Open Suggestion Thread
Please add suggestions for questions that have not yet been addressed, hopefully with links to articles that address those questions, in the comments to this post.
Note: Comments left here are to suggest further posts rather than begin a debate. If you wish to generate a discussion, then your question might be more appropriate on the Ask A Question thread.
What sort of suggestions could you make?
Firstly, links that cover basic material for the benefit of the genuinely curious.
Secondly, links that debunk common anti-feminist myths and address common arguments from trolls.
The model for all efforts of this kind to emulate is the marvellous Index to Creationist Claims associated with USENet newsgroup talk.origins. The wonderful zuzu, who has kindly seen fit to widely promote this project, nails it:
Got a troll asking you disingenuous or stupid questions and don’t know where to tell them to go (other than hell, of course)? Drop on by the open suggestion thread and make a suggestion for a post to which you can later refer trolls (or the genuinely clueless). With a sweet smile and a suggestion to come back once they’ve covered the first-year course material.
As a general rule I’d prefer people to nominate other people’s articles rather than their own in this thread, but it’s fine to link to your own writing in other threads.
If you have an article you’d like to suggest as a link to be added to an existing FAQ post, please add it in the comments to that post. That way the comments thread becomes a user-generated “More Reading” list even if I decide against adding the link to the body of the post.
Thanks in advance for contributing to this feminist resource.
tigtog
tekanji
shakesville
I would like to see an FAQ about the term ‘misogyny’. Whenever you use the word misogyny or say that someone’s behaviour/attitudes are misogynistic, they will automatically reply with “No, you’re wrong, I don’t hate women!” Most of the dictionary definitions, which people refer to, define misogyny as overt, open, and literal hatred towards women as a gender/sex, rather than the subtle, socially constructed, but extremely harmful attitudes against women.
I feel that misogyny is a little different from sexism, but I’m having trouble articulating what the exact difference is. Is it simply one of degree or is it a difference in kind?
I haven’t been able to find much on the use of the word misogyny in feminist discourse, though I admit that I didn’t search the internet for more than an hour or so. I did find this post that talked about Hillary Clinton’s use of the word misogyny.
It seems like feminists have one understanding of the word and they use it and other feminists understand what they mean. However, the way in which feminists use the word seems to be different from how non-feminists use and perceive the word. As such, I’ve more than a few times encountered the above scenario where men say they aren’t doing anything misogynistic because they love women.
I came here to suggest something on the notion of feminism as zero-sum*, but the discussion QuietStorm wants came up at a family event recently
*It can look that way from a certain perspective: there is no way for women to rise to the position of men without men and women being level, clearly; the trick is realizing this isn’t a loss for men.
Nice to see you again, Hershele. You’ve reminded me that it’s been a while since I caught up on the many good suggestions in this thread. I’ll have to make that a priority for November.
I think you should post something about how women continue to be self-destructive and hate themselves for being girls, about how in many ways we are our own worst enemies.
I am speaking about this as a bgirl (female breakdancer). Nothing has made me more aware of feminist issues than being a girl in male-dominated, physical, street-based art form.
How can we develop the strength to stop hating ourselves for being “less” than men?
sorry for the double post…just clarifying….
I know I have just as much potential as any guy but I need to develop the mindset. In bboy/bgirl culture there is a thing called “pity props” where bgirls are given respect for doing less than guys “because they are girls”.
There are also bgirls who try to get by on their looks instead of their skills. I am a bgirl who wants to be seen as equal to a guy, and taken for who I am and what skill level I am, not because I am a girl.
Well I hope this helps you understand the issues I am struggling with.
What do you say when erswhile “good guys” proclaim that feminism is finished? He’s nice and all, but what do I
say?
Hey, there’s an interesting discussion going on in Feministing, and people are just not understanding the idea of tokenism, either in gender or in race issues.
I did an internet search and there is a lacking wikipedia article and not much else. I think your wit could definitely add something to the understanding of tokenism. Thanks!
observer, my inclination would be polite, persistent questioning. Like a telemarketer, respond to his arguments in a calm, rational, but tenacious manner. Fisk him, and that’s not a euphemism for a four-letter word.
Yeah, that’s smart. I didn’t. I tried to very “nicely” say, “but try to put yourself in another person’s shoes”.
The thing is all of his politics lead him to being liberal, but because he’s a dude he just can’t get over the feminism thing. He’s gay, so I think he feels prejudiced by it along the “but I don’t beat women” vein.
It’s exhausting thinking feminism. It would be easier just to not do it, to let him have his little “but what about the menz” rants. But I just can’t. I can’t even go back to his blog now, I’m frightened what I might read and have to call him on. And I’m not very good at any of it, so I probably don’t make a good argument.
I put a suggestion up over on the ‘Ask a question’ thread. However, it’s more suited to this thread. (I only posted it to ‘Ask a question’ because it was in response to another commenter there.)
The suggestion was to invite readers to provide anecdotal memories (or other information) on how things used to be for women – e.g. during the 50s, 60s, 70s etc – before many of the main feminist gains were achieved.
I live in California and Prop 8 just passed. This got me involved in discussions with gays and gay supporters and got me to thinking about something that has always been in the back of my mind. Why is it that women are usually the greatest defenders of gays, when it seems to me that gays are probably the ultimate in male superiority. Gays really don’t need women at all except of course for child bearing, and they can do their thing in a cup and hire someone to bear their child if they so choose. The ancient Greeks were very open about their preference for male lovers and women were kept pretty much away from men and only good for menial tasks that men were too important to do and to bear their children. Why do feminists support gays so much? I just don’t get it.
Because hompphobia and misogyny are on a continuum, largely. Much dislike of (male) homosexuals is rooted in disdain for women.
I wanted an FAQ link to reply to someone who was claiming that misogynistic jokes weren’t “hate”, but I notice that the entries in the FAQ list that relate to humor don’t have links.
Is there an FAQ entry for stuff like “it’s just a joke”?
Or the related “feminists have no sense of humor”?
Something on the oppression Olympics is much needed.
I’d love a FAQ something along the lines of ‘Help! My girlfriend’s a feminist! What does this mean for our relationship?’
Could you write more about womanism and why women of color don’t always feel included in feminism?
Will you please write a post about the power of language and why casual use of words that are misogynistic (or even the word “misogyny”) is bad and damaging? Thank you!