking to privilege women [...]

FAQ: Isn’t "the Patriarchy" just some conspiracy theory that blames all men, even decent men, for women’s woes?

Patriarchy: one of the most misunderstood critical-theory concepts ever, often wilfully misunderstood. Patriarchy is an ancient and ongoing social system based on traditions of elitism (a hierarchy of inferiorities), privilege and the subjugation of women via strict gender expectations which constrain individualist expressions. Some societies are more patriarchal than others, but patriarchal social [...]

FAQ: Why do you feminists hate men?

Feminists hate misogyny, not men. Kinda like that “hate the sin, not the sinner” thing, sometimes it’s easy to separate the behaviour from the enactor and sometimes it’s not.
But we know that not all men are pits of misogyny, so if you aren’t acting out misogyny, then it’s not about you. We also [...]