Not Feminism 101

[nimelennar]

By contrast:

I’ve been reading an absolutely massive fanfiction of the Young Justice cartoon called “With This Ring.” The word count is in the low 7-digits.

The current plot is that a male character has just been turned female against his will. That, in itself, has the potential to be problematic, but I’ve seen that kind of thing handled well, as well as being handled poorly, so that, in itself, wasn’t the issue.

So, the narrator/main character started referring to the transformed character as “she” rather than “he,” despite still thinking of himself as male and, in fact, being quite distraught at being in a female body. Again, not necessarily an issue, as the author is not the main character (even though said character is something of a self-insert).

No, where it actually started to come apart was when the author started to defend that decision in the comment thread, first saying something to the effect of “the person who first made a distinction between gender and biological sex had done a lot of harm to humanity,” and then doubled down by saying that he wouldn’t recognize any identity that a person claimed that didn’t correspond to their current body, be that a gender identity or an identity as an attack helicopter.

If you’re not familiar with the latter reference, it’s an insidious meme that attempts to delegitimize gender identities by equating them to a choice, and a rejection of reality (“Well, if he¹ identifies as a woman, I want to be an attack helicopter!”), rather than an acceptance that the reality of someone’s mind doesn’t necessarily match that of their body.

Anyway, given that the forum where the fiction was being posted was founded by a trans woman, you can imagine this didn’t go over well with the moderation team. The author got suspended for a day, came back, lost his appeal, doubled down on the “attack helicopter” meme, and took his story to a deferent forum to post.

Had he shown any sign of self-examination, any hint that he thought that he might have been in the wrong, I might have kept reading, but when someone reacts like he did, it’s because they’re unwilling to consider that they might be wrong.

So I guess that’s one fewer web serial that I’m following now.

¹Mis-gendering present as an example of the meme-poster’s mindset, not mine.

[ChuckV]

See: Dire Straits, Money for Nothing

See: Dire Straits, Les Boys

[chgoliz]

FAQ: The Status of the Shits Women Have Left to Give

[nimelennar]

I’d be surprised if they even have a single damn left.

[teknocholer]

I’d be surprised if they even have a single damn left.

Or a plugged nickel or a fig.

[chgoliz]

Why I See Meat-Eating As A Feminist Issue—And I Wish More Women Did

[Melizmatic]

I fluv McSweeney’s…

[chgoliz]

And the correct musical accompaniment:

[nimelennar]

Gah.

I had just gotten that out of my head!

[gadgetgirl]

Oh sweet FSM, no.

One way controlling, abusive men control their partners is via diet. And in a controlling, abusive relationship with an abuser who professes to be left-wing, food type restriction is the preferred path.

I was vegetarian for twelve years – starting with when my ex decided we should be, based on a Mother Jones article he said he read at the library and wouldn’t give me the reference details for so I could read it. He’d already talked me off the pills for my chronic anemia because they were “not natural” and therefore could be secretly bad for me. His father was a doctor – he knew how to talk about pills to make them all sound bad.

I only resolved that anemia a few years ago – turns out I don’t absorb B12 well, and you need that to absorb iron. So back then I was meat-free – the most common source of B12 – and off iron supplements.

We weren’t quite vegan, but close to it. At least, I was, lest I get lectured with horror stories about the evils of meat and dairy. I have good reason to suspect he ate as he liked when I was at work: friends who would have known had no idea he was vegetarian, I learned after he left.

So I’m exhausted all the time, can’t think straight, no energy, will do anything to avoid a fight, and underslept as well (which is another very common method of controlling someone; physical force is way down the list and typically only shows up later in a relationship).

Another example not to do with me: the woman who was constantly bullied by her partner for eating so much, only to learn from one of his co-workers that he had a huge lunch every day, which is why he could eat less than her at dinner.

And then she found his anorexia porn.

Then above and beyond all that, include how marginalised communities like indigenous communities tend to consume meat more than the rest of the population – meat the community has caught themselves, pretty much the opposite of factory farming.

How are you going to say you support Indigenous rights and especially Indigenous women’s rights after you’ve declared only real feminists are vegan?

[MarjaE]

Thank you for that. I have chronic folliculitis, as well as dizziness, and wonder if I have some kind of anemia myself.

[chgoliz]

How are you going to say you support Indigenous rights and especially Indigenous women’s rights after you’ve declared only real feminists are vegan?

But she never said that, as far as I can see.

It’s an argument that dovetails well with, for example, Peter Singer’s work. Animals are one step down from women and people of color, in terms of how they’re perceived as existing for the use of others.

It’s like how people who torture and/or kill animals when they’re young have a tendency to grow up to be violent criminals. It’s a harbinger.

This doesn’t mean that all men who eat meat are sexist. But that’s not what she’s saying. She realized that as a woman, she has a lot in common with animals in our society, and it motivated her to treat animals the way she would want to be treated.

[knoxblox]

and it motivated her to treat animals the way she would want to be treated.

This is something that would be a huge pill for USA society to swallow, doing away with factory meat. More so than reversing pollution.

[knoxblox]

Art History Gallery

[infundibulum]

It’s an argument that dovetails well with, for example, Peter Singer’s work. Animals are one step down from women and people of color, in terms of how they’re perceived as existing for the use of others.

I don’t necessarily buy this, but having lived rural, and now in an impoverished Deep South state, it is really hard not to see diet changes as feminist and anti-racist. When I lived in IA, I can tell you now that the people drinking the most hog polluted water and breathing high pig-shit particulate air were not factory farm owners. And those owners bought all kinds of exceptions from state environmental laws. Same here in LA. All that agriculture run off goes somewhere, and hogs are among the worst causes. But factory farm owners aren’t sustenance fishing eutrophied lakes.

So I guess maybe I don’t see that as intrinsically tied to meat-eating. But I do regard the factory farmed meat industry in the same way as I look at oil: the worst excesses of capitalism, willing to burn everything and everyone to wring the last red cents out of a dying planet.

[gadgetgirl]

Animals are one step down from women and people of color, in terms of how they’re perceived as existing for the use of others.

On the contrary. My ex said he should have got a dog instead of me, because at least a dog was trainable.

It’s just not a good argument to me. It’s culturally insensitive and insulated.

[teknocholer]

“I’m so sorry, I no speak ze English.”
“Ah! That is no problem to me, I also speak French.”
“I speak no French.”
“But I just heard you –”
“I speak no French, monsieur. Good day to you.”

[AndyHilmer]

Apologies if you’ve all seen this.

Ursula K. Le Guin on Being a Man

[chgoliz]

That is horrible. No question, you were in an abusive relationship, and I’m very glad you got away safely.

The tool he used to control and abuse you happened to involve diet. But that’s all it was: his tool of choice. There’s enough of us here to list a entire page of innocuous household items or normal activities that were manipulated to cause us harm. The fault lies with the violent assholes, not whatever they happen to use to cause pain.

[gadgetgirl]

The tool he used to control and abuse you happened to involve diet. But that’s all it was: his tool of choice

No, it wasn’t, and this seems to be the part you’re missing out on.

Where my family is from, and all through central and eastern Europe, calling someone a pig or a dog (or calling them worse than that) is a Very Bad Thing. Calling them a cow isn’t much better. You’d be better off swearing at them.

Seriously. I was in a class once where a man in our group discussion said, “should we let sleeping dogs lie?” and the Polish woman who had just contributed thought he was taking a dig at her by using that phrase. She was so upset she reprted him to the prof and quit the course.

That might sound extreme to you, but I totally understand where she was coming from, even though I also understand the man meant no offence.

The argument, “hey, traditionally your kind has been seen as barely better than domesticated animals, so now you have empathy for domesticated animals, right?” is very culturally insensitive. Especially to people who have had their personhood questioned, but to the general population in these cultures too. It is just not done.