Comments on: Dear Other Internet Feminists

By: Immir

Immir — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:46:10 +0000

Hallelujah.

*Also I googled ‘women are’ just for fun & THIS was right at the top : http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/
WTF, I don’t actually think it’s a joke either…

By: James

James — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:34:07 +0000

It isn’t true, though: it’s darkest in the middle of night, several hours prior to dawn.

By: Venomous Woe

Venomous Woe — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:01:29 +0000

This is probably going to sound corny, but there’s a quote from The Dark Knight that describes this situation pretty well:

“The night is darkest just before the dawn, and I promise you, the dawn is coming.” -Harvey Dent.

By: isme

isme — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:42:32 +0000

Oh…almost restores your faith, doesn’t it?

By: mcol

mcol — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:18:29 +0000

I see. At any rate I think it establishes the point that if this is the FIRST thing to come up when ‘women are’ is googled, then feminists still have a long way to go. I agree with the sentiment of this thread that any differences between and among feminists are of secondary importance to the main goal we share in common: female equality.

By: polly styrene

polly styrene — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:48:41 +0000

M*n are better than wom*n is the creation of some dude with a book to sell, who decided MRA’s were the perfect audience because they were gullible, sorry highly literate. It is the creation of some dude called Dax Herrera, better known as “Dick Masterson”.

http://www.seologs.com/?p=397

By: mcol

mcol — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:06:27 +0000

Just googled ‘women are’. First result? A site all about how men are better than women. Didn’t waste the energy it would take me to click on the link in order to see whether it was a joke page or not, but I think your point has been made – we (feminists) have way, way bigger fish to fry.

By: rachel cervantes

rachel cervantes — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:57:32 +0000

Best post I’ve read in a loooooong time, bar none.

By: Bad habits « Bean

Bad habits « Bean — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:45:54 +0000

[...] for example, her recent post calling for feminist bloggers to stop attacking each other and focus on the “real enemy.” It might sound good on the surface…and if she [...]

By: pg

pg — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:48:23 +0000

Why do we rip each other up? I thought about this a lot after the IBTP forum blew up, and then Lacey’s subsequent forum also closing. It seems practically a given that feminist forums will eventually implode. I don’t have answers but here are some theories (which probably apply to blog-fights as well as forums).

We all have real-world needs for safety, empathy, community, AND autonomy.

We desire control – fighting the feminist fight makes us all too aware of our lack of control and justice in the “real world.” We try to carve out spaces online where we have some control. But, this leads to…

Purity tests and witch-hunts – this desire for control leads some of us to try to micromanage each other. We have our pet causes and anyone who doesn’t follow the party line gets smacked. If one writer allows comments on her blog from someone another blogger doesn’t approve of, delinking and ostracizing follow. There’s little room for humor, discussion, negotiation, or agreeing to be allies on issues where we intersect.

Being anonymous and mistrust – back to control, partially – we get screwed IRL, and are expecting to get screwed online too. This is exacerbated by the reality of trolls/4channers/MRAs/ etc. who really will try to hack your forum/blog, threaten you with violence, attack you with porn, etc. It’s hard to know who to trust, if anyone. And our own ability to be anonymous means we don’t have to own our words, we can lash out in ways that we never would if our words were linked to our faces and ‘real lives.’

Insistence on “safe spaces” – this is a problem because creating safe spaces online is extremely difficult. Interacting with other people is always risky. Someone might hurt your feelings. Someone might say she’s a woman when really she’s a man.

Lacey talked about an inherent problem with feminist forums – someone has to run the thing. Then the members who have lots of real-world experience with being screwed by various hierarchical structures, feel like they are being forced to submit to yet another hierarchy, with them on the bottom – even though at some level everyone knows the forum was a labor of love, meant to make a place for feminists to talk. It seems inevitable that some members will replicate their own personal issues with authority, family/mommy, school-aged popularity contests, etc.