Experiences with Feminists

[DrgoFx]

With the recent thread about feminists, it has me curious. What is everyone's opinion on the Feminist movement based off of their experiences?

For me, personally, I think women's rights is a wonderful thing and it should very well happen. My issue though are the feminists themselves, again from my experiences. Many feminists that I have met are not "pro-women" but rather "con-men." They could care less what happens to women overall, as long as men are brought down.

I'm not saying that every woman is like this or every feminist is, but from my experiences, this is what I encounter. And personally, I'm sick of it. I find that something that doesn't help are the laws that surround certain situations. For example, child support. In theory, this is a great thing and I support this, a man must pay for something he helped create. But in practice child support can very easily be used as a weapon by the woman to punish the man. This I do not support. Men are not better than women and women are not better than men. But thrashing the other does not make us equal.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Let the woman bashing commence! Down with the hive mind of the Evil Feminist Alliance for the Destruction of Men!
It's a good thing everyone on this site has a well-informed opinion on what feminism is!

 

[Gammayun]

There is going to be a very small minority of every kind of faith, movement, religion, belief or philosophy that takes it to extremes. I think feminisms great it has given women the vote, equal job opportunities, and probably most importantly given women a voice, so I?m just going to say everything in moderation.

 

[Valanthe]

-sigh-

Yet another thread from someone who read up on Andrea Dworkin and somehow postulated that one batty lunatic somehow represents the standpoint of an entire, or at least majority share of an organization.

I used to jump into these threads full of fervour, defending the feminist movements and trying to change people's views, but when you find yourself doing this at least once a week... yeah, skip that, I've got better things to do.

Like watching My Little Pony.

 

[Lionsfan]

No way this thread is going to end up in a huge flamewar. No way at all

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Yes there are women out there like that but those are the minority. Just ignore them. They are just like any trolls you find on the internet, ignore them long enough, don't feed them and they are bound to go away. Its like poking a bees nest, your bound to get stung but if you don't poke it and avoid everything will be fine. I do agree with equal rights for everyone but sometimes its too much. 50/50 hireing in companies? That can be hard in some facets as women may not want to go there. Hire the people best qualified and everything should be fine. I'm tired of people pushing for more attention. Here in Canada, where Gay marriage is legal, that Gay Pride parade was up in arms about the mayor not attneding their parade. he wasn't doing it to make them mad but he was taking a vaction to spend time with his family. If the goal of the gay community is to be treated the same then I don't think its a big deal that they mayor didn't attend. That just means that they are excepted as part of a thing that happens every year. You don't see the mayor attending every parade now do you? My point is that the point of equal rights is so that everyone is equal, but do not try and force people to go beyond that.

 

[gazumped]

I've met cool, confident, strong female feminists. I've met down-to-Earth male feminists. I've never met a feminist who didn't respect men, in fact all of the female outspoken feminists I know tend to have more male friends than the females who don't make a point about being a feminist. It is the females I know who identify as feminists who will passionately speak out about injustices towards men (like being seen as having less rights as a parent than the mother).

Personally, I'm a shy and unconfident feminist, with a lot of male friends that I love a lot.

Clever feminists don't slate men, just like anyone who's fighting for equality ought to know that lowering yourself to the level of those who are opposing you (in this case, misogynists, which can be male OR female) will not help your case for why they are wrong and you are right.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

All reasonably minded people are feminists.


I believe in gender equality in all the important areas of life.

Holding a door open for a lady does not make me a misogynist, defending a woman from a male attacker doesn't make me a misogynist.

The people who would claim that, use feminism as a shield to spread their own ingorance and hatred.

Men and women are not the same in a lot of areas. Both genders react differently to different situations, and then individuals within those genders will act differently from others.

I don't treat everyone the same, that's silly.

What I do is treat people with respect until they give me cause to do otherwise, whether they're male, female, black, white, young, old.

 

[Vrex360]

I will only say this.
I am a young man with two older sisters, both of whom are feminists. They are also the best sisters you could ever ask for. They are devoted, loving, funny and great fun to hang out with. Truly the best kind of older sister figure a young man like myself could ask for.
They are what I picture whenever I hear the word 'feminist' and the reason why I'll never be able to see the evil crazy man hating lesbian army that apparently everyone else sees.

 

[Phasmal]

I think its outlived its usefulness as a movement, at least in the west. Its gone from pushing for womans rights like the right to vote to pushing for laws that force companies to employ an equal number of men and women, which is just plain stupid.

--while the ones who just want equal pay are drowned out.

Uhhhh... What?

So, there's no use for it, but you acknowledge that we are still recieving less pay for the same work?

So, there kind of is a use for it, isn't there?

Honestly, this will just descend into woman-bashing, but here we go anyway.

I am a feminist. Always have been. I also have a boyfriend. Holy crap. I don't hate men. I can open my own god-damn doors, too, but I will open a door for you if I get to it first, if you open it for me if you get to it first, I will say thank you, no matter what is between your legs.

Of course, every movement has a minority that is a bit mental. But that isn't the majority.

I will be super happy when I can openly be a female gamer without recieving abuse. And then maybe someday I will be able to be an openly feminist female gamer without abuse.
Ah, one day...

 

[Vault101]

feminism..mabye we should just call it somthing else since its been warped/twisted and turned into a derogatory term that now aparently means "angry man hater"

 

[Zeckt]

Just don't try to run over me with your baby strollers, I seriously flipping hate it when some lunatic woman does that. Uh what is this topic about again?

 

[orangeban]

Outside of the internet, I've never met one of these man-hating feminists (I've met tons inside the internet, but I do go looking for them, so that doesn't really count). Most feminists are friendly people who want equality for women, and often it's the feminists who are well-informed enough to also be concerned about men's rights.

I don't know if my opinions have been coloured from hanging around r/mensrights on reddit, but it seems that some people have decided that the masculinist (pro-men's equality) movement is somehow the enemy of the feminist movement. No, no it's not. In fact, the two movements are fighting very, very similar battles, and would achieve much more if they'd fight together, rather than against each other.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I feel this is a good place to spread the word of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

From the Eight I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts:

3. I'd really rather you didn't judge people for the way they look, or how they dress, or the way they talk, or, well, just play nice, okay? Oh, and get this into your thick heads: woman = person. man = person. Samey = Samey. One is not better than the other, unless we're talking about fashion and I'm sorry, but I gave that to women and some guys who know the difference between teal and fuchsia.

I think that's relavent here...

 

[Phasmal]

Well, the thing about equal pay is the differences in pay between sexes are very minor and when you calculate exactly how much money women lose or win for being women, women are actually in the advantage. But lets not get into that right now.

10.2% seems pretty un-minor to me. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/08/international-womens-day-pay-gap#
But thats data from last year and I'm sure you are going to explain how getting paid less is an advantage and that we should all just shut up and deal with it.

Also, the thing with EQUALITY, is that nobody should have the advantage. Even women, I know! A feminist saying that... I'll get expelled or something.

Snip.

The only issues I have with men's rights movements are the extremists who try to say that domestic violence never happens and that kind of bullshit. I cannot even deal with it.
Also, why would you purposely go looking for man-hating feminists, if not just to anger yourself more against a normally reasonable group of people?

 

[FamoFunk]

Go Women, down with Men!

Not.

Feminism is great, it's helped Women become more equal in the world (Voting, jobs, equality in general) and I think we have a lot to thank them for.

But, like everything in the world you have those few who go to the extreme and those are the people who get in the news and lime-light, and then those who don't like to look things up and see everything Black and White think everyone from that group is evil.