lets collectively lol @ these "I need feminism because..." pics

[bananafishtoday]

It feels like it's just "HEY LOOK AT DEM STUPID FEMINISTS LOL". Just because some feminists are stupid and ridiculously extreme, doesn't make feminism stupid.

Then why are there so many of them and are feminists making no attempts to distance themselves from the sexist and hatefull ones?

Because it's Thursday. The International Council of Feminist Doctrine meets on Saturdays. We'll codify official opinions to be held by every feminist worldwide on all of these pictures and distribute them that evening, most likely.

Anyway...

[snip]

This is a good summary of the actual issues related to the pics in OP's post. Most of the "lol this is dumb" people in the thread simply haven't encountered or have actively ignored the relevant ideas. Being uninformed is not the same thing as having a different opinion.

Also, obligatory "not all feminists are second-wave, Andrea Dworkin-type people", because I know someone is going to try to straw-man feminists sometime soon.

Obligatory quote of the obligatory post. ATTN POSTERS: The ISO Standard Straw Feminist is based on a caricature of the extreme end of one side of a huge upheaval in the 1980s called the Sex Wars. Not only are most of your prejudices based on inaccurate stereotypes, they're inaccurate stereotypes of a relatively small subset of feminism.

I was going to avoid this thread altogether. It's obviously flame-bait, and the idea of trying to "debate" w&gs in an environment as blindly hostile to it as this one is about as appealing as gouging out my own eyes. But I felt I should at least post a PSA. Now that that's done with...

 

[Queen Michael]

A comment on the last one: So now we can't have female nudes anymore? Also, we don't only have female nudes, we have male ones as well. And sometimes you want to portray the female body for the beauty in it, like you'd portray a still life of, say, a bowl of fruit. Not every painting needs to be psychological. Sometimes you want to draw a beautiful object simply beause it's nice to look at. Nothing wrong with drawing either men or women that way.

 

[Dimitriov]

Those are a lot of totally different issues there. What even is "Feminism" if it can "solve" all of these issues?

Seriously though, what even is Feminism, and what is it out to do? I never knew this.

Well from an etymological standpoint "feminism" is literally "an abstract belief in women."

Hope that helps, because it's probably the clearest and most concise answer possible

Seriously, I find to it to be an incredibly poorly defined word.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Spoiler: Edited for Accuracy

What a lovely thread we have here.

 

[Abomination]

#7- Women who do gender studies are looked down upon as unnecessary or feminazis or etc or whatever. One need merely look at this thread to realize that we desperately need more people taking gender studies.

What contribution do they represent to society? A self propagating liberal arts degree? It's valid insomuch she bought it with her own money, but not nearly as valid as a degree in... oh, I don't know; social psychology, criminal law, mathematics, nursing, engineering, media arts, etc.

Here's what tickles my fancy; women who go into gender studies to learn about how there aren't enough women earning degrees in male dominated fields. How's that for a fucking head scratcher?

Bravo, sir. I burst out laughing at this one.

Talk about a self-propogating issue. Those who are determined to do the most about an issue join the side trying to convince others to fix the statistics without actually contributing to the corrective statistics themselves.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

LOL @ Gender Studies degree. Worth as much as the paper it's written on.

 

[Auron225]

The images won't load =S Having said that, I don't know if that's a bad thing judging by the responses...

 

[guitarsniper]

#7- Women who do gender studies are looked down upon as unnecessary or feminazis or etc or whatever. One need merely look at this thread to realize that we desperately need more people taking gender studies.

I'll agree that we as a society need more people taking gender studies. In fact it'd be good if most universities had it as a requirement along other GE classes. What we don't really need are people taking ONLY gender studies. You actually won't make that much change, you'll just end up back in academia because that's where the jobs are for you to work in your field (I use "you" to refer to somebody majoring in gender studies). If someone were to do, for example, a journalism degree with a gender studies heavy courseload, that'd probably be more useful overall to both society and to gender equality.

 

[Terramax]

*snip*

I fully agree with your comments. Being in a family full of only women, and working several jobs surround predominantly, or even completely, by women, I often find that not only do most women's oppression in society (in how they behave or act) are dictated as much, if not more, by other women, but the majority of women more than welcome it.

Another problem is that, whilst some women are unhappy when inequality puts them in a worse position to men, they're more than happy to accept when it brings them into a position above.

 

[Daverson]

I can't help but feel these people are expecting too much from feminism. You don't need feminism to solve these problems. From an engineering standpoint, that's just not efficient! Imagine building a new nuclear reactor for every lightbulb in your house, it'd be madness!

Alternate solutions:
#1 - Manlyness is not about which cavity what's being forced into! It's about not taking bullshit! You know what the first step to manlyness is? Don't whine like a little ***** about what is and isn't manly!
#2 - Go to a different university!
#3 - Get a job in the construction industry!
#4 - Make an effort to get educated about your contribution to rape culture, maybe consider taking rape studies class? But don't be sexist about it. Remember, you need to rape all genders equally!
#5 - Well, that's a ve- wait, you don't have armpit hair! What are you complaining about!? Do you want armpit hair, is that it? Are you complaining because people aren't as ecstatic about armpit hair as you are? I fail to see how ambivalence is an issue here. Personally, I think beards are great. I have a beard. I'm not going to hold it against a woman if has no strong opinion on beards, though. (now, a man on the other hand. He should have a strong opinion on beards! And beer! And fighin'!) Anyone I can't help you solve a problem you don't have.
#6 - Move to Renaissance Italy! They love chunky women there. Unfortunately they're pretty big into the patriarchy thing, so, you know... it's not a perfect solution, but, you know, smashing the patriarchy isn't instantly going to make everyone a chubby chaser, either.
#7 - Get a better degree! Might I suggest one of the sciences, or maybe law? I think we can all agree, when it comes to empowerment, lawyers and scientists have got it.
#8 - Join your local fascist party! It's a well known fact that free art is the work of the degenerates, and must be censored and quashed at every opportunity, only through following the teachings of the leader can a strong state arise, with the correct knowledge about what is and isn't acceptable art! One Vision! One State! One Leader!

There you go, now, maybe once everyone's stopped wasting it, we might have enough feminism left over to do something about the fact that women generally receive significantly less money for doing the same jobs as men, or maybe petition the UN for real change regarding the continuing oppression of women in so called "developed nations" (I'm looking at you, Saudi Arabia), but, you know, baby steps, right?

 

[knight steel]

OK lets tackle these one at a time ^_^
1. That good if feminism at the equalization of gender allow you to achieve that I'll be glad however I'm doubtful about if it would do that.
2. Fucking idiot your university is named because the person achieved something, not just because of his gender, what do you want to ignore all accomplishment's made by men?
3: That's more of your personal physiological issue and has nothing really to do with what your talking about most people won't call you unattractive because you haven't been molested.
4: How do you contribute to rape culture.....why can't you stop by yourself.....if feminism comes into play people will still rape and it will still be a part of our culture.
5: I agree with this one
6: Feminism won't help with this because both gender are looked down due to fat equally, both men and woman are discriminated based on their look.

 

[The Lunatic]

I find it very difficult to take feminists seriously.

Generally when you start off a debate with "I'm a feminist" or even using the word, my value in the next you say decreases quite significantly.

To ardently affix ones self as a "Feminist" is basically to say "I care about women's rights.", which is fine. But, what about Men's Rights? Some things in the world obviously favour females, likewise, some favour men, you can't ignore either.

To identify yourself as a feminist just paints the picture that you're completely out of touch with the issue, and unaware that it goes both ways.

So, yeah, to be blunt, if you call yourself a feminist, I automatically think you're wrong.

Being aware of both sides and working towards "Gender equality" is generally a much better term.

Feminist just strikes as self-interest.