Feminism Tag

As I was preparing for my Mother's Day vacation getaway, this tweet came across my screen: A worthy question, as I thought progressives would be positively joyful at this point in the "Hope and Change" presidency. However, they seem to be clinging to their bitterness. Following the social media trail, it turns out that in a piece on Salon.com, author Anne Lamott transforms a happy holiday into a scourge:

Right now, lurking in your radio, is something so...so hideous...so backward....that it threatens to destroy gender equality as we know it. We've known for a long time that some feminists have a problem with women who choose to become housewives, and an even bigger problem with women who embrace their feminine roles and wiles to their advantage. Those same feminists are on the warpath again, this time against a 20-something pop star who chose to make a cheeky video about what she would like to see in her future partner. Watch and listen (no, actually watch and listen---the rest of the article depends on this) to the unspeakable bane: "Dear Future Husband," by Meghan Trainor. The shock. The horror. PURGE IT BEFORE THE CHILDREN SEE.

Yesterday, BuzzFeed News published a story about a freshman at Reed College, a small liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon. Nineteen-year-old Jeremiah True told BuzzFeed News he received a letter from his freshman humanities professor, Pancho Savery, banning him from the discussion portion of the class for the rest of the semester. Katie J.M. Baker reported for BuzzFeed News:

...“Please know that this was a difficult decision for me to make and one that I have never made before; nevertheless, in light of the serious stress you have caused your classmates, I feel that I have no other choice,” Savery wrote in the email, obtained by BuzzFeed News. ...True said he sparred with classmates over discussion topics related to ancient Greece and Rome, such as the “patriarchal” belief that logic is more important than emotion and his analysis of Lucretia’s rape. But it was his questioning of the widely shared and often debated statistic that 1 in 5 women in college are sexually assaulted — it doesn’t serve “actual rape victims” to “overinflate” numbers, he said — and his rejection of the term “rape culture” that led to him being banned, he said. “I am critical of the idea of a rape culture because it does not exist,” he wrote in a lengthy email to Savery explaining his perspectives that he has also posted online. “We live in a society that hates rape, but also hasn’t optimized the best way to handle rape. Changing the legal definition of rape is a slippery slope. If sexual assault becomes qualified as rape, what happens next? What else can we legally redefine to become rape? Why would we want to inflate the numbers of rape in our society?”

Today, new information revealed in an article published by Inside Higher Ed suggests BuzzFeed didn't get the whole story. Though it should be noted Professor Savery declined to provide comment to BuzzFeed, but was willing to discuss the matter with Insider Higher Ed.

Today was International Women's Day, and it came and went with the kinds of video and hashtag activism that usually define tribute days. Amongst all the shareables about glass ceilings, pay gaps, and leaning in, shone through one fantastic example of how real gender-based discrimination makes its way into the spotlight in societies that don't demand equality. London-based Islamist sheik Hani Al-Seba'i really didn't know what he was getting into when he tried to play gender politics during an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV anchor Rima Karaki. Watch: More from the Telegraph:

Al-Seba'i was being asked about reports that some Christians are joining Islamic State fighters, when he went off on a tangent and started talking about the history of Christian involvement in the Middle East. "Dr Al-Seba'i, let's focus on the present," Karaki suggested, adding that time for the discussion was limited. "Listen, don’t cut me off. I will answer as I please … what kind of behaviour is this?" Dr Al-Seba'i asked. When Karaki reiterated the time constraints, Al-Seba'i lost his temper and told her to: "Shut up, so I can talk." "It’s beneath me to be interviewed by you, you are a woman who ..." he continued, before his microphone was cut off. "Either there is mutual respect, or the conversation is over," Karaki said, as she terminated the interview.

Twitter loved it:

Feminists are marching against Andrew Jackson. (Well, at least against his face.) A group called "Women on 20's" is trying to rally online support behind an effort to change the face of the $20 bill to that of a woman who "the people" see as instrumental in the fight for gender equality:

The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote. So it seems fitting to commemorate that milestone by voting to elevate women to a place that is today reserved exclusively for the men who shaped American history. That place is on our paper money. And that new portrait can become a symbol of greater changes to come. Let's make the names of female "disrupters" -- the ones who led the way and dared to think differently -- as well-known as their male counterparts. In the process, maybe it will get a little easier to see the way to full political, social and economic equality for women. And hopefully it won't take another century to realize the motto inscribed on our money: E pluribus unum, or "Out of many, one."

I'm going to leave this alone, mostly because I support legitimate "female disrupters," and I'm not particularly attached to Andrew Jackson. What I won't leave alone is their list of nominees. For the women heading up this effort, Andrew Jackson is "problematic," mostly because of his role in passing the Indian Removal Act of 1830. But what's more problematic than Jackson's face on the 20 is their inclusion of Planned Parenthood warrior Margaret Sanger in their list of nominees to replace him.

Manterruptions. If not for TIME magazine, I'd have gone along my merry way, ignorant to the fact that manterruptions exist. No, it's not a fun, colloquial expression used by youngsters these days. The author is quite serious about the trials and tribulations forged by manterruptions. What's a manterruption, you ask? According to TIME, a manterruption is, "unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man." But if you're sensitive to gender specific phrases, "talk-blocking" is manterruptions gender-neutral synonym. Cited Example: When Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift as she was accepting her award for best female music video in 2009 saying, "Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time." In all fairness though, Kayne tends to live in his own Kayne planet where the sun and the moon rise and fall at his bidding; so I'm not sure that's the best example as it's an outlier, but since that's the one TIME provided, we'll roll with it. According to TIME, manterruptions are a workplace epidemic, and another tool of the patriarchy to keep women down.

“When a woman speaks in a professional setting, she walks a tightrope. Either she’s barely heard or she’s judged as too aggressive. When a man says virtually the same thing, heads nod in appreciation for his fine idea.” And the result? Women hold back. That, or we relinquish credit altogether. Our ideas get co-opted (bro-opted), re-appropriated (bro-propriated?) — or they simply fizzle out. We shut down, become less creative, less engaged. We revert into ourselves, wondering if it’s actually our fault. Enter spiral of self-doubt.

In modern "feminist" rantings, there are almost always two common threads: