Comments | kimberly_t: Love, Hate and Feminism vs. Misogyny

kimberly_t

Love, Hate and Feminism vs. Misogyny

May 11, 2006 12:42

After due consideration, I am convinced that the two most overused, misused and abused words in the entire English language are: Love and Hate.

( Read more... a Lot More... )

word games, feminism

Comments 33

summer_jackel May 11 2006, 19:59:44 UTC

Beautifully written, thoughtful and true.
*sigh* This culture.

kimberly_t May 12 2006, 17:59:47 UTC

Thanks for the compliment! Feel free to cut-n-paste excerpts from this for your own purposes, if you so desire.

shakatany May 11 2006, 20:19:44 UTC

The Greeks had one more word epithemia (see bluegargantua's post).
I agree--language reflects culture and both must change if we are to have a future. With the slow erosion of our rights it would indeed be tragic if one day these would be referred to as the golden era of women's rights *shivers*

Shakatany

PS shakatany May 11 2006, 20:20:51 UTC

I meant to link to http://bluegargantua.livejournal.com/171658.html for the post. Sorry.

Re: PS kimberly_t May 11 2006, 22:03:41 UTC

No problem, and thanks for the link!
I just took a look at your LJ, and I'm curious. What, precisely, constitutes a "fib" as you write them? Haikus and drabbles I know of, but this is new.

Re: PS shakatany May 12 2006, 17:11:01 UTC

A Fib is a poem based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers--1, 1, 2 (1+1), 3 (1+2), 5 (2+3), 8 (3+5)... The 20 syllable form was thought up by Gregory K. Pincus and it has taken off though some prefer to use words instead of syllables or even expanding on the 20 syllable format. I mentioned it in a post ( here) and he wrote back and so my fibbing began ( read here).

Thread 7

ginmar May 11 2006, 22:36:09 UTC

Women serve as a constant reinforcement to men that as long as they avoid being women, they're men. It's that easy. Then there's the next step: competing with other men, which can also use women. Don't get me started.

kimberly_t May 11 2006, 23:00:55 UTC

Then there's the next step: competing with other men, which can also use women.
Like that scum DJ you menioned in a post recently, who wanted to hurt another DJ that's a rival of his... by brutally raping the man's wife and young daughter.

God, that made me sick to my stomach. At least the bastard was fired for saying that on the air, but the station that deliberately hired him for his shock radio theater tactics needs to be held accountable too. The media needs to take responsibility for the messages they send, dammit!

...Wow, full circle. That was the subject of the post I wrote months ago that caused another reader to recommend I read your LJ.

sandrusevich May 11 2006, 23:14:02 UTC

Well, damn. I spent about an hour reading through all that, and all of it totally confused me. I don't know anything about any of this; I know nothing about feminism or feminists, and it was just... yeow.

Funny, I tend not to think about men all that much. I do know they make me nervous, and I'm sketchy around them, and I don't trust them much (if at all) due to bad history with them. And to be honest, this is probably my first real encounter with this sort of arguement; I've always been aware of the stuff men do, and I knew of feminists, but I never really looked into it, if you catch my drift ( ... )

kimberly_t May 11 2006, 23:42:18 UTC

Rambling is welcome here; it's another version of "babbling" :)

When it's all boiled down, Feminism is simply saying "Women are People Too!" and demanding that men recognize that fact; that they treat us--women as a group, the other half of the human race--as equals, not as servants or sex objects.

There are dozens of issues that arise from that basic struggle, but if the misogyny is ever really weeded out of our culture, most of those issues--the rape culture, prostitution, the supermom syndrome, etc.--would be sorted out in the process.

It's not surprising that many women prefer the company of homosexual men to heterosexual men, for the same reason you just gave: because I'm pretty sure they won't try and get in my pants. There are just so damn many heterosexual men who have been conditioned by their upbringing and our culture to think that's what women are for; that woman's only purpose is to serve men's needs, particularly their sexual needs (though also to take care of the brats they spawn in their pursuit of pleasure ( ... )

candika May 12 2006, 06:33:37 UTC

You're by nop means alone in feeling as you do. Many women have had similar experiences. There are a great many feminist groups on LJ if you feel like joining in our discussions. [info]feminist is a good place to start.

dtaina May 11 2006, 23:54:17 UTC

Wow, great post, Kimberly. You gave me a lot to think about. I didn't even realize that we used the word "love" to describe many different kinds of love. I think Spanish is a bit more flexible when it comes to that, but that's just me ( ... )

kimberly_t May 12 2006, 17:52:25 UTC

Thanks, and I'm glad you had that reaction! The more we can make people really THINK about the culture they live in and all the cultural traits they take for granted, the more we can effect change for the better. So next time you hear someone say "feminists are just man-haters, saying that men hate women", you can fill them in on what the real deal is, and maybe make them think a little too.