Reading this site is quite interesting at the moment (www.thespearhead.com) the owner of the site sounds as though he is a pretty reasonable guy even if I don't always (ever?) agree with him. He is currently trying to stop trolls probably from a site called Manhood Academy 101 while at the same time maintaining freedom of speech. As anyone who has ever had anything to do with any Internet forum will tell you it is a completely impossible task as moderators need to delete posts which could bring the weight of the law down on them.
On balance I'm beginning to think that comments which are just a stream of abuse are less dangerous than guys who post comments like this:
My personal opinion is that I will not allow any woman to live in my house that does not sign a binding contract with me which waives all rights including the right to life. I will not allow any woman to live in my house that I could not kill with impunity.
Basically this Manhood 101 site would definitely condone the above comment. I have not registered on the Spearhead though there are women who post on there though I do read it regularly because there are some interesting articles on there - whether or not you agree with them. But Manhood Academy was criticised at length by Paul Elam - one of the more reasonable MRA people - for advocating using pain against women as a way of disciplining them and making them bow to a man's authority. They say they don't mean physical pain but their idea is making the women feel bad if she upsets the man so she won't do it again. This is not treating women as equally valuable people as men - this is treating them as inferior and setting men as the only arbiters of behaviour because women are not capable of being responsible for their own behaviour.
This sort of thing is dangerous and if it gains too much support could overthrow all the equality legislation the Western world - supported by both men and women - has managed to put in place. The 1970's were never like this. Andrea Dworkin was pretty extreme though she is always quoted out of context. But the above quote makes Germaine Greer look like a pussy cat - with claws removed.
Showing posts with label Germaine Greer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germaine Greer. Show all posts
Friday, 7 May 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
International Women's Day - yesterday
Why do we need International Women's Day? To highlight problems such as female genital mutilation, lack of education for women in some countries, lack of freedom, forced marriages, equal job opportunities, equal pay for equal work, violence both by and against women.
There are still problems out there which need to be solved. I can't remember the exact figures but I think over the whole world women own less than 10% of the world's property and wealth - so inevitably they have less freedom and fewer opportunities. That in itself would be enough of a reason to have such a day.
It is also 40 years this year since the first publication of Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch - which acted as a focus for the women's liberation movement in the UK much as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique had done in the US in the 1960s. It is this anniversary which has prompted - I think - the publication of Natasha Walter's Living Dolls, Kat Banyard's The Equality Illusion and later in the year Catherine Redfern's Reclaiming the F Word. There was also Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman which was published at the end of last year and looks at women and the consumer society. So 4 books on various aspects of feminism and women today in the UK. Then there is a US offering from Susan J Douglas - Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done.
This is an ideal time it seems to be interested in feminism.
There are still problems out there which need to be solved. I can't remember the exact figures but I think over the whole world women own less than 10% of the world's property and wealth - so inevitably they have less freedom and fewer opportunities. That in itself would be enough of a reason to have such a day.
It is also 40 years this year since the first publication of Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch - which acted as a focus for the women's liberation movement in the UK much as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique had done in the US in the 1960s. It is this anniversary which has prompted - I think - the publication of Natasha Walter's Living Dolls, Kat Banyard's The Equality Illusion and later in the year Catherine Redfern's Reclaiming the F Word. There was also Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman which was published at the end of last year and looks at women and the consumer society. So 4 books on various aspects of feminism and women today in the UK. Then there is a US offering from Susan J Douglas - Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done.
This is an ideal time it seems to be interested in feminism.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Why is Feminism a dirty word?
Were feminists really as bad as opponents say they were? If so it completely passed me by. Germaine Greer for example - if you read her work with any degree of objectivity at all - is never anti men. She is anti a system which disadvantaged women which coincidentally happened to have been set up mainly by men - which is not the same thing at all.
The only writer and feminist I can find who was outspoken in her desire to rid the world of men was Valerie Solanas who wrote one slim book - The SCUM Manifesto. When you consider the extreme pornography which portrays women as expendable and only useful for beating up and maiming; when you read comments on news stories on the websites of reputable newspapers such as the Telegraph and the Times which suggest women should return to the domestic role because that's all they're fit for you wonder who really hates who.
I am currently reading Susan Faludi's monumental work Backlash which details the opposition to feminism in the late 1980s and early 1990s in both America and Britain. The book makes frightening reading. It seems with recession comes renewed opposition to any sort of equality. The media is currently full of the ideal housewife and how to make yourself look good for your husband. Articles about always making sure your husband is well fed and looked after if you want to stay married and blaming women for the break up of all relationships. Nothing aimed at men telling them how to keep women happy. Women are supposed to put everyone else's interests before their own and accept bad behaviour from the men in their lives because they are so stressed and not used to women answering back.
Which really paints men as the sex which is unable to deal with any sort of change and the only thing which will get society back on an even keel is women going back to the domestic sphere and leaving the world of work to the men. So what about all these menial jobs that men consider it beneath their dignity to do? Just who is going to do those then?
The only writer and feminist I can find who was outspoken in her desire to rid the world of men was Valerie Solanas who wrote one slim book - The SCUM Manifesto. When you consider the extreme pornography which portrays women as expendable and only useful for beating up and maiming; when you read comments on news stories on the websites of reputable newspapers such as the Telegraph and the Times which suggest women should return to the domestic role because that's all they're fit for you wonder who really hates who.
I am currently reading Susan Faludi's monumental work Backlash which details the opposition to feminism in the late 1980s and early 1990s in both America and Britain. The book makes frightening reading. It seems with recession comes renewed opposition to any sort of equality. The media is currently full of the ideal housewife and how to make yourself look good for your husband. Articles about always making sure your husband is well fed and looked after if you want to stay married and blaming women for the break up of all relationships. Nothing aimed at men telling them how to keep women happy. Women are supposed to put everyone else's interests before their own and accept bad behaviour from the men in their lives because they are so stressed and not used to women answering back.
Which really paints men as the sex which is unable to deal with any sort of change and the only thing which will get society back on an even keel is women going back to the domestic sphere and leaving the world of work to the men. So what about all these menial jobs that men consider it beneath their dignity to do? Just who is going to do those then?
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