Hell Yeah, I'm a Feminist!

Dec 10

“And I’ve had enough.” Speech by Sarah Field

By ptittle

“If you cannot define women, then you cannot defend them.”

“Its purpose [meeting of Leeds City Council] was not to tell Trans people what is best for them, but to tell politicians and lawmakers what is best for women.”

“And I’ve had enough.”

“So to be clear: men in this city can access a woman’s changing facility, toilet, leisure facility or support group or service – anywhere they are vulnerable, traumatised, undressed or asleep – because men might at some point feel like they are something which the council says is indefinable, but might mean he once wore something which may or may not be something a woman might also wear.”

“… several men out on the street openly watching pornography in their cars as women stumbled to them to be used and discarded for a fiver. During the day I was approached by punters three times in 10 minutes while simply standing by a car for some fresh air at 2pm. We are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds so men can buy the addicted bodies of the most vulnerable women in the city.”

“I’m often asked how I would feel if I was born in the wrong body. And I say, I’ve been feeling like that every single day for as long as I can remember. You only have to go into a shop, turn on the TV, open a magazine, click on the internet and women are assaulted with GET A BIKINI BODY, 12 WEEKS UNTIL YOUR CHRISTMAS PARTY BODY, GET THE BODY YOU DREAM OF, THE BODY OF SOMEONE 20 YEARS YOUNGER, THE BODY YOU DESERVE. Botox, surgery, hair removal, Photoshop, permanent makeup, designer vagina. We get it.”

“I’m truly sorry for any man who feels imprisoned and tortured by masculinity. But that is something for men to deconstruct, to dismantle and to overthrow. … But it is not the moral duty of women to facilitate that.

Read the whole thing here.

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Dec 05

Misogyny: a clear case of projection

By ptittle

Misogyny is a simple and clear case of psychological projection, a defence mechanism whereby one denies the existence of a quality in oneself and instead attributes it to the other—’it’s not me, it’s you’. Men hate that they want us, that their thought, their behavior, is so overwhelmingly and relentlessly occupied with wanting us. Instead of identifying themselves as the source of the sexual attraction (the problem—they are sexually attracted), they identify women as the source (the problem—they are sexually attracting). And so they hate us, they hurt and kill us. When the rational thing would be to hate themselves, hurt and kill themselves. Actually, no, the rational thing would be to simply take the drugs that reduce their desire so it’s not overwhelming and relentless.

And what do they do instead? Take drugs that increase their desire. (Who was it who said they were the rational ones?) Because the greater their sexual desire, the more manly they are. But the greater their sexual desire, the more they hate us. So, the more manly they are, the more they hate us. Despite the faulty logic, that rings true: only wusses actually like women. That is to say, it accurately reflects the psychopathic notion of manliness. (And that would be another rational thing to do: reject the notion of manliness.)

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Dec 01

Transsexualism is a problem only because sexism is a problem

By ptittle

Transsexualism is a problem only because sexism is a problem. (Transgenderism is no problem at all: females have been wearing pants and so on for ages, and there’s nothing preventing males from wearing dresses and so on.)

If being female didn’t put people at greater risk of sexual assault from males, it wouldn’t matter whether male-bodied people were placed in women’s shelters and women’s prisons or allowed in women’s washrooms and change rooms. In fact, there wouldn’t need to be women’s shelters and separate prisons, washrooms, and changerooms. (Although there could be, for reasons other than fear of violence: there could be male, female, and mixed sex facilities across the board.) There may not even be a need for sex-segregated services; we would need only sex-tailored services.

If being female-bodied didn’t disadvantage athletes for most sports (as we have come to know them), it wouldn’t matter whether they had to compete against male-bodied people. In fact, there wouldn’t need to be sex-segregated sports.

If being female didn’t mean unjustified subordinate treatment, there would be no need for compensatory programs or data collection to monitor such treatment. And so it wouldn’t matter if male-bodied people skewed or eliminated such data collection (by making it illegal to record sex) or diminished the funding for such programs (should that be a consequence for refusing to serve male-bodied people).

In short, if there were no sexism, it wouldn’t matter whether males said they were females and females said they were males.[1] Just as it wouldn’t matter whether brown-haired people said they were red-haired (except maybe to a psychologist interested in delusion). (It would be a problem, however, if white-skinned people claimed to be black-skinned, because racism is a problem.)

Further, to the extent that transsexualism involves transgenderism, it depends on sexism. If not for sexism, there would be no need to change sex in order to change gender. If not for sexism, there would be no gender: the various attributes that are grouped together and then aligned with one sex or the other would be just individual attributes, as likely to be present in, or desired by, any given male as any given female.

[1] But there is sexism, so it does matter. By identifying themselves as female, and demanding access to women-only services and activities, ‘transwomen’ are oblivious not only to biological reality, but also to sexism. Or perhaps they are simply insensitive to women’s fears (which in itself suggests that they are not women, but are, in fact, still men). Because how can they not understand that someone with male levels of testosterone and male muscle mass is unwelcome in places where women would be vulnerable to their propensity to violence? Especially since there is much evidence showing that males prone to violence against women see nothing wrong with using deceit to gain access to women, and there is no evidence that males who are in various degrees of transformation are any less violent. (Of course ‘transwomen’ are also at risk of men’s violence, just as effeminate men have always been, but that’s a problem that men, not women, need to solve.)

So … until sexism has been eradicated from our society, ‘transwomen’ will just have to abstain from sex-segregated sports and wax their own balls (or, here’s an idea, go to waxing clinic that has personnel with experience waxing testicles—that is, a men’s waxing clinic). Is that too much to ask?

As for public restrooms and change rooms, if ‘transwomen’ are afraid to continue using the men’s rooms, they should lobby for trans’ rooms, not the right to use women’s rooms. As for prisons, I suppose ‘transwomen’ could lobby for separate trans facilities within men’s prisons.

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Nov 29

All those famous paintings …

By ptittle

guest post by Jass Richards

So when I was in the Louvre, a long time ago, looking at all those famous paintings, I was struck by how few of the women were able to keep their clothes on. From peasants to goddesses, every one of them was sporting not just an off-the-shoulder look, but a pulled-down-to-the-waist look. Breast after breast after breast was bared — in the most inappropriate contexts. For example, in “The Sacrifice of Iphigenia” by … somebody … there are lots of them … apparently it’s a common theme, women getting sacrificed for others … Iphigenia is “sacrificed” in order to make the wind go in the right direction so her father can get to his precious little war and — why the hell is she topless at the moment of her death?

And at some famous theatre, in Vienna I think, I noticed, at first with delight, that the walls were covered with women — but again, every one of them had that negligee-half-off look. Then I noticed they were always in pairs, always two women together, and I thought for a second, “Hey!” But then I realized that every second panel featured the sculpted head of some distinguished person, some male person. So you have distinguished male head, two pairs of breasts, distinguished male head, two pairs of breasts …

It finally dawned on me when I was in Amsterdam. One day I was in the red light district looking at all the men gawking at the famous window displays and the next day I was in the Rijksmuseum looking at a painting called “The Drawing Room” — in which a bunch of men are gawking at a nude model. Being an artist was just an excuse to see women’s naked bodies. The drawing room legitimized voyeurism. So the masters are just peeping toms, art is little more than thinly veiled porn, and the history of art, like everything else, boils down to the history of men seeing women as sex objects.

Nov 28

On Advertising

By ptittle

Advertising has gained such phenomenal power, it’s now allowed pretty much everywhere. And because it’s allowed pretty much everywhere, it has gained phenomenal power.

In fact, it has almost single-handedly destroyed the concept of public space because of its invasion of said public space with constant and loudly-proclaimed messages intended for private gain (not for the public good).

This power has increased tremendously with the Internet. No need to go into detail: everyone who uses the Internet is familiar with the intrusive pervasiveness of advertising. More than that, given the addictiveness of online games and social media, advertising in those contexts is especially pernicious.

And who is it who creates all these ads? Who is it who decides which words and which images the rest of us will be forcibly exposed to day and night for most of our lives? Predominantly, male business students. Male business B students. (They’re the ones who major in Marketing.) That is to say, largely uneducated young men. Who probably didn’t take any courses in the sciences or the humanities after high school (and they probably didn’t do very well in those courses then). Who probably took just one psychology course during university, the one focusing on manipulating human behaviour. And who probably haven’t read a book, not one, since they graduated (and they probably read as little as possible of the books they were supposed to read before they graduated). All of which is to say that they probably have very little comprehension of sexism, racism, environmental responsibility, … In fact, I remember reading the words of one young man who’d said “I was studying political science at the time, so I had never thought about social processes like misogyny and sexism.” (What? What?!) And I suspect business students are even less aware, less informed, than poli-sci students.

So they have no clue as to the consequences, for both men and women, of seeing images of subordinated and/or sexualized women every day all day. They are similarly clueless about the consequences of showing pick-up trucks and ATVs driving through pristine forests. They know that attention is grabbed by flashing lights, and they surely know that driving a car requires one’s full attention, but apparently they can’t put two and two together and so continue to put huge billboards with flashing lights along roads.

And here’s the thing: people should understand the consequences of their actions before they’re granted unsupervised freedom to act. Certainly before they’re granted the power to bombard people with words and images (which are, yes, HARMFUL). With power should come responsibility.

So how is it that our government grants them such power? How is it that it allows such HARM? On such a large and relentless scale? Legislation is for idiots, for those who cannot govern themselves, and clearly …

(What’s that you say? Freedom of expression? But freedom of expression is not, should not be, unlimited. It is justifiably constrained when it violates others’ rights … to privacy (to be free from intrusion), to safety (to be free from harm), to autonomy (to be free of manipulation) …)

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Nov 21

What I learned about men by posting a ‘For Sale’ ad on Kijiji

By ptittle

The ad said $100. Men offered $70, $80, $90. Every woman who replied to the ad accepted the stated price.

The ad indicated my location, implying pick-up. Men asked whether I’d deliver it (all or part of the way) or simply said my location was too far away. The closest a woman got to that kind of response was ‘Are you ever in North Bay?’ (And the woman who bought it drove the distance deemed by several men to be ‘too far’.)

The ad said nothing about disassembling the item. Men asked whether I would do that (so they could more easily fit it in their vehicle). No woman asked for that.

So. Does this mean that …

Men are more assertive than women?

Men are more demanding that women?

Men feel more entitled (to whatever it is they want) (and maybe even to things they don’t want) (just because) than women?

Men themselves use language loosely (they seldom mean what they say or say what they mean) and so assume others do as well?

So if $100 could mean $70, then $30,000/year could mean $35,000 and ‘no benefits’ could mean ‘Okay, a dental plan’.

And ‘No’ could mean ‘Yes.’

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Nov 18

One way to deal with it (sexism) (in science this time)

By ptittle

“When I go to a venture-capital group of only men,” Nacy said, “I do most of the speaking, and my chief business officer and I watch faces. If they’re incredulous about something I’ve said, he’ll repeat the same thing—and then it’ll be just fine.”

Read the whole article here.

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Nov 11

Trying to figure out people’s actions or thinking — banned on Reddit? WTF.

By ptittle

So in addition to all the radfem censorship on reddit …

I posted the following on the AskMen subreddit:

Why do men rape?

That’s my question. Seriously. Why do men rape? I just wrote a novel answering that question, Impact, but I’d like to hear from men. (And perhaps should’ve posted here BEFORE I wrote the novel. Didn’t occur to me.)

I immediately received the message:

Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/AskMen.

Moderators remove posts from feeds for a variety of reasons, including keeping communities safe, civil, and true to their purpose.

I assumed it was an automatic removal, and I assumed that it was the word ‘rape’ that triggered the removal (which in itself would be telling—they anticipate getting, or do get, a lot of ‘Which way do you like to rape cunts the best?’ queries … ?). So I sent a note to the moderators, asking them to please read my post and reconsider.

Then I see received another response:

Your post has been flagged as trying to figure out a specific person’s or group of people’s actions or thinking.

Seriously? It’s taboo to try to understand people’s actions or thinking? WTF.

I decided to experiment and posted the same question on the AskWomen subreddit.

It was also removed. Reasons:

Graceless generalizations are not permitted

– People are not a hive mind.

– Speak only for yourself.

Do not

– generalize across all people of a gender, race, or ethnicity

– ask for mind reading

– ask for us to defend/justify other people’s behaviors

– assume that all people in a gender, race, or ethnicity do/think something

– ask for ‘male equivalent’/’female equivalent’ as these would not exist for most things due to different cultural processes

– exceptions: discussion of cultural norms; quotations

Woh. First, notice the difference. The women’s response is SO much better. More detailed, more explanatory … It is, in a nutshell, indicative of superior thinking.

And yes, I agree. The way I’d phrased the question was assuming a hive mind and generalizing across a sex. I could rephrase it: Why has rape become normalized in our culture? That would clearly fall into the exception of ‘discussion of cultural norms’ …

Even so, I wonder at the ‘Speak only for yourself’ rule. Limiting oneself to anecdote is no way to acquire knowledge. Are we to assume no one knows anything but their own subjective experience? Could no one have referred me to, say, Smithyman’s 1976 research, recently mentioned in The New York Times? Or the NFB film, Why Men Rape? Not to mention Neil Malamuth’s work … And why is it a problem, as it was for the men, to ask for mind reading? Do people not know their own minds? Have we become so incapable of introspection? Or is it, in the second case, that I was asking women to read men’s minds? Even so, can’t we speculate? With good reason and evidence?

Nov 10

Hunting – only men

By ptittle

It’s hunting season again — moose for a week, then deer for two weeks — and I have yet to hear an acceptable justification.

The animals are having enough trouble surviving because of what we’ve done, and what we’re still doing, to the forests. And now you want to just go out and kill them.

Oh, but we kill only the old and the sick. We cull the herd and keep it healthy. First, liar. One of you shot a moose calf just the other day. Second, herd? Seriously? When’s the last time you saw a herd of moose or deer? Third, if you were really killing them out of compassion, you’d tranquilize then euthanize them — not shoot them (I doubt one shot from your gun kills them instantly and painlessly).

And my favourite: we like the meat. Only men would think that their liking, their wanting, something justifies the use of lethal force to get that something.