The problem with this statement is that the people who want man-hating and for all males to be castrated DO call themselves feminists. It's not the fault of males for these people using something that should be good as a shield for their hateful opinions, just the same as it isn't the fault of the females who genuinely want an equalitarian status. Frankly I think everyone who wants people to get to be people without boundaries and unfair double standards should just band up under the humanist flag.

I am egalatarian as fuck, and I think everyone should get a fair chance at everything. But every time I hear 'feminist' I do cringe back and go on the defensive, because I've been attacked for wanting to help just because I had the 'misfortune' of being 'incorrectly' born with a Y chromosome. It goes both ways, if you want respect you have to give it, you can't just say "And fuck you if you don't agree with me because it makes you stupid."

I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm not in the "cut off all penises" camp. I'm rather attached to mine, after all, literally and figuratively.

And a furry defending their negative position on a group of people by complaining about the extreme elements who happen to go by the same name? PLEASE tell me you can see the problem with this..?

If you look for things to be offended by, you'll always find them.

I wasn't defending "my negative position". I constantly do work and give my time and some of what little money I have helping the causes I believe in, one of which is equality. I find it amusing that you are trying to demonize me when I am an ally of the point of view you profess. This is why people end up just giving up on trying to be good to other people, if you don't do it exactly the same way they want you to then you're wrong and stupid, and usually evil as well.

The reason for that explanation was because you acted like anyone who is wary of someone who proclaims themselves a feminist for fear of being treated as a subhuman is stupid and misogynistic. It's completely fair for a person to have a self preservation instinct when they've been damaged by something in the past. It's also possible to take it too far and apply an undeserved hatred to the things that have hurt you in the past as well, which I don't condone.

TL;DR version: I'm pro-equality, I'm just anti inflammatory attacks as a method of spreading awareness. If you alienate your target audience you're more likely to turn them into enemies than allies.

I'm all for women being treated as equals, after all, we were all created equally under God (I'm aware not many on FA believe this as I do.), and there should be no reason that one side or the other is given special treatment, be it Negative or Positive. Heck, I'm fairly sure if we all just stopped thinking with our chromosomes, we might be a little closer to being better as a species.

Cue the person who will reply to this calling me an idiot.

you've done the work for me! i thank you, and shall retire to my den and gin.

Like I care what you think of me.

Knock it off.

i'm not a feminist. i judge people and cultures on their merits and personal opinions, that's not feminism.

it's just not being fucking stupid.

Remember Poe's Law, brother... sometimes it's tough to tell a "straw feminist" or a parody/caricature of same from the genuine article... but I feel ya. At the end of the day, we all breathe the same air and bleed the same color- sexual dimorphism be damned.

Though Orin's only half right... judging folk for ANY reason isn't "not being fucking stupid," it's being an elitist jerk.

Judging is a perfectly acceptable, normal human response. Or are you saying you'd shake hands with a rapist with the same friendliness you would a Red Cross volunteer?

I'd have to have been at the trial and know beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt he was a rapist. I'm saying appearances can be deceiving and that I believe in "innocent until proven guilty."

That and I know how much it sucks to be on the business end of the elitist jerkwads who like to throw around terms like "unwarranted self-importance."

"Unimportant? Nine hundred years of time and space, I never met ANYONE who was 'unimportant.'"
-The Eleventh Doctor, "A Christmas Carol"

You just saw him rape somebody. He gets up and thrusts out his hand to you to shake.

If you do NOT shake his hand, you just judged him. In a correct manner, but you just did. "Judging" does not only refer to the courtroom. It means the action of YOU, as a person, forming an opinion of somebody else. I am a HUMONGOUS judger. You have NO idea how much I judge people. But as the old saying goes, "With the stick you measure, you will be measured". I judge people, and I expect them to judge me by the same (sometimes unnecessarily strict, I admit to that) standards.

Calling someone an elitist jerkwad is a judgement, as is calling someone a good friend. That said, I think we might be straying a wee bit off-topic with this discussion. Dunno why I even started it...

True... on all counts. It's all gravy... I just mean that it's not okay to be a dick about judging people, nor is it okay to judge people unfairly.

Too many wars get started because somebody decided they were better than somebody else.

And truly, my original point was to remember Poe's Law- sometimes it's hard to tell a parody or "strawman" from the geniune article, because there really ARE a few bad apples who make everybody else look like the extremist dingbats the opposition wishes to see them as.

It's why I use different terms for them. Feminist for, well, feminists, and feminazi for the female equivalent of an extreme chauvinist; the "cut off all dicks" type. It's not accepted terminology, but the way I see it, people don't go around calling apples "pears".

"Straw Feminist" is less invocative of Godwin's Law(which states that all arguments, should they persist long enough, will attempt to draw comparisons to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler), but yeah... I see what you're tryin' to say.

It appears the "pro-equality" fellow up there has blocked me, so I'll post my response here instead:

Kinda the opposite, actually: I defended my attempts at trying to be feminist to someone at a forum and being offended by having him try and dismiss the whole movement only to have him switch threads and post links to videos of the kind of radical penis-chopping extremists I mentioned, getting a bunch of people (including a couple who I'd long considered a friend) to go off on how stupid feminism is. It offended me, it angered me, and this journal was the result.

I'm still trying to get a handle on the idea, I admit. I'm as guilty of writing feminism off as "a bunch of radical loonies" in the past as anyone. Hell, since posting this journal I've come close to deleting it twice already since I'm still not a hundred percent sure of WHERE I stand on it. I usually DO when it comes to making angry, bombastic statements like this...but maybe I DO need to take a stand against the ignorant shits who offend me for once in my fucking life. Maybe I SHOULD go with my gut reaction for once. It beats sitting around quietly clucking my tongue about how bad things are and doing nothing and saying nothing. I live in a town where casual racism and misogyny (and misandry, too...it is fucking TOUGH to be a divorced single male out here) are the norm.

I'm not saying feminist is ALL I am...I'm just saying that it's a real concern and one that shouldn't be dismissed outright because it's become a buzzword for negative stereotypes.

I believe there is a huge difference between a feminist and a feminazi. A feminist wants equal rights, and is quite right in this belief. A feminazi is just as bad as a chauvinist. That's, at least, the terminology I use to distinguish between the two.

I don't think that sexism of any sort is acceptable. I grew up in a very balanced household, and any sexist behavior was rapidly dissuaded. It's true, I DO tend to focus on certain bits of a woman's anatomy these days, but I comfort myself by thinking I'll grow out of it.

In a way, I agree with Orin. I don't judge people by gender or skin color. I judge people for how they treat their neighbors. S'how I was raised, and I'm damn glad I was.

Man, people take offense really easily. How can someone watch you and take any offense at this? I've known you via your FA account for years now (oh god, how long HAS it been?) and I know perfectly well its your way of "spitting out the poison" of being angry. And I can read between the lines and knew exactly what you meant.

Being a female and knowing females who've been in horrible situations (and are incredibly scarred because of it) its a HUGE topic of concern. From self esteem issues (we ARE taught to hate our bodies, and given ridiculous ideas on what they "should look like- >^.^< Its one of my passionate topics having severely suffered from low self esteem myself), to the simple fact that we feel we need to have a weapon on hand in order to ride the bus at night, or having to put up with people of literally any culture, creed, race etc eyeballing us in the worst ways because we wore something that just makes US feel good about ourselves.

But its a deeply seated idea, I mean, we've come so far on racism and look at how many people STILL have deep seated prejudices with a given race or creed.

But then again, its horrible that the only people passionate enough to raise public awareness about this, sometimes are the man haters. :/

I do love a quote I read recently "Hate does not defeat hate, love defeats hate." And no matter how hippie that sounds, its true, but its also widely avoided. Its easier to hate than to understand.

ANnnnnnnnnd once again I ended up kinda rambling on. >^.~< That's okay, I know YOU don't mind.

...Hell, these days even hippies are hated. Worst they ever did was get stoned and forget to shower, which also describes 2/3 of the Internet (typically, the same people saying "Fuck the hippies").

Oh, and tell people to love the earth and each other. So, wasted, stinky Planeteers who have loads of sex.

...a-ha, so THAT'S where the hate comes from..!

XD Isn't it thought!? Everyone just needs to get laid and relax.

People TOTALLY under-utilize masturbation, of any sexual orientation that has a sex drive. Its amazing how much easier it is to be nice when you aren't cranky.

And I too love the irony that the typical person who says fuck the hippies is VERRRYYYY close to being one, if not indistinguishable .