The discussion here helped me reanalyze my own attitude towards this kind of issue.
I don’t think I ever had a serious intention to back up my arguments or win a debate when I posted on the issue of why men hate feminism. I am not sure what to do when faced the extreme anti feminism that I commonly find on the internet. I have a number of readers on my blog who will make totalizing comments about all women or all feminists. Ex, one commenter said that women have no ability to sustain interest in topics that don’t pertain to relationships between individuals. Other commenters say that feminsm will lead to the downfall of civilization for reasons including that it lets women pursue their fleeting sexual impulses, which are destructive.
i suppose I do not really know how to handle this attitude. Ordinarily, I ignore them since I operate under the assumption that people that expouse such viewpoints are not prone to being swayed by any argument. They are attached to their bias, in a sense. I am not sure if it is possible for a feminist to have a reasonable discussion with a person that is anti feminist and that hates nearly all aspects of feminism in the western world.
Personally I’d say you shouldn’t “be a feminist” at all. Have goals (whether relating to women’s rights or anything else) and try to find the best ways to reach them. Don’t put a political label on yourself that will constrain your thinking and/or be socially and emotionally costly to change. Though given that you seem to have invested a lot of your identity in feminism it’s probably already hard to change.
Yes, there are obvious advantages to overtly identifying with some established group, but if you identify too strongly and become a capital-F Feminist (or a capital D-Democrat, or even a capital-R Rationalist) there’s a real danger that conforming to the label will get in the way of actually achieving your original goals.
It’s analogous to the idea that you shouldn’t use dark side methods in the service of rationality—ie that you shouldn’t place too much trust in your own ability to be virtuously hypocritical.
It’s almost certainly not possible for you to have a discussion about feminism with such a person.
I haven’t read your blog, but perhaps you should reconsider the kind of community of readers you’re trying to build there. If you tend to attract antifeminist posters, and you don’t also attract profeminist ones who help you argue your position in the comments, that sounds like a totally unproductive community and you might want to take explicit steps to remodel it, e.g. by changing your posts, controlling the allowed posters, or starting from scratch if you have to.
I am not sure what to do when faced the extreme anti feminism that I commonly find on the internet.
If these commenters are foolish enough to disparage and denigrate any political role to women generally, then do them a favor and flame them to a crisp. If that’s not enough to drive them off your site, then feel free to ban them.
These are thinly-veiled attempts at intimidation which are reprehensible in the extreme, and will not be taken lightly by anyone who cares seriously about any kind of politics other than mere alignment to power and privilege—which is most everyone in this day and age. Especially so when coming from people of a Western male background—who are thus embedded in a complex power structure rife with systemic biases, which discriminates towards all kinds of minority groups.
Simply stated, you don’t have to be nice to these people. Quite the opposite, in fact. Sometimes that’s all they’ll understand.
The discussion here helped me reanalyze my own attitude towards this kind of issue.
I don’t think I ever had a serious intention to back up my arguments or win a debate when I posted on the issue of why men hate feminism. I am not sure what to do when faced the extreme anti feminism that I commonly find on the internet. I have a number of readers on my blog who will make totalizing comments about all women or all feminists. Ex, one commenter said that women have no ability to sustain interest in topics that don’t pertain to relationships between individuals. Other commenters say that feminsm will lead to the downfall of civilization for reasons including that it lets women pursue their fleeting sexual impulses, which are destructive.
i suppose I do not really know how to handle this attitude. Ordinarily, I ignore them since I operate under the assumption that people that expouse such viewpoints are not prone to being swayed by any argument. They are attached to their bias, in a sense. I am not sure if it is possible for a feminist to have a reasonable discussion with a person that is anti feminist and that hates nearly all aspects of feminism in the western world.
Personally I’d say you shouldn’t “be a feminist” at all. Have goals (whether relating to women’s rights or anything else) and try to find the best ways to reach them. Don’t put a political label on yourself that will constrain your thinking and/or be socially and emotionally costly to change. Though given that you seem to have invested a lot of your identity in feminism it’s probably already hard to change.
Shouldn’t? According to which utility function? There are plenty of advantages to taking a label.
Yes, there are obvious advantages to overtly identifying with some established group, but if you identify too strongly and become a capital-F Feminist (or a capital D-Democrat, or even a capital-R Rationalist) there’s a real danger that conforming to the label will get in the way of actually achieving your original goals.
It’s analogous to the idea that you shouldn’t use dark side methods in the service of rationality—ie that you shouldn’t place too much trust in your own ability to be virtuously hypocritical.
Advantages to outwardly signalling group loyalty, perhaps, but to internal self-identification?
As mentioned above, this particular person does seem unusually good at not being so constrained.
It’s almost certainly not possible for you to have a discussion about feminism with such a person.
I haven’t read your blog, but perhaps you should reconsider the kind of community of readers you’re trying to build there. If you tend to attract antifeminist posters, and you don’t also attract profeminist ones who help you argue your position in the comments, that sounds like a totally unproductive community and you might want to take explicit steps to remodel it, e.g. by changing your posts, controlling the allowed posters, or starting from scratch if you have to.
Ban them.
If these commenters are foolish enough to disparage and denigrate any political role to women generally, then do them a favor and flame them to a crisp. If that’s not enough to drive them off your site, then feel free to ban them.
These are thinly-veiled attempts at intimidation which are reprehensible in the extreme, and will not be taken lightly by anyone who cares seriously about any kind of politics other than mere alignment to power and privilege—which is most everyone in this day and age. Especially so when coming from people of a Western male background—who are thus embedded in a complex power structure rife with systemic biases, which discriminates towards all kinds of minority groups.
Simply stated, you don’t have to be nice to these people. Quite the opposite, in fact. Sometimes that’s all they’ll understand.