This entry is one that fits perfectly into the framework of a blog about feminism. To be honest, the "finally" I added to the headline for alliteration's sake. I found feminists always foul.
When I first arrived at American message boards, Yahoo's, to be precise, in 1997, it was to improve my, a technical translator's, colloquial language and debating skills. My very first encounter happened on a board discussing the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and I was stunned how a lousy wife, bad mother and counterproductive job-filler could become a role-model for 95% of the contemporary female Western population, how a traitor to her own class, a cunning and malicious schemer who had done immeasurable damage to the family that made her, could manage to pose as a "victim", how a jet-setter with a money-spending habit of obscene proportions could have not just gotten away with it but become an icon and ray of hope for the underprivileged of this world. That was how it all started.
I was revolted by the general lack of intelligence and common sense and even more of the vulgarity, smugness, viciousness and misandrist views of her female supporters, so the leap from "Di" to the femboards was only a short one. Surely the feminist view wouldn't support anything like that?
To cut it short: I was wrong.
I had no strong anti-feminist views then. As a woman who reached adulthood in the Seventies, I never (and I MEAN never!) had to face "gender discrimination" in Germany. If anything, I had been treated just a little bit better because of my "gender". Feminism, to me, was Alice Schwarzer, a crone remnant from the Sixties who finally, for want of a cause and because of a strong liking of the limelight, turned free rider of the "patriarchal establishment", and whom hardly anybody of any importance and nobody of any weight took seriously in Germany.
I had never met a "women's studies" student, I didn't even KNOW then that there WAS an "academic" environment where anything like "women studies" (but no "men studies") existed, where women were given preferential admission status because of their "gender" (even though this was for the majority of graduating students), where they after graduation headed to a job they got through "affirmative action" and where they STILL WHINE AND WHINE BECAUSE THEY FEEL UNDERPRIVILEGED AND DISCRIMINATED AGAINST and I had never heard of the anti-male hatred and hostility discharged by Dworkin, McKinnon and other violent bigots.
Being all too readily brainwashed by a bunch of vicious delinquents was one thing, I felt. So was feeling underprivileged while being cushioned by a network of affirmative action and other props.
But what REALLY irritated me were those Bliss Ninnies at the femboards whose condescending conflict resolution counselor attitude and the fact that they are unable to post yet the simplest of messages without being self-congratulatory (mostly about their sexual prowess and allure) even made a saint -- and I am no saint -- scream abuse at them.
Here are a few random examples for your edification and entertainment, I marked my added comments in gray:
sweetjek (45/F/somewhere over the rainbo)What I found almost even more annoying was that they didn't seem to be able to make a point without quoting a personal experience and the fact that they were obviously unaware of the fact that their sickeningly blinkered Jolly-Hockeysticks-Sauberwoman attitude, peppered with some "New Age" drivel, has no relevance whatsoever for anything.
11/28/00 06:10 pm EST Msg: 1265 of 2515
and you know what, raul? I agree that there are differences...and I'm glad they are there. Would you accept the difference if it were presented as "males are not equal to women..." [blah, blah, blah] I don't want to be a cop or a marine...I teach inner-city kids and I'm very good at this TOUGH job...but not because I'm a woman. I love being a woman, and a nice mixture of feminism and strength... [blah blah yabber yabber...] sort of a yin/yang sort of thing. The man in my life [so now we know there is one] would not be attracted to me if I were too "helpless!"
Jaazzmyn (F/Southwest USA)
01/29/01 04:51 pm EST Msg: 1524 of 1524
Ahh Creepy, I am flattered that you keep tossing out Jazz bits to lure me into the conversation. Did ya miss me?? For the record, no matter what you choose to believe about a seventeen year old male that does a stint as cheerleader [i.e. the old prat's son], one thing he definitely is NOT, and that is a mama's boy. He is one of the most independent, stubborn, individualist I have ever known. Always thought he was born with an old soul….when he was just a toddler he so resented following orders from me, that I wondered if he had been MY parent in another life. We are talking about a young man who has been supporting himself since high school, and living on his own for most of his adult years…including moving (alone) cross country for almost half of that time. This kid would never be confused with one who is trying to crawl back into mama…..he is a kid who roared out full steam, ready for life and damn anyone who gets in his way. [Yep, another special male in HER HER HER life AND SHE SHE SHE even MADE him!].
sweetjek (45/F/somewhere over the rainbo)
12/10/00 05:20 pm EST Msg: 1621 of 2515
roadwarrior says:...the "cheering" and willingness to immediately resort to violence against men and have femicunts like you"cheer" is not going to be tolerated any longer.<<< … If you are so damn unhappy being a male, by all means, do something about it. I am happy being a woman, and the man in my life is very happy that I am too [in case we have forgotten there is one]. Other than the few guys on these boards who feel that they are being wronged, most men don't seem to have a problem with any of this...what's WRONG with you??? Also, why does a fictional commercial cause you such anger?? Yikes!
Jaazzmyn
12/23/00 12:03 pm Msg: 29 of 35
And one more thing….I think women can tell when another woman is ..ummmm…..willing. When my father was alive, the women regulars (many of them married) were all over him. He had plenty of opportunities. It wasn't because of his money - he wasn't rich, just a hard working guy. Today at our restaurant, I see the same thing with my husband [Yeah, ANY man in HER HER HER life just HAS to be special]. If he wanted to take home a different women every night, he could. But, he is holding out for that really rich sugar mommy. :- ) [Isn't she precious?]
As some distressed male called it: The "American golden pussy notion".
Being aware of that phenomenon for quite a while now, I find that a similar attitude is creeping in at my end as well. I notice ever-growing misandrist overtones everywhere, be it an idiotic book about the upbringing of boys with a first chapter that is solely about being apologetic that the book was written in the first place and another one being headed (no kidding!) "Boys are not inferior, just different" (Who would have thought so!) or the fact that it has become acceptable -- "normal" -- for every dumb bitch to slag off or dress down her male counterpart in public, not to mention all the serious legal consequences for men as fathers including abuse allegations that have been turned into arbitrary weapons for women, the shamefully apologetic approach to the role of the women during the Nazi aera as victims and victims only, the appalling misandrist jokes that are circulating, the women who bully their men into role-reversal and then lose whatever little respect for him they had to begin with.
It's all about CHOICE isn't it? They can still choose what they want to be - damsel in distress or empowered performer and most of them them want and get both and use whatever suits their current agenda best, whining or bullying.
I'm asking myself what made a group of coddled, advantaged, white middle-class folks think they are underprivileged? Some time in one of those countries where REAL inequalities prevail would do them a world of good, India, for example, where female foetuses are selectively aborted and sick little girls are left to die, or African countries where genital mutilation is practiced, or Islamist countries, where an accusation of adultery is enough to be stoned to death if one is female, where young girls are arbitrarily murdered, mutilated or raped (or all of it) for real or imagined wrongdoings by the members of their own family.
But they don't go there. They don't because it's much nicer to stay here and dream of themselves looking like Pricess Diana in dungarees, tracking landmines.
And like so often, it's not so much what the perpetrators do, but how the world is reacting to them. Why don't men just put their feet down and, if necessary, beat some sense into those nagging nuisances? But then, they were brought up by women, after all. "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world", as the feminists are fond of saying. And it's true. Men don't become mass muderers because of their deadbeat Dads, but more likely because Mum bathed them until they were well halfway through adolescence or forced them to wear their older sister's clothes.
Men can't win.
