Why sexism isn't dead (or I should just walk away from the internet sometimes)

[megwrites]

Every once and a great while, I read something on the internet that really, really makes my blood boil. I mean, to the point where I have to walk away from the screen.

That thing? John C. Wright explaining why he's not a feminist. Which, if you ask me, is really him explaining why he's a howling misogynist.

I think what really sealed the deal for me was this remark made in comments with jlassen:

"My point is that the harassment of which you complain is encouraged rather than discouraged by the continued and wrong-headed attempt to equate equality with androgyny. Men who are taught to be barbaric rather than gentlemanly are tempted to grope: women who are taught to be flamboyant in their sexual allure rather than virginal and dignified do nothing to discourage such behavior."

Ah. The age old "rape is the woman's fault" argument. Eventually, all misogynists out themselves.

That's to say nothing of his "separate but equal" argument. And in case you missed a chapter or two of ugly American history - that kind of thinking didn't work out so well when we applied it to race. I'm failing to see why anyone would think it works when applied to gender.



I'd reply and open a line of discussion with him, but I can't be trusted to not just devolve into base insults because I am JUST THAT ANGRY. I am all caps angry. I am making-references-to-whether-your-parents-were-married-when-you-were-born angry.

I think this man is actually suffering from what I like to call Vagina Resentment. You've heard of Penis Envy, well Vagina Resentment is a psychological condition in which a man gets bent out of shape when sees all these uppity females not staying in their place and doing all the things he's supposed to do, only better.

Also, he's now ruined the concept of chivalry for me. Frankly, I'd rather have to open my own doors once and a while if it means being respected.

But here's a few choice quotes:

"Honor is something women don't understand, don't like, and don't do very well."

Please, go and view the context in which this is in, because this is the distilled version. This is just the appetizer. Wait until he gets to the big misogynistic main course.

Oh, and to round things out, he's decided to be vague and completely wrong with this little ditty:

"The pagans were a reasonable, straightforward peoples: they looked quite reasonably at the weakness of womanhood, and quite reasonably decided to exploit and oppress the weaker sex, and so all of human history has done."

1) THE WEAKNESS OF WOMANHOOD? Are you kidding me? I read that three different times because I was just so sure that nobody in their right mind would say that. The weakness of womanhood. I am still boggling over how I utterly outraged I am over this.

2) Which pagans would those be? The fact that "pagan" = "barbaric" in this guy's mind bothers me on a whole other level.

First it irks me as a student of history who would like to point out that "pagans" is a catch-all term that refers to a whole mess of peoples from the Gauls to the American Indians (depending on the time period).

Second, it outrages me as someone who has many, many friends who are pagans, Wiccans, and other such "barbarians". They're a damn sight more civilized than this yahoo, who wouldn't know what really respecting women actually looks like.

I love how he only decides to reference patriarchal, patrilineal cultures. Ever heard of the Iroquois, bitch? No, of course not, because thinking of cultures around the world who have valued women and included them in political/economic processes would mess up your entire brain, wouldn't it?

If you're willing to risk an embolism from your rage, you can scroll down to the comments with jlassen, in which johncwright claims that the glass ceiling and pay inequality are a myth. Because there isn't any statistical evidence or anything to completely prove him wrong.

Also, laughable: he claims his wife has faced "more discrimination for being a Christian than being a woman". Discrimination for being a Christian? Ha.

Try being black, Muslim, or poor in America (or all three) and then tell me how much discrimination you and your middle class, college educated white Christian wife have endured. No, really.



I really wish that for a year this guy could be a woman, and read his own entry with the eyes of someone who's being told that she can't understand honor and she's inherently weak and that it's her own fault if she gets sexually assaulted.

And then, as a woman, I want him to walk out into the world and see what it feels like to have his own attitudes turned on him. I want him to get jeers for being not pretty enough or too pretty. I want him to feel uncomfortable reading history and literature for something that's not his fault. I want him to feel awkward at the office and ashamed of his own body. I want him to have to grit his teeth and be "ladylike" when he wants to scream.

Mostly, I want him to sit down and think about who's he's talking about and for a moment imagine that they're human beings, too. Imagine that their feelings and dreams and problems are just as valid and important as his.

Then I want him to tell me he can stand by his arguments.

Comments

[kara-gnome.livejournal.com]

There's a wonderful book called "The Gift of Fear." You never will look at intuition the same again. Anyway, one of the bits that I've never forgotten is that, (and I have to paraphrase, as I didn't write it down) at the core, men's greatest fear is being laughed at by women, and at the core, women's greatest fear is to be killed by men.

Anyway, it sounds like this guy is just yanking a lot of chains, someone like this is too idiotic to breathe :-).

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

Anyway, it sounds like this guy is just yanking a lot of chains, someone like this is too idiotic to breathe :-).

Yeah, the rest of his journal (which I perused while trying not to vomit), does seem like he likes to provoke people or at least be an asshat.

There's a wonderful book called "The Gift of Fear." You never will look at intuition the same again. Anyway, one of the bits that I've never forgotten is that, (and I have to paraphrase, as I didn't write it down) at the core, men's greatest fear is being laughed at by women, and at the core, women's greatest fear is to be killed by men.

Hmm, that sounds like a really interesting book. I don't know if I can agree with the fear thesis, because I think at a primal level, everyone's greatest fear is probably being killed by someone else, male or female. Still, I'll probably give it a quick read if I find it somewhere.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

MUST KILL.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you.

[denoue-moi.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny how dishonorable his little Penis Manifesto is? I like the torture=feminine behavior. That's really very telling, isn't it?

When will people realize that we have more ideas/needs/wants/dreams in common than we have differences? It's lame to look down on people who are only living in the bodies they were born into.