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What are the central tenets of Straw Feminism? (No, seriously, I’m asking.)

fuck-that-aug20-12

Ok, class project!

As regular readers of this blog know all too well, the manosphere has a rather distorted version of feminism. Indeed, MRAs, MGTOWers and other misogynists spend a lot of their timedoing battle against feminists of their own imagining, whose alleged beliefs only have a tangential relationship with anything you or I know as feminism. It’s not always clear if MRAs know they’re battling straw feminists or not, and I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to figure that out.

In the meantime, I’m trying to assemble a little guide to this straw feminism.

I’m wondering what you all think are its central tenets?

(Specific examples and links, to posts and/or discussion on this blog or elsewhere, would be great if you can provide them.)

Take a look at Kate Beaton’s amazing “Straw Feminist” cartoon if you need inspiration!

Ironically, the gang over on the Men’s Rights subreddit had a whack at the “straw feminist” question the other day. They didn’t do too well, with the OP basing his “refutation” of accusations that MRAs spend much of their time attacking straw feminists … on a list that incorporated some not-actually-real feminist quotes. (I factchecked a similar list of EVIL FEMINIST QUOTES here.)

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freitag235
freitag235
11 years ago

updated daily by Oprah and Ellen

Don’t forget Sharon Osborn!

freitag235
freitag235
11 years ago

And the scented fucking candles! Straw feminists stay awake at night scheming and plotting their evil schemes and plots that center around the scented fucking candles!

cloudiah
11 years ago

Oh also, also! Straw feminists have changed the law in many ways, and have done that in such a way that those parts of the law are invisible, which means men can never find them and change them back.

Example #1: Men assumed guilty until proven innocent and only women are assumed innocent until proven guilty

Example #2: Prosecutors and judges are required by (invisible) law to charge women with lesser crimes for the same offenses and sentence them to lesser punishments (in spa-like prisons)

(Probably also ninja’d. I’m behind on reading the comments.)

cloudiah
11 years ago

^ Men are assumed ^

Shiraz
Shiraz
11 years ago

Straw feminists want to ruin the armed forces by letting women participate in combat.
Straw feminists invented the draft and don’t care that male soldiers die in combat.

cloudiah
11 years ago

Straw feminists have also convinced people that all male teachers and child care workers are secretly pedophiles, and have convince airlines to never let a man sit in a seat next to a child traveling alone.

Straw feminists finance their campaigns by selling anti-male t-shirts like the one that read “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.”

(I am eating delicious vegan food for a late lunch and it’s made me hyper. Forgive my multi-posting.)

WeeBoy
11 years ago

Moona, please accept One (1) internet, for the phrase “Wall of Manguish”.

WeeBoy
11 years ago

Straw feminists are oppressing mens boners by wearing miniskirts while simultaneously oppressing mens boners by banning miniskirts.

cloudiah
11 years ago

Example #3 of straw feminists changing the law in invisible ways: All a woman needs to do is say “I don’t feel safe around you” to get a man thrown into prison for life.

cloudiah
11 years ago

Straw feminists require all men to remain on sinking ships until every woman and child has gotten off.

Okay, lunch over. Gotta run.

freitag235
freitag235
11 years ago

THIS is feminism!

ostara321
ostara321
11 years ago

These aren’t necessarily MRA specific, these are things that certainly fall into their claims, but are also perpetuated by a lot of societal stigmas as well.

Strawfeminists are definitely blocking a male birth control pill from becoming accessible.
Strawfeminists think all hetero sex is rape.
Strawfeminists are all lesbians and think all straight women should be lesbians.
Strawfeminists want all hetero men to be gay.
Strawfeminists want all women to have abortions.
Strawfeminists want all women to get pregnant so they can get child support big bucks.
Strawfeminists want everyone to pay for their contraception via taxes.
Strawfeminists are all ugly hags and the few pretty ones are only there to feed their egos and creep shame the poor menz who can’t help but look down their shirts.
Strawfeminists hate male sexuality.
Strawfeminists want women to be able to do nothing but stay home all day eating bon bons.
Strawfeminists want all women to have to work outside the home and blasphemize all women who are SAHMs.
Strawfeminists want men to be submissive in bed.
Strawfeminists are just bitter ugly women who need a good fucking by an “alpha” male.
Strawfeminists hate masculinity.
Strawfeminists force men into roles of hypermasculinity because they are more dangerous and they just want to see men suffer and die.
Strawfeminists control the media.
Strawfeminists control the government.
Strawfeminists require the draft because they want to see men suffer and die.
Strawfeminists are totally the reason why women don’t have to sign up for the draft and why it took so long for women to be able to join the military in the US and why it took so long in the US for women to be able to serve in combat roles.
Strawfeminists just want all men to be unhappy.
Strawfeminists want all women to reject marriage and childrearing.
Strawfeminists want all women to get married and have kids so they can get alimony and child support.

That’s all I can think of now.

katz
11 years ago

According to our necro troll, feminists do indeed oppose the male pill!

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@katz

They really have no self-awareness at all, do they?

Juu
Juu
11 years ago

Dunno if someone already said it but male strawfeminists sacrifice their fellow men just to get laid.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Welcome to all the de-lurkers! 🙂

Straw feminists want to stop all natural interaction between men and women so nobody will ever get together again. This is why they whine about men following their biological imperative to ogle, grope, and generally harass hot chicks.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

They are incredibly well organized and work on their Ebbul Agenda all the time to oppress and enslave men.

I thought that was kittehs working to enslave all hoomins?

The Stepford Knife
The Stepford Knife
11 years ago

Straw Feminists want to put all of teh menz into a giant Wicker Man (geddit? A MAN made of STRAW- a literal STRAW MAN) and burn it in order to extinct all of teh menz. Apart from Alpha Male Nic Cage of course, but we could do without Edward Woodward in the original because VIRGIN SHAMING… or something.

titianblue
titianblue
11 years ago

Straw feminists set up the Big Brother part of BB/BS as “a kind of prostitution agency, specializing in providing uber-manginas to attend to the fatherly duties of the harlot’s absconded alpha daddy, or the cuckolded beta wallet in exile”.

And the only activities with your Little allowed are the feminine ones that straw feminists have deemed appropriate.

titianblue
titianblue
11 years ago

Straw feminists deny male victims of domestic violence access to shelters and grab all the billions of $s* of funding for feminism. Actually, straw feminists deny there are any male victims of domestic violence.

*because only USA exists. Well, and possibly Canada but that’s full of violent straw feminists so don’t go there.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@titianblue

Sometimes, other countries exist, but the strawfeminists don’t want men to know about them because they are full of Real Women who have never heard of strawfeminism.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

The Stepford Knife – the strawfeminists might make exceptions for the likes of Brad Pitt, of course.

Integral
Integral
11 years ago

The only reason child molestation is illegal is that strawfeminists are totally jealous of anyone younger and hotter.

(Now pardon me while I go throw up for approximately forever.)

titianblue
titianblue
11 years ago

Strawfeminists only make men wear condoms so that they can steal the sperm out of them later.