Actually, I don't know. I really don't understand you sometimes. Sorry!
Well, I mean that if you're dealing with something systemic, you have to deal with it as a systemic thing. Sure, you can have conversations about it as such, but what's not productive is women getting offended at men and blaming things on men and so on--because men aren't the problem for feminism, patriarchy is. So I'm not saying anything against 'getting the word out', though I do think arguing with some people is beyond hope. It'd be better, if possible, to have something more organized than individual interactions, too, but every little bit helps, or something. I think things can always change, even if we've got this defeatist mindset now, but it's not easy.
I mean that it's not that I already know that about him (I mean, now I do, but I didn't always). Words like that have never really affected me. I never got the impact of a 'fuck', or 'cunt', or anything like that. Racial slurs I didn't even know till I was older, except for 'nigger', but somehow they seem more loaded to me. Maybe 'cause I don't identify with women or feel insulted if someone puts me down as a woman, but I'm conscious of my status as a white person? I don't know. To me words that are insults directed at women just seem like insults for everybody that happen to be used on women, and if they're used in a sexist way, then so much the worse for the person using them, I guess. Because I do recognize that calling a woman a bitch when she does something any man could do is sexist, but there's nothing about the word itself that seems sexist to me, only its use in that context. It would be just as sexist to call her an asshole for doing what any man could do in the same situation, you know? Or to call her nothing at all but discriminate against her.
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Date: 2010-05-29 05:17 pm (UTC)Well, I mean that if you're dealing with something systemic, you have to deal with it as a systemic thing. Sure, you can have conversations about it as such, but what's not productive is women getting offended at men and blaming things on men and so on--because men aren't the problem for feminism, patriarchy is. So I'm not saying anything against 'getting the word out', though I do think arguing with some people is beyond hope. It'd be better, if possible, to have something more organized than individual interactions, too, but every little bit helps, or something. I think things can always change, even if we've got this defeatist mindset now, but it's not easy.
I mean that it's not that I already know that about him (I mean, now I do, but I didn't always). Words like that have never really affected me. I never got the impact of a 'fuck', or 'cunt', or anything like that. Racial slurs I didn't even know till I was older, except for 'nigger', but somehow they seem more loaded to me. Maybe 'cause I don't identify with women or feel insulted if someone puts me down as a woman, but I'm conscious of my status as a white person? I don't know. To me words that are insults directed at women just seem like insults for everybody that happen to be used on women, and if they're used in a sexist way, then so much the worse for the person using them, I guess. Because I do recognize that calling a woman a bitch when she does something any man could do is sexist, but there's nothing about the word itself that seems sexist to me, only its use in that context. It would be just as sexist to call her an asshole for doing what any man could do in the same situation, you know? Or to call her nothing at all but discriminate against her.