For Feminists, the Time is Now February 3, 2009 Jill I have an article in the Guardian about Barack Obama. You should read it. You should not, however, read the comments. Unless you want to laugh at a bunch of dudes complaining about their ex wives and their castration fears.
Unless you want to laugh at a bunch of dudes complaining about their ex wives and their castration fears. yeah, that pretty much was my plan for the day.
Wow, some of those guys seem like they really, really need therapy. This fixation with their ex-wife is destructive.
The comments remind me of the Awesome Names for MRA blogs all over again. Particularly: “Emasculated with a Blow-Torch and Left to Die in the Kitchenware” (that one’s one of mine. thank you! thank you very much! Haha) “Feminists Stole My Precious Bodily Fluids” “My Mom, From Whose Basement I Type This, Is a Feminazi ” And, from the glorious second volume: “On The Run From SHE-RA TEH SABRE-TOOTHED VAGINA” “Woe, For I Hath Fathered a Girl-Child, and She Readeth the Hellcat Dworkin ” “You May HAVE Penis Envy, But A MAN Invented It!” I could go on and on… Anyway, sorry these guys are such assholes, Jill.
Anyway, sorry these guys are such assholes, Jill. They’re actually providing me with all kinds of entertainment, so I’m good with it. And I do love the MRA Blog Name meme. Amazing.
Well, that’s why comment is free over there at the Guardian. And those comments are worth it! Does anyone have MRA bingo yet?
If I ever forget why we still need feminism, I go read YouTube comment strings. The Guardian string ain’t got nothin. (Although it’s hilariously stereotypical. Really? A castration complex, ex-wife resentment, “a crisis is no time for women’s issues,” and “feminism is marginal; stop trying” all in the same string? Bingo!!)
Excellent article, Jill, and with some good points to boot. I read some of the comments, and it reminded me much of the old, bitter, and DIVORCED tradesmen I worked with up here in Northern Alberta. Seriously, how thick headed can you get? I do hope that in matters regarding women’s health and reproductive justice, that Obama doesn’t bow down to the Repugnicans, especially considering, from what I read, that the measure to include funding for contraceptives said not one word about abortion, and yet the repugnicans went on and on about abortion. Methinks someone has something of an obsession problem. Also, thanks, Natalia, for those links. Awesome, hilarious titles.
Given the Guardian-reader stereotype of granola eating, sandal wearing hippy liberals, and being a Guardian reader myself, the level of misogyny at Cif leaves me speechless. On most other issues the dialogue is generally pretty progressive or at least coherent, but give them a feminist perspective and suddenly all women are castrating bitches out to steal innocent men’s sperm to claim child benefit. It’s like reading the Daily Mail. Did anyone see the article about the government’s proposal to cancel the passports and driving licences of absentee parents who don’t pay their child support? Granted there are some problems with that policy, but 900 comments about women being devious golddiggers? Absolutely mind-boggling. And the sub-thread of a bunch of strangers telling a 20 year old that she can’t blame the father for not paying up because she should have had an abortion is priceless. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/27/child-support-absent-fathers-passports)
Great article, Jill. Thanks for reminding us all to stay on our toes and keep an eye on what’s happening, when it’d be so much easier to just relax and celebrate what we’ve got. And I agree with the feelings of everyone posting about the comments; I’m torn between laughing until I cry and crying until I laugh.
You had to dare me to read their goofy-ass replies, now dincha? 😛 Yeah, Natalia, my MRA blog name of choice for that thread: Rod McManly Pants Does Not Care What You Think
Post a comment there, mocking them. I did. I think that article must have been linked by some woman-haters site, seriously.
Damn, read comments, now it’s going to take all day to get the stupid out of my head. How very frustrating. It was a great article.
I ignored the comments. I’ve been a Guardian reader for most of my life (much more so since they went online), and though they’ve historically been the most progressive of British papers, that doesn’t inoculate them against MRA trolls — the father’s rights types in the UK are in the Labour party as well as in the ranks of the Tories. Anyhow, great op-ed, Jill, well done! And a hearty amen to this: The proof of Obama’s feminism isn’t just in his legislative agenda – although it’s certainly there too – but in his commitment to listening to and sharing power with women. Hilda Solis represents the congressional district just southeast of my own — she’s been a terrific voice in Los Angeles progressive and feminist circles for a long time. Next to HRC herself, she’s my favorite of the cabinet picks.
RockSci, So depressingly true! Even the letters page of the broadsheet can get pretty nasty. I never seem to see that sort of bigotry in the, “Independent”, but maybe they just don’t publish them. Natalia, Absolutely brilliant!
The comments on that site have been notorious for years, not just on feminist threads, but pretty much everything. I think the Guardian has kind of embraced their awfulness as a feature, in the way that you’d take visitors to see some particularly hideous building that has gone up in your town, until it becomes a tourist attraction in its own right,
“Conservatives have been so thoroughly successful in convincing us that they speak for “the real America” that we actually take them at their word when what they say that “real America” concerns itself primarily with loving guns and God and hating women and gays.” Jill – isn’t there a rather easy experiment to disprove this Conservative axiom – as you give it expression – once and for all? Like, for example, a successful candidate for President who is openly in favor of Gay Marriage, speaks unequivocally in favor of taxpayer funded abortions and preempting anti-choice laws in every state, plainly states that guns need to be confiscated, and who mocks middle American religion, like we do here? When will we get such a President, do you think?
“Who the hell are you talking about, Turf Toe? We’ve never had a president like that.” I’m saying that we ought to nominate and elect one in order to destroy the old GOP Guns/God/Gays saw. I think that would prove Jill correct.