Feminists Gobsmacked By What A Cesspool Feminism Is
They had a big feminist confab at Barnard College that -- predictably -- turned into "Can you top this discrimination?"-fest. Michelle Goldberg writes in The Nation:
The women involved with #Femfuture knew that many would contest at least some of their conclusions. They weren't prepared, though, for the wave of coruscating anger and contempt that greeted their work.Online, the Barnard group--nine of whom were women of color--was savaged as a cabal of white opportunists. People were upset that the meeting had excluded those who don't live in New York (Martin and Valenti had no travel budget).
There was fury expressed on behalf of everyone--indigenous women, feminist mothers, veterans--whose concerns were not explicitly addressed.
Some were outraged that tweets were quoted without the explicit permission of the tweeters.
Others were incensed that a report about online feminism left out women who aren't online. "Where is the space in all of these #femfuture movements for people who don't have internet access?" tweeted Mikki Kendall, a feminist writer who, months later, would come up with the influential hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen.
About the white hate -- and self-loathing white hate -- within feminism:
There are also rules, elaborated by white feminists, on how other white feminists should talk to women of color.For example, after Kendall's #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag erupted last fall, Sarah Milstein, co-author of a guide to Twitter, published a piece on the Huffington Post titled "5 Ways White Feminists Can Address Our Own Racism."
At one point, Milstein argued that if a person of color says something that makes you uncomfortable, "assume your discomfort is telling you something about you, not about the other person."
After Rule No. 3, "Look for ways that you are racist, rather than ways to prove you're not," she confesses to her own racial crimes, including being "awkwardly too friendly" toward black people at parties.
This is probably because she's gnashing about her "privilege" all the time. Personally, I'm "awkwardly too friendly" to anybody new at a party, mainly because it's hard to introduce yourself to new people, but I don't like to let that stop me.
And hilariously, I just had a black woman tell me to "check" my "privilege." That's because I called her out for sending me -- a stranger -- a moochstarter request for a film she was doing. (I write about this in "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck" -- that if you wouldn't feel comfortable walking up to a total stranger in a cafe and asking them for $10, well, then it's probably rude of you to do just because it's so easy online.)
Oh, and this particular chickie snarling about my "privilege"? Yale-educated. (I wish I'd been "privileged" enough to attend Yale, but my middle-class parents, who generously paid for my college education, told me the limit was in-state tuition at University of Michigan, which was actually pretty affordable in the 80s, when I went to college.)
Back to the topic of this post: Feminism, more and more, seems to have turned into a mass form of covert narcissism, where people use how oppressed, disabled, and weak they are to get attention -- and power.
(If you can't make it by working to get there, make it by whining!)
And actually, it seems this isn't a new thing:
Many second-wave feminist groups tore themselves apart by denouncing and ostracizing members who demonstrated too much ambition or presumed to act as leaders.
This is right in line with sex differences found in the research of Dr. Joyce Benenson, Dr. Anne Campbell, and others -- those who don't toe the PC line and instead take an evolutionary and evidence-based to sex differences.
Back to Goldberg's piece, and regarding the earlier incarnations of this:
As the radical second-waver Ti-Grace Atkinson famously put it: "Sisterhood is powerful. It kills. Mostly sisters."In "Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood," a 1976 Ms. magazine article, Jo Freeman described how feminists of her generation destroyed one another. Trashing, she wrote, is "accomplished by making you feel that your very existence is inimical to the Movement and that nothing can change this short of ceasing to exist. These feelings are reinforced when you are isolated from your friends as they become convinced that their association with you is similarly inimical to the Movement and to themselves. Any support of you will taint them.... You are reduced to a mere parody of your previous self."
Yes, ladies, amazingly, the tools used to gain unearned power over men can be turned on you by other feminists for exactly the same purpose.
Whoopsy!
via @JacquesCuze
So in other words, a cat fight. Someone needs to look into the evolutionary aspects of this type of behavior as it seems to be persistent and consistent.
Random Guy at July 7, 2015 11:46 PM
"Feminism, more and more, seems to have turned into a mass form of covert narcissism, where people use how oppressed, disabled, and weak they are to get attention -- and power."
I got to wondering one day... Do you think some of this phenomenon is related to the "special snowflake" method of raising kids?
At home, from birth through high school, children are led to believe that they're superior in everything. And perhaps the ones who eventually get into top schools actually are superior to most everyone in their own neighborhoods and classes.
But then they get to college and find themselves surrounded by thousands of even more superior creatures Their poor little brains begin to overheat and they scramble for excuses to explain to themselves why they aren't shining.
"Oh em gee, I would sooo be the raddest person in this school, if only I wasn't so OPPRESSED. It's the constant verbal violence, the triggering coursework, and an all-around lack of privilege that are hindering my innate awesomeness. Otherwise... well... everyone would be totes impressed. Srsly."
Elizabeth at July 8, 2015 1:06 AM
Have you noticed? "Privilege" doesn't mean something earned any more. The PC people have successfully distorted it to mean something else.
Challenge them on it and watch the tears flow!
Radwaste at July 8, 2015 2:39 AM
The perpetual outrage & turmoil just seems so exhausting to me. I honestly don't know how these women do it.
JFP at July 8, 2015 4:07 AM
JFP,
Practice, practice, practice.
Also, getting ticked that your twitter comments were quoted without your permission? How about don't publicize things you don't want people quoting!
Ben at July 8, 2015 5:52 AM
So in other words, a cat fight.
I'll bring the kiddie pool, someone get the jello, and we'll have to find a way to convince them to don bikinis...oh, wait, they're probably not all that hot. Nevermind.
Wut? if I'm going to do the time, I might as well do the crime.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 8, 2015 6:11 AM
"the tools used to gain unearned power over men can be turned on you by other feminists for exactly the same purpose."
In other words:
"Live by the sword; die by the sword"
Or should I paraphrase that and say live by the whine, die by the whine?
charles at July 8, 2015 6:14 AM
So in other words, a cat fight. Someone needs to look into the evolutionary aspects of this type of behavior as it seems to be persistent and consistent.
See above -- I write:
"This is right in line with sex differences found in the research of Dr. Joyce Benenson, Dr. Anne Campbell, and others -- those who don't toe the PC line and instead take an evolutionary and evidence-based to sex differences."
Amy Alkon at July 8, 2015 6:49 AM
This is the same thing that has happened to all of the 20th-century civil rights movements. An element of it was always there, but it was tempered by the leaders and supporters who had substantial legitimate goals to pursue. Once those goals were accomplished, the leaders went off in search of new mountains to climb, leaving the narcissists and borderlines in charge of powerful, well-funded and reputable organizations. You can guess what happens after that.
"Do you think some of this phenomenon is related to the 'special snowflake' method of raising kids?"
Yes, with a caveat: it started a lot earlier than people think it did. The first wave of Special Snowflakes were in the generation born between the end of WWII and about 1960. That's when all of this started. It skipped a generation (the Children of Divorce, who were largely neglected), and then started happening again around 1985. I conjecture that it's an artifact of progress and economic good times; I see evidence of it happening back in the 1920s, but the Depression squashed that.
"But then they get to college and find themselves surrounded by thousands of even more superior creatures..."
Yeah, it's like the adage about pro baseball players. In high school and college, they are by far the best players in their team and their league, and they put up Ruthian batting stats. Then they get drafted and start in pro ball, and all of a sudden they're facing pitchers who can actually throw a good curve ball, which they've never seen before. A lot of them wash out at the mid-levels of the minor leagues because all of a sudden they're exposed to competition that is at or above their own talent level for the first time. If there's one reason to hold up pro sports as an example for your kids, it's because pro sports are unforgiving. There's no affirmative action, no "legacy" admissions, no grade-your-own-work classes. Performance is everything.
"The perpetual outrage & turmoil just seems so exhausting to me. I honestly don't know how these women do it."
That's because they are Cluster B's. Conflict and drama animate them; without it, they don't exist. You and I can't understand it or tolerate it because our brains aren't wired that way.
Cousin Dave at July 8, 2015 7:02 AM
This whole thing looks just like middle-school girls at lunch. Same displays, same motivations, same results...
bkmale at July 8, 2015 7:42 AM
H.L. Mencken — 'Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.'
Robert King at July 8, 2015 7:47 AM
Not only do I "check" your privilege but I also "trigger" your abstinence from _______________ .
Your "social status" (love that term) means I do not have to hear your thoughts (unless I agree with them).
Bob in Texas at July 8, 2015 9:05 AM
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