The Stormy Days of March
Awww! Part 3
Hahahahahaha! Poor Raph!
He gets no sympathy from me. Make a stupid argument about find the best reviews online, get punished for it.
Oh and don’t whine about how mean feminists/progressives/people who are right are being mean. It makes you look small.
An Old Fashioned Mashing
Well I haven’t done this in awhile, and by “this” I mean taken an entire conservative post and ground it to fine dust. The last time I remember doing something like this it was to point out some massive logic flaws that a certain Richard Evans had. But I digress.
The subject in this case is one Patrick Ross, of the aptly named “Nexus of Asholery” who misconstrues my entire argument over why we should have a feminist blog category in the CBAs. Let’s proceed to the mashing shall we?
Perhaps what is most disheartening is the fact that these feminists were offered an opportunity to accept various compromises, including the establishment of a “men’s issues” category. That suggestion, in particular, was rebuffed with regard as such:
“This whole but “what about the menz” argument is absolute bullshit. “Mens rights” organizations are not about helping men preserve their rights, they’re about maintaining privileges that allow them to treat women as second class citizens and get away with it. And that’s just as bad as being a racist in my book.”
The undue denegration of masculinism
aside, the argument essentially boils down as follows: “we feminists deserve recognition on our terms, and our terms alone.”
Actually nowhere did I say that, nor did I imply it. I merely pointed out that MRAs (Men’s “Rights” Activists) are not about protecting the rights of men, but are more concerned with keeping women as second class citizens. I don’t know how Ross even thinks that means that I (or feminists) want to be recognized on my (our) terms alone. It defies logic. If he wanted to prove that MRAs do not tend to blame the victims of domestic abuse, or that they don’t accuse women of sabotaging birth control so therefore they should have a say in whether they should pay child support, then he’s welcome to. (As an aside it’s been shown that abusive boyfriends tamper with birth control more than women ever do)
Considering that “their terms” clearly include denying similar recognition to others who may or may not want it says some very unfortunate things about the particular individuals involved. It’s hard to credit such a relatively small group of people with speaking for all feminists, but it’s certainly indicative of what these particular individuals think feminism stands for.
Who am I denying anything to? One, the decision is not mine to make, and two, I just pointed out why MRAs are anything but. If you can show me some people who are for equal rights between genders, or has legitimate concerns about over compensation of rights for genders, then I have no problem with that. Hell I’d call them a feminist. Also, I never said that I spoke for all feminists. And if Patrick Ross can find a feminist who disagrees (I highly doubt that Ross knows any feminists) then please point her or him out.
There once was a time when feminism was promoted as encouraging the reconceptualization of gender roles for both women and men.
Did I not say that in the comments of that very post? I think I did. Let me quote myself. “We help men and women benefit from a fair and equal society by allowing them to overcome confining gender roles and socializtion to help them become the people they want to be, not what socieety tells them to be.” That sounds pretty similar to what Ross said feminism “used” to be about.
While this may or may not render any percieved need for a “men’s issues” or “masculinist” category at the Canadian Blog Awards, the idea that feminists would reject it outright — dismissing it as sexist simply because it deals men expresses a very unsettling attitude. The fact that they think the Canadian Blog Awards should institutionalize this attitude, and are so outraged when it won’t, is more unsettling still.
No I didn’t reject it outright because it involved men, I rejected it because MRAs… oh forget it. Read above.
Yet more unsettling than that is the suggestion, raised by a predictable source that Canadians with conservative political beliefs shouldn’t even be allowed to participate[.]
“Oh noes! Canadian Cynic is being mean! Let’s tar all feminists with that brush, although I just said that they don’t speak for all feminists, but I’m just going to conveniently ignore that.”
The post then degenerates into a whine about how the left freeps polls too and how dare they freep polls that were supposed to be freeped by the right. I guess that makes us just as bad or something…
In the end, however, one has to feel bad for the awards’ organizers, considering the amount of abuse they’ve been absorbing for nothing more than refusing to acquiesce to the demands of the wrong group of self-interested people.
The “wrong” group? Who would be the “right” group? Just wanted to know.
A SCATHING ASIDE
Oh, by the way Raphael, not that it’s any of your business, but I didn’t revoke Scott’s endorsement simply because he didn’t “capitulate” to feminist demands (which wasn’t even his decision to make). I won’t state the reasons why here, but since then Scott has redeemed himself admirably behind the scenes.
And to my fellow feminists: Calling people who are volunteering names and saying that they’re basically the scum of the earth is not the way to get them to see things your way. That thread was disgraceful on both sides. I’m ashamed of myself for not calling it out sooner, and ashamed that you guys would act that way. Especially seeing how it affected the volunteers. Grow up people.
And to NBCDipper and Saskboy and the others: I really hope you guys will reconsider putting up a best feminist blog category, all hurt feelings aside…
The Shortest Day of the Year
I always loved the Winter Solstice, it reminds me that no matter how dark things may look, things will get better over time. Happy Holidays everyone!
Feminism Now Damnit!
Well, there’s some controversy concerning the Canadian Blog Awards this year, and I’ve stayed out of it until now because I had lots of faith that NBCDipper and Saskboy would eventually come around and do the right thing and put up a best feminist blog category int he CBAs
But they haven’t yet, and I would wonder why not. Apparently this concerns people because it’s giving an unfair voice to feminists and there aren’t enough feminists and what about the menz and blah blah blah…
Ok, maybe I’m being unfair but I wonder if they’d remove the best LGBT blog and… oh wait, they’ve already removed the LGBT category and lumped it all together with gender/sexual issues. Wonderful, so now all those awesome blogs that promote equity for the LGBT community have to face off against people who advocate for gender equity. That’s really a way to showcase the best that the Canadian blogosphere has to offer. Well done guys! *rolls eyes*
Anyhow the points that I want to raise are these:
1) As I mentioned before, isn’t it in everyone’s best interests to include everyone in order to showcase the best of what we have to offer? Lumping everyone together lowers the amount of people who are viewed and overlooks a lot of deserving blogs who should be seen more.
2) This whole but “what about the menz” argument is absolute bullshit. “Mens rights” organizations are not about helping men preserve their rights, they’re about maintaining privileges that allow them to treat women as second class citizens and get away with it. And that’s just as bad as being a racist in my book. If this was another category, say LGBT, would anyone even DARE to suggest an anti-gay blog award category? Or if we had a anti-racism blog award category (oh, why DON’T we have an anti racism blog award category, or at least a race relations one?) would we then have to give the white supremacists a blog award category too?
3) Feminism is not about being anti-men. That’s what conservatives want you to believe. In fact, feminism wants to help men out too, we just place a priority on helping women achieve equality (which also benefits men, unless they’d rather socialize with non-persons, or lord over their human property) first. Which omg is unprecedented from all the other philosophies because we aren’t looking out for guys first. Oooh scary. And feminists aren’t just women, they’re everyone who believes in equal rights for men and women, and recognize that our society has a long way to go to achieve true equality between genders. Is that too wide? I don’t think so. People who blog specifically on this issue (whether all the time, or sometimes) should be recognized for it.
The moderators have said they will deliberate on the topic at hand. The fact is that they shouldn’t have had to deliberate on this at all. For shame.
And Scott, that goes double for you. A compromise? What the hell is there to compromise about? If the conservatives at the CBAs are balking at this then I think a boycott is well deserved. I’m so revoking my endorsement for you as best blogging citizen for this.
Paladiea: Attention Whore
Please PLEASE SOMEONE NOMINATE ME FOR SOMETHING!!!
Ahem.
Anyhow, I think that I’ve done a lot for the blogosphere (maybe not enough) to warrant at least some sort of nomination. I know that I’m being childish, but I do need some recognition sometimes, it makes me feel good. And I’m totally above shrieking like a moron (well most of the time (see above)) to get attention.
But I suppose that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Besides Scott totally deserves “best blogosphere citizen” more than I do.
The Season For Peace and Love Kicking The Crap Out of Each Other…
What would Jesus do? (If he existed)
Friday’s altercation on the Q train began when somebody yelled out “Merry Christmas,” to which rider Walter Adler responded, “Happy Hanukkah,” said Toba Hellerstein.
“Almost immediately, you see the look in this guy’s face like I’ve called his mother something,” Adler told CNN affiliate WABC…
One member of the group allegedly yelled, “Oh, Hanukkah. That’s the day that the Jews killed Jesus,” she said. When Adler tried to intercede, a male member of the group punched him, she said.
Another passenger, Hassan Askari — a Muslim student from Bangladesh — came to Adler’s aid, and the group began physically and verbally assaulting him, Hellerstein said.
“A Muslim-American saved us when our own people were on the train and didn’t do anything,” Adler said.
Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure that ass kicking people of other faiths on this holiday season wasn’t on the list… The only “War on Christmas” here is fought by assholes who want their faith to dominate the rest of us.
Oh, kudos to the man who stuck up for those poor people. He deserves thanks.
Tiara Tip to Pandagon
Oh, Wonderful
Just in time for the holidays…
A “significant” amount of toxic and radioactive waste is likely being dumped illegally in Ontario because the province isn’t keeping a close enough watch on generators of hazardous waste, Ontario’s auditor general said today.
Jim McCarter told The Canadian Press that 900 hazardous waste generators haven’t officially reported any dumping in three years, but ministry inspectors haven’t followed up to see where this toxic waste has gone.
I can hear the libertarians now: “But maybe they didn’t produce any waste in 3 plus years!”. Of course. And Stephen Harper can cure sick little girls by pulling rainbows out of his ass…
So, TONNES of toxic waste is being dumped illegally. You know I thought we left that era behind back in the 80s when we all became aware that toxic waste, being very well named IS EXTREMELY BAD FOR US. But I guess so long as the bottom line isn’t affected eh?
This makes me think about all those free market freaks who say that the government shouldn’t interfere with corporations because they can regulate themselves. And judging from the above example, they can regulate themselves oh so well. As CC would say… “but… but that’s different!”
If only I could make the libertarians take a swim in the consequences of their ideologies…
Also, where the fuck is McGuinty? What’s he going to do about this now that we’re all aware?
DMCA For Canada!? HELLS NO!
And I though Jim Prentice wasn’t as stupid as other Conservatives…
Now he has this bullshit legislation proposed and I for one will not sit idly by while he passes it into law. UGH!
If you don’t know what Prentice is planning on doing, go here, and here, and here for more details.
Now here’s what you can do!
Email:
Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca.
Snail Mail:
Jim Prentice
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6 (you don’t need a stamp!)
And Prentice is having a phone in TODAY!! CALL HIM!!
Ottawa office - (613) 992-4275
Calgary office - (403) 216-7777
Minister office - (613) 995-9001
If you do nothing, this is going to cost us all a lot of money. Protecting intellectual property is fine, but there are limits as to how much power a corporation should have over us.
Those Uppity Bitches Are Hurting The Planet Too!
I can only wonder at the readership the Globe & Mail is trying to cultivate…
Now there is one more reason for couples to try to stay together: Researchers have added divorce to the long list of things that are bad for the environment.
U.S. researchers, in a study believed to be the first to link marriage breakdown with its environmental impact, have concluded divorce definitely isn’t green.
Yeah I can imagine that, you know running away from the man that beats you, and traveling thousands of kilometres to start a new life without fear of him hunting you down would be a strain on resources. Of course, not all relationships are violent, but this is infringing on someone’s right to leave a relationship if they see fit, for whatever reason it may be.
In light of the research, he said, governments should provide tax incentives for divorced people to remarry or co-habitat, publicize information about the environmental impact of divorce, and extend waiting periods before allowing divorces.
Extend waiting periods before allowing divorces? That reeks the same way that mandatory counseling before an abortion does. It assumes that women are stupid, and we don’t know what’s in our best interests, therefore the menfolk have to sit us down and tell us.
Combine that provision with the fact that women initiate the majority of divorces, and you’ll see that this is just another exercise in extending male privilege. “But honey, you’re hurting the planet if you leave me!”. Ugh.
I of all people are aware of the need for us to change our habits in order to save the planet, but I draw the line at forcing people to stay in relationships that they’re not happy in. Maybe if we encourage EVERYONE to consume less, it’d be more effective than forcing people to stay married.
Or, let’s do the flip of this logic; let’s stop pressuring women to get married, and encouraging us to make our own choices in life, whether that includes someone else or not. That would be a good idea as well.
Awww! Part 2
Poor Junker. I feel so bad for him. The lefties called him names! What heartless monsters we must be! Cue the tiniest violin!
Of course, statements like this:
Too bad those “smallpox blankets” were a hoax
We could really use a few.
Or this:
As opposed to the other 364 days
When the Natives do absolutely nothing except smoke, drink and fuck their daughters. This Friday will mark the Native Day of Action(tm) here in Canada.
Or this:
But leaving that aside … let’s go back to the topic of PERSONAL responsibility. WHY are you in a position where someone could spike your drink?
Did the drink spiker kidnap you and force you to the soiree?
..Are merely “isolated incidents” and that all right wingers in general are all about free love and getting along. Nope, sorry I was mistaken.
The right wing barely bats an eye at calling for the genocide of entire peoples, or saying that women deserve to get raped for being in a particular area. But I guess it’s ok so long as they don’t call someone a “moron” or say “fuck”.
Honestly? If getting a few swears thrown at you and being called a moron is enough to make you cry to your blog and whine about how mean lefties are, you have no business blogging in the first place.
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