Yes o sung, I have been fond of women ever since I met my first one. I called her mum.

Feminism as I see it, [usually here & on TV], is not however something I could ever like.

There may be lots of nice feminists, but they don't show up anywhere I've seen. Those I see as feminists, rather than ladies, have a tendency to be quite nasty. Look at all our lovely ladies here, who don't rant feminism, but contribute firm opinions.

Those identifying themselves as such do seem to have a chip on their shoulder. Very few if any appear to want to advance the lot of the ladies, or mankind in general. What I see is a desire to tread men down.

It appears they care not how much that may improve the lives of women, provided they can make it look better, by making men’s lives worse. It would appear that if she is doing better than him, that is all that counts, even if both of them are much worse off.

To me, my mother, at home driving her sewing machine, making most of everything, & tending her veggie garden contributed every bit as much to our families & her own wellbeing, as she would have if she had been head master at the school, or run the local service station..

G'day HASBEEN...

You're spot on with you last sentence I reckon, how all our mothers whether those who chose to remain at home or working, contributed SO, SO much to everything.

Excuse me a moment while I get into my ballistic helmet and body armour...there, got it !

OK, would it be fair to say, that a dedicated, hard core feminist, more often than not, might well be a lesbian ? In my mind, somehow I just can't reconcile or harmonize the possibility that some of these women being able to participate and enjoy a truly heterosexual alliance ? Or am I way off the mark ?

Hi there SUSEONLINE...

I sort of agree with your basic premise of a 'feminist' ? On the other hand, I knew a couple of ladies at work, who demonstrated truly feminist traits. One particularly, was very pedantic, almost aggressive (with males), and on one occasion of a promotion, she asserted her right for promotion, claiming she was better qualified, and could perform the tasks and functions better than the initial successful applicant. Thus the promotion was overturned and she got it !

As it happened, I attended several formal functions, and she was there also. Socially, she was charming, very nice, warm, in fact everything a lady should be in a social setting ? Yet at work, she wore the title 'dragonlady'. True, she wasn't married, in her late thirties, early forties, quite an attractive girl - Could she be defined as a true feminist ? I'd bet my pension, she wasn't a Lesbian. That aside, I don't know, I really don't.

Suseonline,
You monster! You've just expressed support International Socialism, fortunately it's been defunct for twenty years.
"Equality" equals endless war, hills of corpses, secret Police and re-education camps.
If your vision of "equality" wasn't so tainted by bloodshed it'd be the gold standard worldwide but fortunately most people understand history and where internationalism and forced equality leads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5Qm-qRjqg&list=HL1362974633
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjcO4tcobc0
Hasbeen,
In that light "feminism" is an activist movement for unmarriable women, all it seeks to do is secure state and lately capitalist support for single women.
There's no such thing as the Feminist archetype of the "strong, empowered woman", the very statement is an oxymoron.
Women, like your and my mothers only became strong, respected figures by overcoming adversity, empowered women are given their positions by the state or the corporation, hence the chip on the shoulder, they demand respect but know deep down that everyone else can see that they haven't earned and don't deserve it.

I don’t know tiger; feminism has always meant radicalization from my experience.

In 1971 when I was 15, I stumbled on a “feminist” dance one Saturday evening at the old Jewish community hall in Darlinghurst. It was full of dykes and Helen Reddy’s brilliant “I am Woman” copped a flogging that night. All girls there, except for a sprinkling of gay guys the odd brother and a few interlopers like me. The vibe and the mandatory “rally sister’s speech” came from old chicks, old to me anyway, probably in their thirties, blokey, you know the look.

Even back then I realized that the feminism of the suffragettes had turned into a war of the sexes. Modern feminism had been hijacked by the sexual revolution of the 1960’s. That revolution produced outstanding leaders such as Angela Merkel and Maggie Thatcher, along with abysmal failures like Gillard.

The double bind paradox that lives in most males has the expectation of a ruthless “man’s world” persona but with the retention of the feminine mystique….that is not an expectation of mine. But what I did expect hasn’t become apparent in any way.

I suppose I expected a “caring persona” that had the future young of the nation in mind rather than the next election. Women in power have failed as women, but excelled at being blokes in every dishonest unscrupulous way…just like us mate.

Suseonline>> Now just watch as other posters take on this subject and try to tell me what I really think, and that despite the fact I really love most men, I apparently am a man-hater.<<

Suse, I want a chromosome test, some of you chicks have too many Y’s….lol

"I want to see a man beaten to a bloody pulp with a high-heel shoved in his mouth, like an apple in the mouth of a pig."
Andrea Dworkin; from her book Ice and Fire .

"All men are rapists and that's all they are."
Marilyn French, Author

"All sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman."
Catherine MacKinnon

"Men who are unjustly accused of rape can sometimes gain from the experience."
Catherine Comin, Vassar College. Assistant Dean of Students.

"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them."
Robin Morgan, Ms. Magazine Editor.

"The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness...can be trained to do most things."
Jilly Cooper, SCUM (Society For Cutting Up Men.)

Germaine Greer, the 68yr old guru of feminists published a book filled with pictures of naked underage boys, titled "The Beautiful Boy".

Greer, "Society is not accustomed to seeing beauty in young males", Greer claimed."

(The book is) "full of pictures of 'ravishing' pre-adult boys with hairless chests, wide-apart legs and slim waists".

"I know that the only people who are supposed to like looking at pictures of boys are a subgroup of gay men. Well, I'd like to reclaim for women the right to appreciate the short-lived beauty of boys, real boys, not simpering 30-year-olds with shaved chests."

Interviewd by Denton,
Andrew Denton: You said in an interview with the 'Sydney Morning Herald' a couple of years ago, "A woman of taste is a pederast — boys rather than men."
Germaine Greer: Yeah.
Andrew Denton: What do you mean by that?
Germaine Greer: Well, boys are beautiful, see, they're not beardy and singlety.

Yep, just as I thought would happen on this thread.

Apparently if you believe in equality of the sexes, then you must be a ranting, raving socialist communist, aggressive, ball- breaking, ambitious, unmarried, lesbian, single, ugly , masculine woman.

I know some women who have all of those qualities who aren't even remotely feminist...
: )