Hey, I'm usually just a reader, but now I guess I'm a first time poster. Just to let you know I really enjoy feministing and is one of the few places where sense is actually talked.
I am quite a vocal person in terms of my feminist views, and mostly by my friends and class mates and sometimes they agree or have a debate which I always enjoy however I mostly get mocked by them which I am used to and I just put up with because the more I attempt to argue my point, the more they just laugh and roll their eyes because it's 'me' and it's 'what i do'.
Recently however, two of my close friends joined this group on facebook, quite orginally titled Anti-Feminism
Some comments from the group include
"I completely agree that women rights activists fucked it up for us and we didnt know how good we had it. I cooking cleaning and fucking are 3 of my favorite things and I am amazing with children, but now I have to go and get a job as apposed to making a man happy. Women rights activists suck."
"Women were made differently they men, for thousands of years we have been perfecting our ways of the home and now feminists have messed it all up and forced us out of the home. I am soo anti feminism and wish that I wasnt expected to go to college and get a job. I am an amazing cook, perfectly clean, and according to my ex boyfreind amazing at pleasing guys.I wish we could just go back to our traditional roles.""Feminism has gone way too far. I don't understand why my fellow women can't seem to get it through their heads that gender roles were created for a reason! Women are far too fragile and emotional to hold positions of power, and they risk damage to their bodies in employment positions that involve physical labor. We must protect the womb at all times, or it is quite possible that the human race will die out. No matter what your religion is, you can't deny the fact that women were biologically created to fit traditional female roles. I am an Atheist, and yet I have the sense to see that this is true! Women have filled these roles for ages... so why are we changing now? Things are the way they are for a reason, and we shouldn't question them. If all women started working, then who would look after her children? The husband?! That is not a man's job! Women who don't stay at home are responsible for society's downfall, along with the homosexuals."
I was shocked and appalled. Even one of my friend's status left me lost for words
'Feminism, the radical notion that women are people.'
I have no words for this, and to be honest it reflects so much of the attitude that so many people share which has frustrated me but now it just scares me.
Is it just me who feels like this?
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Scares me too. It's really depressing, I know there are some feminists out there who honestly believe that women shouldn't be homemakers and stay at home moms, but that's not all of us and it's depressing to be tarred with the same brush. And then to generalize their wants and needs to all women is really obnoxious--I'm not good at cooking or cleaning and if my life was devoted to children I'd have to be constantly medicated. I'd be so fucked without feminism, much like many other women.
'Feminism, the radical notion that women are people.'
If it makes you feel any better, this is actually a feminist statement, and was originally intended as such. "Radical" in this case is deeply sarcastic, and the statement cuts to the heart of feminist ideology: if misogynists thought that women were fully human, they wouldn't treat us like we're second-rate. If the friend that's using it is anti-feminist, then you can sit back and have a quiet laugh at her expense for totally misinterpreting the quote. :)
I see backlash against feminism among women I know, too. It's as if they think that if they humble themselves enough, and stab other women in the back enough, then the Big Daddy In The Sky will give them a cookie and a pat on the head and tell them they've been good girls. That's what happens when you set up a system where women are told that they're bad, flawed, less-than, and that only male approval can make them whole.
I don't understand how that quote could be interpreted as ANTI-feminist... I've always read it as ironic.
"and now feminists have messed it all up and forced us out of the home."
Hmmm. I'm curious how on earth they could defend this statement. Who's holding a gun to their head to make them work out of the home or something similar? I'm sure it's not "forced" but some choice they made.
As the saying goes feminism is about choice. If someone wants to be a stay at home wife/husband they should be able to, but they shouldn't be forced to.
I was wondering that, too. Do they really believe that the evil feminists have enacted laws against working in the home? They can do whatever the hell they want but as soon as they tell me I'm not allowed to persue a career the nails will come out.
I was actually wondering that too.
No one is FORCING women to work. There are still stay-at-home mothers, for those who don't think they can juggle careers and children at the same time.
To everyone saying "women don't have to work"-- well, no, it's become almost impossible to survive on one income, especially when you factor in the current high risk that the income will disappear with no backup. But that's more because salaries have not appropriately increased with cost of living, and has nothing to do with feminism. They're looking for blame.
This HAS to be sarcasm. I mean, for reals... People don't actually believe that crap, right? RIGHT???
Ugh... I read the damn thing. It's... maybe, quite possibly NOT sarcasm. I think what I hate the most about this kind of thinking is that they try to pass it off as treating women as "special" and "delicate." We're just mystical, perfect works of art to be admired or something. Guess what? I don't want to be on a goddamn pedestal-- I just want to be a regular person!!
Grargh, groups like this drive me crazy. First off, no one is 'forcing' women to work - anyone who thinks that's what feminism is about is very confused. If someone wants to stay home and be a wife and mother, that's fine - but there's a difference between choosing this path because it makes one happy, and doing it because it makes a man happy. Not to mention that for a lot of women, working outside of the home hasn't ever been a 'choice'. It's an incredible privilege to be able to choose to go to college and get a job OR stay home, really only available to a small number of the middle-class.
For the record, I'm an employed feminist who ALSO enjoys cooking. So, you know, it's okay to care about your career and the home.
It's not the man's job to take care of himself? Oh.
Don't they know not everyone goes to post secondary? There are women who at 20 meet men who want to get married and have kids and would support their partner.
I have to say I'm personally most disturbed not by the desire to stay at home, but how they feel one of their major roles is to please men sexually, and that they have this "confirmed" by boyfriends or SO's. To me, that's INCREDIBLY degrading- not only in that you're giving your view of your self-worth entirely to another person, but especially as a victim of child sexual abuse, where my abuser viewed my purpose in life to be sexually gratifying him.
I don't know, maybe that's just how I see it, but that just struck me as... ew.
I have to say I'm personally most disturbed not by the desire to stay at home, but how they feel one of their major roles is to please men sexually, and that they have this "confirmed" by boyfriends or SO's. To me, that's INCREDIBLY degrading- not only in that you're giving your view of your self-worth entirely to another person, but especially as a victim of child sexual abuse, where my abuser viewed my purpose in life to be sexually gratifying him.
I don't know, maybe that's just how I see it, but that just struck me as... ew.
Sorry for the double-post.
Oh for Pete’s sake…
Has everyone taken the time to look at this site? I’m not sure whether I want to cry or just fall out of my chair laughing. It’s like a car wreck, I just can’t look away.
And what the hell, may I ask, is this?
“Courageous Catholics Defeat Feminist Assault”
http://www.tfp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1092
“Violence certainly could have erupted, especially as the feminists spit in the men’s faces and ripped the banner from their hands to burn it. However, the only reaction they received, was the repeated sounds of the Hail Mary, defiantly chanted.”
I keep expecting a little flag to pop up on the screen saying "Surprise! Fooled you!" It ain't comin', is it?
Read the one about going to a anti-abortion rally in Harrisburg, Pa. It's... enlightening.
To me, it seems just like a bit of lazy whining hiding behind anti-feminist rhetoric.
Waaah, I don't want to get a job, I just want to do the things that I like doing.
Well, guess frackin' what? I don't want to work either, I'd much rather stay home all day with a stack of books and not have to do anything I dislike in order to put a roof over my head.
You'll notice that the quoted rant doesn't equate cooking and cleaning as a job - it's a pleasurable thing to do.
They don't want to fill the woman's role, they just want to escape to something they perceive as being easy and fun. It's something that only women who were born in a feminist era can say - the women who first fought for the right to have options other than staying at home knew that it wasn't all happy flowers and sunshine.
"and now feminists have messed it all up and forced us out of the home."
With an attitude like that (and imagining the kind of men who might be compatible with such), I have a feeling that there wouldn't have been a lot of cooking, cleaning, or pleasing going on in that household, anyway.
I would like to see this woman trade places with a woman the same age as herself in Afghanistan. It could be a reality show. Make her eat her own shit that she spews.
I also believe the comments quoted above are sarcasm. The words seem more like caricatures than actual words from female anti-feminists.
If only I could so easily dismiss the majority of the comments in the Facebook group. Most of it is quite revolting.
I'm gonna go have an anxiety attack now...
Dear atheismo why are there people like this?
Women who don't stay at home are responsible for society's downfall, along with the homosexuals.
I'm sorry... what? WHAT?!
No words can even begin to describe how horrified I am right now.
This offends me both as a woman, and as someone who has plenty of gay friends and family members.
I can't believe people. I honestly want to weep for our future right now.
Don't worry. In a couple of years we will get a simple name change through on a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons. The Civil Rights Act was right at the time because it got the necessary rights to the LGBT community faster than would have otherwise happened. In the typical British fashion we pragmatically fudged the issue bedroom furniture and moved on. All things considered I think the situation over here is better than in California!
What I love about the anti-feminism group is that they would not even BE ABLE to form an anti-feminism group if it weren't for feminism.
Well, maybe they could if their husband/father/brother said it was okay.
Is no one else seeing the irony in this?
yes, they WOULD, dumbass. because men belive the same thing so they would say "okay sweetie, i give you permission to start an ANTI BITCH group. but if your not home in time to make me dinner, i'll beat your ass."
Yes "people believe this crap" Such as me. And it is not crap. Feminism has destroyed everything good. No one was anorexic before feminism. The only fasting was religious. Women could eat whatever they wanted without being chastised for it. And gay men didn't rule all. They imposed the thin ideal which made me nearly die. They hate womanly curves but design for women. They shouldn't thats for sure. There is nothing wrong with being gay in and of itself but this androgynous standard they have imposed should be illegal. I believe in women's rights yeah-the right to BE A WOMAN. Not a masculinized worker drone. I am a very intelligent women and I'll not bow down to this ridiculousness any more. I AM NOT A MAN. It is a fact not a degrading statement.
Oh and at Jj of course there would be no antifeminist group because feminism itself wouldn't exist. Maybe you should take Common Sense 101. I'm also guessing you didn't do well in English. I have never had anything lower than an A usually an A+. Which is why I know bs when I hear it. I respect your opinion (if barely) but you shouldn't be allowed to impose it on society.