Image 01 Image 03

Feminism Tag

Neo-feminism has moved well beyond self-parody into one fantastically embarrassing public display of insecurity. A perfect example this faux-feminism's incarnation? "12 Stunning Photos That Prove There’s No Such Thing As ‘Men’s Work’" published by the HuffPo. Pictures feature women as butchers, firefighters, farmers, and carpenters. While the photos are beautifully shot, do they really prove anything?

Last week, a Columbia University student blog published a series of leaked chat room messages, leaked to a Columbia student blog, that were sent between school wrestling team players. The team was then suspended, as Legal Insurrection reported, Columbia Suspends Men’s Wrestling Season Over Lewd Texts. These leaked messages, which were sent in the assumed privacy of a group chat, are described at the student blog as follows: “mock women’s appearances, make jokes about rape, use homophobic and racist slurs, and engage in other distasteful interactions.” Indeed, many of the messages, which can be seen at this link, would most likely be considered problematic by many on campus.

Alan Sorrentino wrote a Letter to the Editor of his local newspaper, the Barrington Times in Barrington, Rhode Island. It was a letter, accordingly to Sorrentino, intended to be tongue-in-cheek, somewhat humorous in intent, critical of women wearing yoga pants outside the yoga studio (and men in Speedos). Little did Sorrentino realize that not everyone appreciated or understand his sense of humor, particularly some women who took offense to his yoga pants comments. And therein started what is one of the most bizarre stories I've seen, in which Sorrentino became so vilified that it resulted in death threats and a protest called a "Yoga Pants Parade" attended by hundreds of people who marched past his house in protest as police stood watch. We told the background of the story in my prior post, New object of hate: Guy who complained about older women in Yoga pants.

The internet moves from object of hate, to object of hate. Perhaps a prime example was Justine Sacco, who after tweeting an ambiguous, clearly satirical message about AIDS that some people interpreted as racist, found herself the subject of an internet hunt -- all while she was on an airplane to Africa. By the time she landed, she had been fired from her job, and people tracked her airplane and confronted her at the airport when she landed. The writer for Gawker who started the whole thing apologized years later. Certainly there have been many other such examples, but the Sacco incident stands out. I don't know if it will reach Sacco proportions, but there is an internet "outrage" gaining momentum against a guy in Barrington, RI, who wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper complaining about older women who wear yoga pants:

Despite feminists tearing down posters for the event last week, Christina Hoff Sommers finally spoke at California State University, Los Angeles. She was invited to speak by the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the school and much to the chagrin of leftists, drew a sizable audience. Of course, like all non-progressives who attempt to make their voices heard on American college campuses today, her event required heavy security.

The Young America's Foundation chapter at the University of California Los Angeles is hosting a lecture by conservative feminist Christina Hoff Sommers but campus feminists find that offensive and took it upon themselves to tear down campus flyers. The YAF blog reports:
WATCH: CSULA Feminists Tear Down YAF Fliers for Sommers Lecture Thursday morning, members of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at California State University- Los Angeles (CSULA) caught a pair of disgruntled feminists on camera tearing down flyers advertising the group’s lecture with Christina Hoff Sommers scheduled for Oct. 4.

You can always count on progressives to hate on wives and motherhood, and to find any excuse to demean the family unit. A post published at Salon took issue with using the descriptors of "wife" and "mother" to describe women Olympians. Yes, really.
Did you hear that women’s trap shooter Corey Cogdell-Unrein won her second career Olympic medal for the U.S. team in Rio this weekend? Did you cheer for Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú, who won the gold and broke a world record in 400-meter individual medley? Or were you too distracted by the media commentary about their husbands?
Yes. And no. The fact that they're wives didn't cause a blip on my radar.

Western feminists are happy to talk about the ever growing threat of the patriarchy and trivial issues like mansplaining, but are often curiously silent about the plight of women in Muslim countries. Author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali has noticed this silence and has a few questions for feminists.