While I expected to receive a fair number of stories that were anti-feminist, I have been saddened by how overwhelming the ratio is. I'd say at least three attacks for every positive or neutral story.

Is there any way to turn this around?

Here's a relatively mild sample, to get the discussion going.

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In your letter, you said that campus feminists are really "aging sluts with no higher goal than to produce another generation of angry and promiscuous Vagina Warriors." That was well put. It also brings me to my idea.

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townhall.com

[ 24 March 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

As for your question - I have no idea how to turn it around. The only way to placate anti-feminists is to become docile and abandon feminist principles.

I dunno, maybe if you want to turn the proportions around, you should try searching European sites...there has to be better stuff going on there.

With some more thought, I decided to flag this specific article for the University of Alabama, the Women's Resource Center there and campus security. I e-mailed them the following:

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Hi, I'm an editor of a women's-centred website based in Toronto Canada. I've set up a Google search that sends me stories referring to feminists or feminism several times a day. Unfortunately, most of the stories I receive are ignorant diatribes against feminism.

Today, I received one that I think both the administration and the women's center at your university should know about.

It reads, in part, "[President] Witt is not opposed to the campus diversity movement. In fact, he seems to be one of its most ardent supporters. And he seems hopelessly out of touch with the values of the citizens of Alabama. Fortunately, I have another idea."

He then advises an anti-feminist woman who has written to him about a poster from your university to get two other women to dress up as man-hating feminists. "I have enclosed a $100 bill in this letter, which should give you enough money for about 2000 Xerox copies of the offensive poster [for the Vagina Monologues, I think]. Take these 2000 copies to the next student/parent orientation after you get dressed in your man-hating feminist outfits. Make sure that you do not arrive early so the campus police are not tipped off in advance."

Consider this your tipping off in advance!

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edited to add: brebis, the Google search is international. I'm getting good stuff from India, East Asia, Europe and Africa. Almost all of the crazy stuff is coming from the U.S. And it is overwhelming all other news sources.

But yes, please do send me any other recommended sites you might have for me to look at for news about women's liberation around the world!

[ 24 March 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

quote:

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Originally posted by writer:
the Google search is international. I'm getting good stuff from India, East Asia, Europe and Africa. Almost all of the crazy stuff is coming from the U.S. And it is overwhelming all other news sources.

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I have critiqued feminism in this forum because as a minority woman, I view mainstream feminism to be purely white and middle class, therefore, it can't possibly speak to my issues - are my observations and critique part of a backlash? Who knows, I guess that's up to the individual to determine.

My personal sense is that if there are a great many web blogs, websites, articles in the news, studies, etc that critique feminism, we can't necessarily rule those observations out because they are not shared by feminists. Conversely, there are a great many web blogs, websites, articles in the news, etc that are quite pro-feminist and which criticize everything from globalization to religious freedom.

Unfortunately, funding and other resource issues seem to be part of the problem. I can't tell you how many woman-centred sites I've been to that haven't been updated for years.

But the internet is where people increasingly go for content. Especially young people. Is it any wonder that the image of feminism is so distorted? How do we keep up?

edited to add: sillygoil, I agree that there is a place for criticism. And I'm not saying, "How do we stop it?" However, there is also a huge difference between the kind of commentary you are talking about and the diatribes I'm getting from Google.

[ 24 March 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

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Originally posted by audra trower williams:
I think young women also need to somehow feel they are "authorities" on things. So many women I know don't write about things because they think they're not informed enough.

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[ 24 March 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

Success breeds this kind of thing. I'd revel in it. The time to be worried (aside from the truly hatefull and violent stuff) is when it starts to fade.

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I view mainstream feminism to be purely white and middle class, therefore, it can't possibly speak to my issues - are my observations and critique part of a backlash? Who knows, I guess that's up to the individual to determine.

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When NAC had its much publicized controversies back in the 90s, I recall a few right-wing anti-feminist commentators who seized upon the claims of visible minority women to say "look, feminism doesn't represent women, just a clique of white middle class women". An editorial in Alberta Report comes to mind specifically in this regard.

Please keep up to date with the MANY events round the world for this year's edition of the World march of women www.marchemondiale.org - as well as French, it is also in English and Spanish. Given its worldwide scope - the Charter conference was in Kigali and the march kicked off in Sao Paolo - it is ludicrous to talk of "minority" women as it involves women of many races, nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.

Gotta say, I love this line: "Years ago, when radical feminists began to use the educational system to sexualize our young daughters-to make them hate men, their parents, and even their unborn children-we asked ourselves the following question: What can you do to fight such a thing?"

Uh, yeah, sexualizing girls to hate men and parents and unborn children. That's what it's all about! Not that young daughters should be *encouraged* to have sex and get pregnant with men and parents, but perhaps he missed that finer point in his own moral universe.

What would that feminist maniac Freud have to say?

[ 05 April 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

But then he goes on to compare sizes! Hee hee.

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Well, now that you are reading the full text of your remarks - remarks you never expected to see broadcast in an internationally-read column

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Ooh. I bet you're skeert. Overwhelmed, too.

And it gets worse. He wants you to know how many famous friends he has, and how they all link to him. Hee hee hee.

The reason I ask is that I really feel like the word feminism has been demonized much in the same way that "liberal" has (or, to borrow some demonized terms from the right, things like "evangelical Christian" or "neo-conservative". The upshot of this is that the only time liberalism or feminism seems to come up is when someone is slamming the concept. On the other side, many liberals have taken to calling themselves progressive and avoiding the term liberal altogether.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think that a lot of 'pro-feminist' articles are written but they wouldn't necessarily show up under a search for feminism. Instead, they would speak only directly to a variety of views that are important in the feminist movement (whatever you take that to be) without pitching it explicitly as being a 'feminist' view. In this same vein, how many pro-gay-rights articles have you seen that talk about the "gay agenda"?

I do understand your frustration, and it would be great if the word could be somehow re-claimed, but I suspect that this is not going to happen in the near-term. Myself, I sort of believe that all causes are best pitched as those of the mainstream, the educated, the reasonable or whatever, rather than granting them marginal or minority status right out of the gate by labeling them as the opinion of a single group of people.

I may be slammed for this, but I have to say that I think this phenomenon is actually evidence of success of the feminist movement and not failure. Nor do I think the perceived imbalance is evidence that society's pendulum is about to swing back on the progress regading women's rights. From sexual empowerment, to women in the worforce, to pro-choise issues and access to birth control, I think it's fair to say that these are all widely accepted by a majority of Canadians and are no longer opinions that are considered controversially held by only a small segment of society. Social, legislative, and corporate/business realities have all shifted to reflect this. So, while a bunch of bitter hacks are out there bemoaning 'feminism' (again, whatever that is), women and in fact many men have been making the slow-- but, in my opinion, inexorable-- progress toward equality for women. Though it's taking decades, the people whining about feminism are becoming increasingly marginalized. And I couldn't be happier about it.

Bitter commentary is the last refuge of the wrong.

[ 05 April 2005: Message edited by: Dex ]

Don't get near the amount of crazy negative stuff I do with the international search for feminist or feminism. But what I find shocking about my Canada search is what little news is found about women. Most of it is about amateur hockey so far. And, once in a while, there's a link to an article about a teenager who's mugged an old lady. Otherwise, no teenagers to be found.

[ 05 April 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

TOWNHALL.COM SCARES ME!

Adams first came to public notice after 9/11 - a student sent him an anti-war email, and he forwarded it to someone who sent her a threatening email. The student's parent's held Adams accountable, but he denied all knowledge and cast himself as a conservative free speech martyr. Then he married the person who sent the threatening letter. Classy.

He then helped local Rethugs campaign against Senator Julia Boseman. Boseman is a lesbian, and they decided to make that a campaign issue. Naturally, most people were disgusted, Boseman won, and Adams was left whinging that the Rethugs had been made out as "intolerant" just because of their Christian principles. As revenge, he wrote an article hinting strongly that Boseman had been impregnated by her brother, which was untrue, but as a true sneak Adams worded it in such a way that he has probably avoided legal action.

I'm famous, so suck on it!

Join the Man-Hating Vagina Warriors Club

quote:

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Originally posted by writer:
Y'see, the whole V'gina warrior thing started just about here ...

I'm famous, so suck on it!

Join the Man-Hating Vagina Warriors Club

Join the Man-Hating Vagina Warriors Club II

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writer, those threads were so much fun,then and now, I had forgottten all about them in their entirety.

But really, who would have thought a year and a half ago, we would be dealing with all these "progressive" men outing themselves as non-progressives, while in defense of a woman political party leader who had pretended to be equally as progressive to get where she is today?

Oh, how I long for those simple times in 2005, when we still had 1 string of naivety left within us. But the last 2 weeks have yanked that nasty string of, believing there were actually lots of progressive men out there affirming woman's equality, right out.

It is the good, clean state of denial indicating that the day will come when birth control is always used, never fails, and the very rare but needed abortions will be easily obtained after a helpful offer of much-needed advice and tut-tutting: Are-you-sure-dear ... this is a moral question ... think about what you are doing as I'm sure you haven't already ... I am only here to help ... look at the development of your baby in these handy brochures. If you don't want to talk, just take the brochure. It was printed on recycled hemp using vegetable dye, though the colour is quite vivid, wouldn't you agree?

Sexy messy drunken carnal sexy sexiness between two inexperienced and repressed teenagers will not occur. Nor will a mother of two ever again decide to do it - after skipping the vaginal cream just this once because it itches like the devil and doesn't make the act so nice and she is 45 after all, and her partner is wearing a condom - what are the chances ... that this woman will not exist with proper preparations thanks to the Green Party.

Or, with good tax incentives, she will decide that she really does want to give birth again - perhaps go with adoption by paid-off caregivers! - whatever else is going on in her life, whatever state her children are in, whatever she previously thought she wanted because the dependent life inside her and what it could be morally trumps her own puny lived life.

Surely you are forgetting, remind, that sometimes pro-choice is an exploration of how icky, queasy and repugnant it is to be pro-choice, and to admit that abortion is wrong and that one is against it and it should be minimized by doing this thing that is already being done or that half-baked notion that won't work on a planet called Earth ... that taking such a vague, judgmental and groundlessly superior stance is the bravest thing for a pro-choice person to do, and must be defended, defended while the humourless feminists say WTF, hands of my body, traitor. You have talked women out of abortions? Well, now you've talked feminists out of supporting you in any kind of solidarity. You will not get away with speculating about my rights and their limits while you soothe the brows of reactionaries.

Surely.

[ 26 December 2006: Message edited by: writer ]

A letter before Dawn

What can you do to fight such a thing?

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Originally posted by writer:
Surely, remind, it is far more nuanced than you are representing it to be.

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Having given it much thought, I would say about 4 decades, I would say, NO, it's not more "nuanced" than what it has always been represented to be. Those who would like to inject nuances into it have been reading too much Timothy Findley. Behind the Green door lies the green dress on the pale green bedspread, put there by a green eyed, green thinking...

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It is the good, clean state of denial

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You sure you do not mean "green slate" of denial?

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If you don't want to talk, just take the brochure. It was printed on recycled hemp using vegetable dye, though the colour is quite vivid, wouldn't you agree?

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Had to change keyboards after that one, it shoulda had a warning.

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You will not get away with speculating about my rights and their limits while you soothe the brows of reactionaries.
Surely.

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Hey! Don't give them the title of reactionaries, according to jbaglow, "we" are the reactionaries who have not grown up enough to build consensus and find a midway pointy to "dialogue" on our rights.

quote:

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Originally posted by writer:
I've just started a new job, as editor of coolwomen.ca. As such, I've set up a Google news search for any item referring to feminist or feminism.

While I expected to receive a fair number of stories that were anti-feminist, I have been saddened by how overwhelming the ratio is. I'd say at least three attacks for every positive or neutral story.

Is there any way to turn this around?

Here's a relatively mild sample, to get the discussion going.

townhall.com

[ 24 March 2005: Message edited by: writer ]

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First off what segment of Feminists are you refering to?