Category Archives: gender

On The Feminine as an insult

July 14, 2009 · by · in masculinity, op-ed, sexism

I had no reason at all to assume PatC was a woman, and I’m frankly not sure why I did; I’ve had female and male friends called Pat, and my email correspondents collectively skew slightly more male. So big wev to me: lol my gender assumptions.

What was more interesting to me was my reaction to PatC’s email: I was surprised, relieved, and grateful that he wasn’t insulted by having been presumed a woman.

And it was sad to me that I found it notable when his response wasn’t aggrieved.

An apology and a promise

August 19, 2008 · by · in allies, feminism, identity, op-ed, Solidarity & Sisterhood, violence

A few months ago I posted an events notice for a MichFest Women’s Festival event in NYC. I screwed up big time in that original post by not including any text noting the trans-exclusionary policy of MichFest, which has excluded trans women as festival participants for many years. I apologise unreservedly for neglecting to highlight […]

Feminists Have Free Speech Too: Action Alert I

July 25, 2008 · by · in action-alert, disability, feminism, objectification, op-ed, violence

I’ve labelled this post as (I) because my spidey-sense tells me that this will become a series. Here you go: [link]. Tell this cartoonist what you think of jokes about his comic’s protagonist drooling about raping disabled homeless women because “it’s hard to keep your legs closed if you don’t have any”. Hey, having no […]

FAQ: if “gender is a social construct”, aren’t feminists saying that gender doesn’t really exist at all?

July 21, 2008 · by · in clarifying-concepts, debunking myths, factoids, gender

Updated 21 August 2008 A: NO. Social constructs are human conceptions, invented but not therefore imaginary (unless one thinks that social consequences are imaginary). Social constructs are human systems of social interaction organised around shared ideas. The shared ideas may be true, false or inaccurate, but the socially constructed systems that have developed in response […]

You feminists just want to tell women to do what you want, instead of letting them CHOOSE (and we all know girls *choose* the girly stuff)

June 16, 2008 · by · in clarifying-concepts, gender, gender gap, self-sovereignty

Bumped from the Open Suggestion thread, so that we can have a general discussion about the various issues surrounding how choices can be constrained by socialised expectations: lala, on June 15th, 2008 at 1:53 am Said I’m an engineer and pretty much always the only woman (or occasionally, one of two women) in any workplace […]

Feminism Friday – “Feminists Look for Stuff to Get Mad About”

May 24, 2008 · by · in 101, clarifying-concepts, debunking myths, feminism, Feminism Friday, FWW, gender, Issues, sexism

originally posted on Shakesville by Melissa McEwan | Monday, February 25, 2008 as Feminism 101: “Feminists Look for Stuff to Get Mad About” [This is a new series in which I'll be addressing misconceptions or answering questions about feminism and/or feminists. There are certainly old posts that would naturally fall into a Feminism 101 series, […]

Feminism Friday: On “Bitch” and Other Misogynist Language

May 16, 2008 · by · in 101, allies, discrimination, Feminism Friday, privilege, sexism

cross-posted by Melissa McEwan , originally posted at Shakesville on November 20, 2007 [Important Note to Feminist Noobs: This is a long post. It contains lots of different, though related, Feminist 101 kind of ideas about misogynist language. Please carefully read the whole post before commenting. If you don't understand one of the points that […]

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