A False Step

[poliphilo]

I got a savaging on a Feminist forum the other day. It was my own stupid fault. I'm too old to run with that particular crowd. Besides, I didn't study the subject at university and I don't use- or respect- the jargon.

I consider myself a feminist. If feminism means believing in the equality of the sexes, I'm enthusiastically for it. 

But I should have realised that the gnomic, slightly mischievous comments I go in for aren't going to wash on this particular site (with its ginormous rulebook)- and that you can't challenge someone (especially if if you're a white male) in that culture of victimhood without being accused of  "exercising privilege" and "silencing" them. 

A black American woman had accused a white European woman of racism. The white European woman had replied that the black American woman wasn't taking cultural differences into consideration and that her view was "US-centric". At least I think that's what had happened. The mods then intervened to rule that if a black person accuses a white person of racism that is gospel and no comeback is possible. The white person must take her whipping in patience and humility and afterwards kiss the rod.

I said I thought this was unfair- and that US-centrism is a real issue.  Are black American women really so fragile that they need protecting from all disagreement? Isn't it kind of insulting to assume they can't hold their own in debate?

I'll admit I didn't express myself as clearly or fully at the time. I spoke off the cuff. I should have been more careful- not that it would have made much difference if I had.

I thought I'd stir up a bit of controversy. I was wrong. The pack turned on me and tore me to shreds.

I am- among other things- a white, cracker racialist who likes to wave his dick around.

I'm talking about this here because after a while I realised there was no point in trying to explain myself over there. No-one  was interested in debate, only in parading their righteousness and calling me names. When you're in a hole it's foolish to go on digging.

I'll admit I felt a bit sorry for myself at first- but I'm over it now. I took a nice walk round a lake yesterday and had fish and chips in a garden centre and visited with my niece and nephew and that sort of cleared my head. 

Comments

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

Humanism.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I like that one...

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

It's the one espoused by Kurt Vonnegut.

Feminism has never appealed to me for the very reason that it excludes me. I am not femme, female, so how can I be a feminist? Only if I was also a masculinist, which is sort of ridiculous.

In the short term it probably has value, since the femme side of things is the side that needs to catch up/take back what it has lost/never had. In the long run though, I think humanist is the better goal.

And when we meet aliens, perhaps we'll have to change that to life-ist? Under that umbrella though would include all animals? One would hope so. Plant life? That's pushing it. Perhaps sentience-ist ?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My problem with humanism- as a label- is it's just not specific enough. It's been around too long and means too many things. In the 16th century a humanist was someone (like Thomas More) who supplemented and critiqued Christian orthodoxy through a reading of the newly available Greek and Roman texts. What do Thomas More and Kurt Vonnegut have in common- apart from being, in general terms, fairly good eggs?

Feminism, on the other hand, has a fairly clear and pointed goal- or at least it did. I'd be happy to go on calling myself a feminist- only the waters have been muddied and most people (including most women) now see only the negative connotations.