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The Sexism Post

I posted over at YAR before the bell tolled, but one of the main things I forgot to include was this: I hear over and over and over that the problem with Feminists is how much they hate men, and reverse discrimination and this and that, and beyond not buying that entire concept, it just isn’t my experience. Feminism, as I’ve always heard it articulated by feminists themselves, seems to me the most universally accepting and aware ideological system I’ve ever encountered. I was introduced to feminism in a memorable car ride by two women who put a lot of energy and compassion into correcting my somewhat naively sexist preconceptions of the world. Over the last year I’ve started reading a wide range of progressive blogs, and it is only the feminist bloggers who consistently

  1. Will stand up for anyone against oppression or discrimination,
  2. Will say exactly what they think without mincing words or apologizing,
  3. Don’t bother navel gazing,
  4. Can comprehend and explain complex and seemingly paradoxical effects of oppression on both the oppressor and the oppressed (without agreeing to disagree),
  5. Are always on the side of the oppressed, and
  6. Are humble enough to admit, accept and challenge inconsistencies.

And yet they seem to have the least support of the progressive blogging community - consistently fighting to even be understood by the supposedly aware and open minded community they are part of. Why are we so defensive? I have been. My friends are. It’s the first thing people say when you mention the naughty F****ist word. Why?

Almost makes you think patriarchy might be an issue.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 3:39 am by eric and is filed under Uncategorized, sexism, feminism, blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “The Sexism Post”

  1. carl Says:

    March 9th, 2007 at 5:00 am

    Great post. I’m not sure I’d say it’s _only_ feminist bloggers who do those things (there are some great anti-racist blogs out there too, for instance) - but if you’re just comparing feminist blogs to generically leftist non-feminists blogs, definitely.

    Slightly off-topic question: how do you define navel-gazing? I was wondering about this after my earlier post today. What’s the dividing line between useless navel-gazing and much-needed self-reflection, and how do I learn to recognize it? Just curious what you think.

  2. eric Says:

    March 9th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

    Hyperbole is the _only_ way to post. We were comparing to the generally leftist blogs - especially the ones that are somehow putting so much energy into fighting for sexism.

    Navel gazing, in my mind, is more wishy-washy than honest personal reflection. It usually involves a lot of cliched rationalizations, and not much substance. Personal reflection actually asks difficult questions, and puts itself on the line.

    It’s not the most objective measure, but none of the more interesting ones are.

  3. carl Says:

    March 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    Good answer. In other words, self-reflection is hard, and navel-gazing isn’t.