A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[Kaptain Badrukk]

There has been a lot of commentary online about American values being particularly toxic in this respect.
Which I'm not sure is true, but it is interesting to note people think this.

[eldargal]

There has been a lot of commentary online about American values being particularly toxic in this respect.
Which I'm not sure is true, but it is interesting to note people think this.

Personally I think it us just exacerbated by ready access to guns. but then I have had little first hand exposure to such elements of American culture.

[Psychosplodge]

You say not all men are monsters?

Imagine a bowl of M&Ms. 10% of them are poisoned.

Go ahead. Eat a handful.

Not all M&Ms are poison.

interesting thought exercise.

Was it the Stubenville handegg rapists that gave a interesting insight to some american attitudes to women?

[Mr Mystery]

True that.

And just another reason I'm feared of the ladies. Silly really, but there you go.

[Kirsten]

Pakistani woman is killed outside a court by her own family for marrying against their wishes

[url]http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27593504[/url]

[Morgrim]

And there's another Pakistani girl got murdered by her parents for looking at a boy driving past. One of the reasons I loathe the abrahamic religions is because they encourage this sort of possessive bull****.

[Psychosplodge]

As a girl working in an EB Games/ Gamestop, I get a lot of ****. Constant “fake gamer” comments and “do you even like video games”, or “do you even play video games?” thrown at me almost every day. I’m put on the spot and if I don’t know every minute detail about some game no one’s ever even heard of I’m asked why I even work here. There are times however, when genuinely great human beings show up.
I have a group of regulars, all around 14 years old, who are always in my store and sometimes witness this. Anytime they’re in the store, as soon as the others leave they talk me up and tell me that they’re just jerks and not to worry. Today, I was especially tired and was having trouble with my words. Because of this, I had a few rude remarks about my intelligence and performance. These kids show up just as the rude customers leave to purchase a game with some energy drinks. I jokingly said I needed one of those today before they left. Ten minutes later, these same kids show up, one with his hands behind his back, and hand me an energy drink with a bow on top, telling me they hope I feel better. They went on about how they usually don’t even come in the store if I’m not working, because I work hard and deserve their business. I’ve never been so close to tearing up in front of customers my entire life. The kids gave me a hug and went on their way, and I never felt so sure of myself at this job before. Being a girl in a largely male dominated culture is hard sometimes, but stick with it because we deserve a larger spot in this culture, and we should NOT have to “prove” ourselves just to be accepted. I’m getting more genuinely curious questions thank rude ones lately, and it feels so good to be talking on the same instead of being interrogated. It’s funny how something as simple as an energy drink from some regulars can lift your entire day, but hell yeah, I belong here. And not one of those jerks is going to convince me otherwise.

there is hope...

[eldargal]

That is lovely.

This isn't:[URL="http://feministbatwoman.tumblr.com/post/87081511532/x0202-just-to-be-clear-a-woman-who-created-a"]
[/URL]

just to be clear - a woman who created a hashtag meant to convey the message “no, not all may be sexual aggressors but yes, all women have experienced sexism to some degree” shut down her account after repeated harassment. she wasn’t generalizing men. she wasn’t making broad, sweeping statements that people claim are the problem with women’s movements. she was only opening a conversation centered around personal stories. what is anyone supposed to take from this except that many people are simply not interested in hearing these stories at all, as sugarcoated as they may be, as tactfully they may be put? not without redirecting the conversation to focus away from women, at any rate.

[URL="http://comic-chick.tumblr.com/post/87084635751/spankmethorin-radgreymon-rudegirlqueer"]Source[/URL]

[URL="http://the-feminist-fangirl.tumblr.com/post/87084732695/melissasoup-writeswrongs-tony-starked"]Also stuff about a documentary talking about 95% of road rage aggressors[/URL] are men but how the media never talk about it as a gendered issue.

[Psychosplodge]

And then you have [URL="http://dither87.tumblr.com/post/87030795440/enochiansoul-today-i-was-waiting-in-line-for"]this...
[/URL]

Today I was waiting in line for lunch at the cafeteria when a group of boys started pointing a laser at my breasts. For a moment, I tried to ignore them. I was wearing a short dress and my breasts are a bit larger than most peoples, so in a low cut shirt, they are more noticeable (but they were not so noticeable as to pop out of my dress). I played it off cool and ignored them. Then they started making comments about me, saying very inappropriate things about what they wanted to do to me and continued to point the laser at me.

I dropped everything and snapped. Putting my backpack down, I walked directly over to them, FUMING with a red face and immediately went off on them. I started out calm and polite, saying “How dare you treat me like I’m some walking, talking sex that is simply standing there for the pleasure of you to look at.” “Shame on you for degrading me and acting like I’m just a walking pair of tits.” “This is the epitome of a misogyny.”

They stared at me for a long moment, some of them trying to hold back a laugh as one then got up, holding up his hands as he proceeded to nod, apologizing for his actions and extending his arms. He seemed as though he was actually, genuinely sorry, so I nodded, thanking him as he then asked if he could hug me for standing up for myself. When I went in for a hug, he proceeded to grab my ***, going INTO my dress.

I pushed him away, and FREAKED OUT. I couldn’t hold back my foul language anymore—I was absolutely livid. I was swearing up a storm, screaming at the top of my lungs, making a scene (which I know is immature, but I was so angry I couldn’t help it) as people turned heads and teachers and security began to approach us. I went on, and on, pulling out every what reason as to why rape culture continues to exist because of their actions, to which I believe the one who hugged me got offended as he then called me a “mother****ing dumb ****, stupid whore, ****ing *****,” etc.

Of course, I kept going. I can’t stand when people insult me in such a degrading manner. I got in his face, pushing his boundaries, saying that the way I’m pushing on his personal space is nowhere near compared to that of how men treat women as walking, talking sexual organs.

Then he tried to hit me. He grabbed my arm with one hand, raising the other to what I assume was to smack me in the face, so I immediately raised my arm and punched him in the nose.

At that point, security and teachers pulled us apart and I was still screaming at him, and he was screaming at me, too.

When teachers finally pulled me out of the cafeteria, they immediately started blaming ME. “You should have ignored him.”

Yes, maybe I could have, but when I first initially walked up to them, I was playing nice. Then he sexually harassed me.

They continued to dismiss the entire situation as “boys will be boys”, so I immediately retorted with “Well then girls will be girls.” To which they immediately shook their heads and laughed at me. Then one of the security guards had the audacity to turn and say to me, “Maybe you shouldn’t have worn such a suggestive attire.”

I lost it. I started to scream at this man, yelling at him for once again objectifying my body as if it’s some piece of *** that must be covered up at all times because males are not responsible for controlling themselves.

Finally, when they realized how upset that I was, they immediately reeled back, apologized, but they are still not going to punish those men for sexually harassing me, as they still believe I asked for it. They did, however, decide not to suspend me for hitting him because they knew that I was not going to let this go.

I have never been so fed up before. This is ridiculous. Once again, these ****ing idiots are getting away with mistreating women and the victim gets blamed furthermore, and to shut them up they just decide not to take any further action.

They didn’t even ask me to write a statement.

UPDATE: When I went to my next class after, I talked to my teacher about it and she escorted me to the security office and defended me until police were brought in. I then made a statement to the police and now they are going to take care of the situation.

Please share to show that misogyny and victim blaming still exists. This is why I need feminism.

[eldargal]

****.