Booyah!

The replies to this article give excellent examples of why feminism is still relevant- there is so much woman-hating on display, it is unbelievable. If you believed some of the trash that has been written, women are responsible for every bad thing that has occured in human history.

"REAL power comes after much violent struggle. Its the nature of our physical reality".
Um, sorry, that is not the nature of our physical reality, maybe it is for a few overly aggressive males but you can't tar all of humanity with the same brush. Our entire modern society is based on the principle that might doesn't equal right, it is at the core of our 'western liberal' values and what we are apparently fighting the war on terrorism/Iraq war for.

Maximus, what planet are you from? Do you actually believe that if Karl Marx hadn't written das kapital and the communist manifesto that we would be free of the scourge of war? The word moron could not even begin to convey the idiocy of that statement.

I am a feminist, and I am not a marxist, just like many other feminists. I do beleive that there are differences between men and women, but the problem is that those differences have been manipulated to valorise men and denigrate women. I believe in equality, and I believe that I should have options in my life, instead of being told what to do by men. Why is this so ideological? To me it is common sense.

Why don't you guys stop telling us women what is good for us and let us decide for ourselves- is it really that scary?

Fair dinkum

http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/Library/Amneus/garbage/g2.html

“Some women actually think that they are better people than men” Toby Green

“Feminist do not want a men’s right movement, even more importantly they do not want books like this one to be written. They do not want challenges to their opinions or male ideas to be expressed, hence it is necessary to suppress the male opinion and points of views. There attempts to label challenges and opinions contrary to feminism ideology as hate crimes.

“When they call you a ‘woman hater,’ they mean ‘How dare you disagree with me?’ Don’t bother getting upset. Why waste the energy?’ It is really only a part of women’s anger strategy to get men to back down.” Thomas Ellis

“..however, criticizing female behaviour is not the same as hating females.” George Rolph.

Come on la1985 when is challenging misrepresentations “telling you (women) what to do?”

And stop trying to manipulate by claiming the victim role “women are responsible for every bad thing that has occurred(sic) in human history.”

If you read some of the books I have referred too, in a previous post. You will notice that they have been written by women!

As for denigrating women, a number of posts made by I assume women call men “morons”, ‘idiots”, “women haters” (misogynists). The only things you haven’t done yet is to comment on the size of our genitals, our sex lives etc etc. This is called 'misandry.'

Thomas Ellis wrote “After going through her stack of books, I realized that it wasn’t just Petra’s illogical babblings I had a problem with. The whole women’s movement had something bogus about it.”

I too, felt that many of the feminist claims just did not feel right.

Wow. I don't think I've ever been so depressed by the comments section of this site.

As a young woman who benefits daily from the social reforms brought on by the feminist movement, I am rather appalled (not to mention surprised) to see such bitterness against women being granted equal legal and social rights.

I am not saying that some aspects of feminism have gone too far (and I agree that the family court system appears biased against fathers, although this seems to be slowly changing), but surely a situation in which both men and women are free to choose their options in life is better than a system which precluded the involvement of half the population in public life?

I genuinely welcome the fact that I was able to go to university, and get a well-paying job and support myself. And my boyf of several years certainly appreciates that I pay for dinner as often as he does! I appreciate that I am able to vote, and purchase property without having to seek permission from anyone (heh. other than the damn banks!).

I know that some men view feminism as empowering women at the expense of men, but I do not actually see that in the world. Men still earn more money than women, and are in more positions of power and influence than their numbers of the population should suggest.

I like that we now have male nurses and female doctors. I like that men can stay home with the kiddies if they wish, and that women can work if they wish.

Sometimes, choice can be frightening, and we don't always make the right ones, men and women both. But when I look at my life of freedom and autonomy versus that of my grandmothers' life of limited opportunities, I can be nothing but grateful to feminism, for myself, and for the men of my age group.

JamesH there are feminist writers challenging some of the problems as well. I've referenced a book by Patricia Pearson a number of times dealing with the misrepresentation of female violence called "When She Was Bad". Some feminists take equality seriously, it may be that the ones who don't get more attention due to more extreme views.

Feminism is not a single dogma rigidly adhered to by all who would go under that banner. It is a broad viewpoint which is adopted in different ways by different people (then almost everything is). There is no single spokesperson for it. Plenty of scope to pick the good bits and reject the rubbish.

R0bert