SJF:” What if all women simply kept their surname on marriage ... and all daughters took their mother's surname and all sons took their father's surname.”

Isn’t this just more sex discrimination with potential to incite whole new waves of feminist unrest? Oh, I get it!

SJF,

To tell the truth, I don't actually give a rat's about the whole surname thing. It's a complete non-issue to me: I've used my family name for years while my two sons use their father's family name though, so I suppose it's a little like your hypothetical? Never had a problem, question, or so much as a raised eye-brow about it. Which has kind of led me to believe that all that "But what about the children?" rhetoric is a bit of a crock.

Robert: "I've seen similar claims of widespread attacks on their professional and personal lives from other writers and researchers who have published material on gender issues". Does that include my earlier post?

It's a funny story but it had ramifications: not the least of which was my kids arriving at school to an entire schoolyard who had seen their mum described as a ball-buster in every cafe, newsagent and general store they passed on the way to school.

Romany, I'd missed that earlier post. I disagree with any attempts to destroy the personal lives of people because of views they express on issues like this. If you have suffered damage through the misuse of power by those who objected to material you have written then it most certainly includes you. If comments you have made have been responded to in a manner which is way out of proportion to your comments then it certainly includes you.

I don't know the truth of the claims the author made. Taken at face value the author supports the ideals of equality but has changed his views about the claims made by many in the feminist movement regarding ideas of gender privilige in the past and the role feminism has played in changing the status of women. He has published those views and by his account suffered great harm as a result of his personal and professional life being attacked in other quarters unrelated to the pieces about feminism.

If his claims are true many supporters of feminism have abused power to do him harm and played an "all's fair" game that I can't respect. Neither do I respect it when abuses occur to silence anybody else trying to make a meaning contribution to debate regardless of how much I like or dislike their views.

Those who treat such stories with contempt rather than asking serious questions about them, those who think that critics of their "ism" deserve whatever they get are just trying to exchange the tyrany they think they are fighting with one where they are at the top of the heap. There is no love of justice or equality in them, just a nasty game of an eye for a skin graze.

If the story I read is for the most part true (and it's critics have not rebutted the detail, just attacked the author and defended the tactics) then it represents a very vile side of feminism. I'm confident it exists, I would hope that self-respecting feminists would rightly reject such abuses of power.

R0bert

Robert: "... if his claims are true...". Exactly. We don't know.

However, whilst you're still up on your podium waving a flag for Neil whatshisname, I take it you missed Roscop's post about Dr. Michael Flood and Professor Catharine Lumby.

Have you anything to say about the vicious, lifelong attacks against Andrea Dworkin; Germaine Greer, and how about the ongoing attacks against female public figures like Hilary Clinton ? Have you ever posted an expression of disgust and despair at any of the criticisms levelled at any woman in public life, writer or otherwise?

Until you demonstrate a balanced regard to all injustices meted by people who misuse power, please refrain from lecturing me on what I should read and consider (I did of course read and consider it, without your sanctimonious prompting) and worse - dictating to me what I should feel about it. Until I know more about him and the truth of his claims, I will continue to withold an opinion one way or another

"Until I know more about him and the truth of his claims, I will continue to withold an opinion one way or another", for this I respect you Pynchme.

Pynchme, it is a good thing that michael flood admitted to the mistake, however the damage is done, because people will remember the first instance.

It would seem that material written by men are offensive to your sensibilities, so how about material written by women.

Eeva Sodhi did have a website Nojustice.info it is now archived here

http://web.archive.org/web/20050308115735/www.nojustice.info/Research/ManufacturingResearch.htm

I found the articles on "Manufacturing Research" and "Perceptions are not Facts" really interesting.

<[I]ndividuals do not necessarily possess sufficient knowledge to explain everything about their lives (Maynard and Purvis, 1994: p. 6).

The above, if nothing else, infantilizes women and makes any gender based research meaningless as all that is given at the end is the researcher's personal bias.

Contractors are further instructed to "make a careful choice about which indicators are going to be applied" because the indicators have to reflect the gendered approach they are developing. Under no circumstance is it permissible to conclude that Canadian women are not subjected to a systemic bias. Every undertaking must be premised on an understanding of the "historical and continuing reality of women's inequality" in Canadian society.

What is interesting is that, after potential contractors have been told that they are to treat men and women differently, they are reminded that a double standard

involves treating, measuring or interpreting identical behaviours, traits or situations, in either gender group, by different means.>

Pynchme, if I saw someone responding to a similar piece by a feminist writer by citing an extremist comment and ignoring the main piece I hope I'd have the same reaction.

The criticism that I've seen of Flood has been about bias in his handling of the DV topic, not about the size of his penis or his ability to form relationships. I've not seen any indications that his ability to publish on non-DV issues has been in any way attacked or hindered by those who disagree with his stance on the DV issue.

My impression is that Greer and others have copped criticism which goes well beyond the content of their writings. Again I've not seen any indication that her ability to publish on other topics has been hindered by anti-feminists in the publishing industry - that may have occurred but I've not come across anything on that topic.

It gets messy, responses are often part of the flow of a discussion so the fact that I've never felt the need to write similar comments about responses to Flood, Lumby or Greer does not mean an clear imbalance, it means that issue has not sparked me in the same way in other discussions.

I think I have missed Roscop's post or if I saw it then it obviously did not have the same meaning to me as I gather it's had to you.

I support feminism when it is about trying to provide equality of opportunity for males and females. When it's about trying to grab the upper hand and being the oppressor then I'm against it.

I'm going to be away till late in the week so I won't be able to make any more responses until I get back.

R0bert