Erin Larson: Apologies in Advance

I wanted to make this apology in advance, on behalf of the biggest jackasses on my side of the gender divide. But I'm just a tad late.

I wanted to apologize for the sexual slurs that are about to come your way.

I used to think feminism had gone overboard, that some women had taken it too far, that the resultant vector was one of discrimination against men. I was wrong about that. I figured that our over a decade ago.

But I can tell you, young woman, that the jackasses will be out for you. I can't provide much beyond my encouragement and the villification of said jackasses, so I offer that and a piece of advice: spit in the eye of anyone who looks at you sideways.

Shields up. Armour on.

It begins:
"Wonder what she'd say if someone talked about her SEX LIFE.
Matter of fact, who would ever be the male friend of this abomination?"

Yeah. Great.

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Absolute Lunacy and Feminism

I was pretty confident that 1980s style feminism had died a thorough death. Nobody yells at anybody for holding doors open or stupid things like that. You don't see the style of the old "Take Back the Night" march where men are excluded and generally pointed at and accused of rape along the parade route. And, furthermore, there was no feminist defense of Janet Jackson when someone ought to have noticed that - at least superficially - she was the victim.

So it surprises me when I run across apparently recent postings where the conservative lunatic fringe is still getting angry about feminists charging all men with rape. (I'm guessing virgin males are innocent, but I don't see a specific exception). The evidence that feminists accuse all men of being rapists consists of posts like this wherein we have a list - basically - of specific non-exceptions to the rule that sex must be consensual.

But my goodness, the vitriol that comes flying out of the mouths of these anti-feminists. All women, apparently, are happier when men are controlling them. Men are happier that way, too. In fact, if men don't have a woman to control, they are useless. The tools of socialism - which I always thought liberated women by taking away the traditional yoke of stay-at-home motherhood - are actually taking away her freedom to ... um ... do whatever her husband wants. Or something like that. I honestly have trouble making sense of it.

The sum total seems to be that these people - some of them women - seem to believe that "womanhood" and "femininity" have some a priori definition which only they know. That definition involves being happily ensconced in a very traditional style of marriage - sometimes apparently not even choosing their husbands (?).

And here I thought women want freedom from being the mandatory brood mares of the state and church, but I guess I was wrong.

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On Feminism and Things I Used to Believe

I remember reading that young people are liberal and progressive and as they get older they get more conservative.

I'm noticing that the opposite is true for me. Sure, my high school had these psycho women who would yell at you for giving a door a polite extra shove open. And sure, my university newspaper would print articles with inflammatory feminist rhetoric that began with "Men, rape is wrong!".

Yes, these and other stupid techniques were actually alienating the men that they needed on their side and so they consigned themselves to an adversarial campaign that they could not win.

But then I watch a video like the one here and I realize that, yeah, the feminists were right to protest their treatment. There is no "reverse discrimination". There is no bias against white men. If Janet Jackson being vilified and fined because someone ripped off her clothes doesn't prove something is wrong, I don't what does.

White men have all the opportunity they could ever want. No one criticizes Stephen Harper for wearing loose t-shirts that don't look masculine enough. No one worries about the area of chest flesh shown off by a man. You never hear about a politician sounding too much like our overbearing or too-distant fathers.

Oh, what I would give to have heard an editorial start with, "Ralph Klein will lose the votes of women this time around after his drunken tirade in a mission shelter. He's simply reminding too many women of their drunken, molesting uncles."

No, I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan. While she and her husband started out with a bold, progressive plan to bring national health care to their country, they wimped out and Clinton is now owned by the private health care industry. But seriously, why did we have all of this ridiculous analysis of her clothing, her aura of "calculation", her "nagging" voice and all of this other nonsense?

Long way to go. Long way to do.

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