Itty bitty waferthin feminist link

[sqbr]

Came across this post about men's roles in discussions of sexism and gender, which sums up my rather incoherent feelings reasonably well in a nicely nonconfrontational way(*). Found via the quite interesting The Hathor Legacy (One of their bloggers is from Perth! And yet, bizarrely, I don't think we've met), linked via Home on the Strange which is ending soon :(

And thus ends your stream of consciousness end-of-the-work-day linksdump for today.

(*)You know me, always about the nonconfrontational.

Comments

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

It is quite a decent article. It's a terrific example of how to write about this sort of topic (unconscious privilege) without too much aggression -- a topic I complained about somewhat unforgivably in a recent post of my own of which I feel slightly ashamed, truly*.

"But the fact that almost everything in our popular culture is expressed from a default male point of view helps.

Here again, something I have to needlessly quibble with! I don't think "default male point of view" is the correct way to say it. More accurately, almost every social experience is mediated by one of several filters of expectation that are quite rigidly determined by prevailing social relations. Including the "default female" filter of expectation. It's just that "default female" - the view that informs the covers of magazines targeting women, for example - is one of many products of a male-dominated reality that doesn't properly critique that domination.

* Despite standing by what I wrote - it was quite a direct expression of my feelings when I read a certain type of political statement - I still felt like a ruling-class scab for breaking ranks with those who express perfect solidarity with those who suffer systematic prejudice and oppression regardless of how they carry themselves rhetorically.

And how I feel (and what I expressed about it) corresponds in an ugly way to similar defensive expressions I hear from white Australians regarding our culpability as the invaders of Australia for the current condition of indigenous people in the country, etc. etc. "But I don't oppress aborigines / didn't commit genocide!" is much the same thing ...

[(Anonymous)]

I think you have too much time on your hands!

[terrycat.livejournal.com]

Goods link. It is nice to read something which can explain a fairly emotional issue without becoming involved in the emotion too deeply.