privilege

Feminism Friday: On “Bitch” and Other Misogynist Language

By shakesville May 16, 2008 42 Comments

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 […]

What Shakesville Said

By tigtog April 13, 2008 5 Comments

Shakesville: We Write Letters This blog resolves to acknowledge our social privileges without defensiveness, to welcome the comments and contributions of socially marginalised voices, and when our work builds on the ideas of others we will fully attribute our debt to their work. We will no doubt get it wrong at times. Call us on […]

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

By tekanji February 9, 2008 115 Comments

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, […]

Feminism Friday: Addressing claims of “female privilege” – The Military

By tekanji February 1, 2008 68 Comments

Chances are, whether or not you identify as feminist, if you’ve read much about women’s issues you’ll have heard of the Male Privilege Checklist. You also may have heard of at least one of the various Female Privilege Checklists that were made in response. I’m not here to rebut either of those lists word for […]

Feminism Friday: When women who advocate for women’s rights reject the label “feminist”

By tigtog January 26, 2008 21 Comments

2nd May 2008: This post has been updated in light of the recent flare-ups in the rounds of discussion about how mainstream feminism remains inadequate in engaging with matters of race. See footnote. There are many critics who view “feminism” (and the progressive movement generally) as focussing too much on the West, and too much […]

Feed the FAQ: “rape apologist” definitions, clarifications and links

By tigtog January 22, 2008 34 Comments

I’d like to get some wider input into this one. The suggestion was made that we need a specific FAQ, and I think we do. This was my first take in comments answering that suggestion:

Feminism Friday: Humour as a tool for shaming and silencing

By tigtog November 9, 2007 13 Comments

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 […]

FAQ: What’s wrong with saying that things happen to men, too?

By tekanji October 18, 2007 154 Comments

Short answer: Nothing in and of itself. The problem occurs when conversations about women can’t happen on unmoderated blogs without someone showing up and saying, “but [x] happens to men, too!” (also known as a “Patriarchy Hurts Men, Too” or PHMT argument, or a “What About The Mens?” or WATM argument). When this happens, it […]

Reading roundup

By tigtog September 30, 2007 4 Comments

The 45th Carnival of Feminists went up last week at Feminist Philosophers. Lots of good reading there, and below are links to some more great feminist reading that I’ve found in my feedreader this last week. I can’t read all the blogs out there, so obviously I miss great stuff. If you’ve read something insightful, […]

Frequently Whimpered Whines: The Nice Guys™ theme song

By tigtog June 14, 2007 73 Comments

From the FF101 Jargon File (edited to add, for the benefit of those who can’t/won’t find the time to click on a link, with the full text of the “Nice Guys™” entry, added text in italics) : “Nice Guys™” – The “™” marks the difference between men who are genuinely nice people and men who […]