Feminist Coven

Yo, dawgs! Feminist here!

I'm thinking of making a thread on IJBM 2 for Girl Writes What, since she has a thread here praising her. Terrible arguments disguised to appear intelligent are a pet peeve of mine.

@Randomtropeloser I've never actually minded men, calling themselves feminist if they genuinely believe in it(not just want praise for it) you must be in a pretty strict branch.

edited 17th May '13 6:56:44 PM by phantom1

I prefer the term Equalist, as in "All sexes are equal." I like it because it doesn't suggest any one sex needs to be defended on principle because everyone's looking down on it, and also because it avoids the "Icy supremacist bitch and femme! male slaves" stereotype.

@Password Forgetting Troper

I guess the first one is okay (I still prefer feminist though). But I've never found anyone who believes the second stereotype to be worth my time (I should work to convince them, but those types tend to refuse to be convinced).

Yeah, the idea that such people in any way represent the mainstream of feminist theory or the vast majority of professed feminists is pretty outlandish to me. As for not wanting to call yourself a feminist, I would like to point out that most of the problems that face men ultimately spring from beliefs and systems that inordinately oppress women spilling over into the mistreatment of me. True equality of the sexes/genders is absolutely the end goal, but I don't think that acknowledging that one of the sides is at a greater disadvantage is in any way doing a disservice to the other.

A man speaking here, by the way.

@Password: Yeah, but Equalist has been tainted by Legend of Korra...

"Equalist" was tainted by sexist douchebags long before that. XP

Feminism has a long and distinguished history. There've been a lot of really awesome historical feminists.

edited 26th May '13 9:47:01 PM by CassidyTheDevil

Indeed. I just wish that a better name was chosen from the start.

What should have been chosen instead? The term "feminist" was coined at a time when women's disadvantage compared to men was extreme and obvious. "Equalist" would be too vague since gender is far from the only source of inequality there is.

What we really need a better, non-douchebag-infested term for is the movement that is primarily concerned with men's issues.

Anti-sexist? (But that might take away the end goal, of gender equality a bit). But yeah Equalist could be about any inequality (and it reminds me of the group in Legend of Korra too).

edited 27th May '13 7:47:58 PM by phantom1

Gender egalitarian?

It was hard to believe for me, but Polish military in 1920s and 1930s was far more progressive when it comes to treatment of female soldiers than not only modern Polish military but many other modern militaries. Women, while still minority, served at frontlines like in Israel, and Germans had to create POW camps for female soldiers. They served even in units strongly associated with masculinity like cavarly, also as officers.

@Katsura Hmm that's interesting.

First woman to be granted the highest Polish military medal called Virtuti Militari, earned it during Napoleonic Wars, and the medal was established in 1790s.

@Katsura So are you proud of this (in as much as you can be proud of something you didn't do, by association) how well you did in the past, or ashamed (in so much as you can be ashamed through association) that your country isn't living up to it now?

Rather ashamed we are not up to standards that could be achieved in less modern times.

@Katsura It is kind of annoying when you feel like you've gone backwards.

I'm working on my own fantasy setting and there are two realms (which originally used to be single one) in which rulers are females and only females can inherit the throne. The tradition is followed as well by some of noble families, especially those who descend from royalty. As the Realms border frontier regions ripe for colonization, and rulers favor their female relatives when granting lands (males get smaller pieces of land if lucky), strict matrilinear society becomes more and more prevalent. There are still some regions though when it is varied, and there are even some strictly patrilinear noble families.

My in-universe justification: Rulers claim descent from important human species (but close enough to interbreed with other humans) that influenced greatly the culture of the realms and it is important for traditional reasons that the direct descent from the first rulers of that species is maintained. And mother is always certain, as Romans said.

I suggest reading up on the Haida; they have a long tradition of complex matrilineal inheritance as part of a scheme to avoid inbreeding.

As for such things like names, from which culture (European, if possible) I could borrow them? Celtic names would probably work, but if there is other culture in which women had high degree of freedom and with mythology related to elves, I would like to know since Celtic themes are kind overdone. I'll use Slavic themes for different culture in the same fantasy setting, by the way.

So is anyone here a member of Jezebel.com? Just curious. My username there is literatebrit.

I'm a male feminist.

This feminist appreciates it when guys count themselves as such. Ironically, I also appreciate it when guys take a long hard look at the feminist movement and say "I'm an ally, but I won't claim the label 'feminist' because that belongs to women." Ultimately, it's the same mindset.

You're right; I probably don't have any claim to the term. But I respect women, and I am very tired of seeing "in the kitchen" jokes. It angers me.