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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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Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
11 years ago

Oh damn incorrect possessive apostrophe!

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
11 years ago

Straw feminists have demanded that aptitude tests be renormed to favour females and deflate male scores, when there was nothing wrong with the tests in the first place. Note: this argument also works for minorities.

/sigh

DLColvin (llothcat)
11 years ago

There’s got to be one for all those female game reviewers.. You know, the ones where the salesmen ( I’ve seen it done) at conventions literally take the game controller away because females of course would never evar want to play a fps type game, and then proceeds to take them to safer games like the Sims.. Or some fb game that bores me to tears…

Can’t think right now.. Editing mode.. Bleh.

katz
11 years ago

You are absolute shit at Not Commenting, you know that?

thebewilderness
thebewilderness
11 years ago

Straw feminists all end up alone and bitter, living with lots of cats.
Which doesn’t make sense really cuz if you live with cats you are never alone.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
11 years ago

@the bewilderness, if you have ragdolls, you’re never alone in the bathroom, in the toilet….it’s just like having a toddler! 🙂

Catfish
Catfish
11 years ago

Well, I doubt that Miller is actually an MRA – all though who knows – in his comic books, feminist icon super heroines tend to be portrayed as angry, hypocritical man-hater lesbians who just need a man to show them the error of their ways.

As explained in this Linkara video; http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/38153-at4w-all-star-batman-and-robin-5
It’s worth checking out parts 1-4 as well, every issue has something heinous to show us about feminists / women in general. Linkara is a open and vocal feminist and often rants about sexism in comic books. Especially outfits and ridiculous poses – as well as how the writer’s barely ever bother to look up any feminist philosophy while attempting to write something feminist. I’d recommend to view his reviews.

And yes, due to his open criticism about female presentation in comics, he has been asked – numerous times- if he was gay.

I guess from a MRA point of view, angry hypocritical man-hater feminazi is pretty accurate too.
Straw feminism is also all about stripping men from their rights so that women could have them instead – sort of a role reversal game, only men would be so much worse off than women ever were in any culture ever because everything is secretly run by women and they are totally in charge anyway. Except for maybe in some areas, where women are meek and obedient but damnit feminism is ruining / has ruined them too.

Scented fucking candles and whatnot.

DLColvin (llothcat)
11 years ago

D’oh. Its been covered already, and better than how I could’ve put it too.

katz
11 years ago

And by people who dislike you and wish you would shut up and leave.

DLColvin (llothcat)
11 years ago

@catfish.

That’s frank miller right?

Catfish
Catfish
11 years ago

@ DLColvin Ee-yup.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@katz

DL is shit at Commenting, too and also at staying on topic. Or are all strawfeminists game reviewers who don’t know how to play games? I’m getting pretty pissed because after everything else (which had already pissed me off), DL’s first “not commenting” comment in this thread basically was just a combo of what some other commenter and I said (with a couple of other Male Entertainments listed), and now it is some suggestion for us to come up with something that makes sense for the theme.

Are all female game reviewers even feminists? (I’m like 90% sure this is not the case.)

Some Gal Not Bored at All

And while I was typing, shit got more annoying.

thebewilderness
thebewilderness
11 years ago

DL knows what she needs to do if she wants to engage here. Till she does she is just another troll chumming the waters.

katz
11 years ago

Of all troll types, “pretends to be friends and hangs around making useless comments” is one of my absolute least favorites.

(For the lurkers: IMO, it’s totally fine to pop in and say “me too” if you weren’t previously a jackass. Nobody expects every comment to be brilliant, I just expect every comment to be from a non-jackass!)

Catfish
Catfish
11 years ago

@ Some gal
I can’t think of any female game reviewer who is vocal about her feminism, or has stated it at all. Some topics that could be count under the tag feminism occasionally come up but none really focus on these things. Then again, there are not a whole lot who I follow, and I rarely if ever read written reviews. So, I guess my input here isn’t really answering the question… But I’m pretty sure most of them are not, or even if they are, it’s not brought up in their material. (We all have seen what happens to feminists treading on “male territory” making critical statements, so I can’t really blame them for that.)

I get more feminist content from discussing tropes and games/movies with gamer-friends who are knowledgeable about these things.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@katz

A couple of strawfeminist things got repeated in the thread already and that is cool. Hell, any of the regulars or lurkers could repost what I said word-for-word and I’d just be flattered. When DL just repeats shit that has already been said or that is off-topic (or repeating someone else really badly?) that really annoys me. We don’t want comments from unapologetic assholes period and we additionally don’t need them to be repetitive or off-topic.

DLColvin (llothcat)
11 years ago

Just covering the same ground then, and I apologize for not reading through the entire comments before posting earlier. I must’ve missed that one. I do suffer from post lag. ( also sorry that you remain angry at me, too, but I can’t undo what’s been done. Please stay on topic, ok?) I can’t think of anything new for straw feminism at this point, as I finally was able to both load and read all the comments now.

katz
11 years ago

We are mad at you FOR POSTING.

If you want us to stop being mad, STOP POSTING.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

DL Colvin: in short, fuck off, nobody here likes you and we haven’t forgotten your lies and shitty behaviour. You are not welcome, troll.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@Catfish

I know some feminist or at least feminist-leaning game coverage sites, which I’d count as reviewers (which is a broad category imo) because I’ve been linked to them, but I couldn’t say who since I was linked to them, but leave Serious Game Following to the boyfriend as I can’t be parsed to care that much. (I know what I like or go the lazy route of asking him.) I’ve definitely seen Special Snowflake Game-Industry Women denying any sexism in games or the industry in comments sections, but I don’t know if they claimed to be reviewers or just designer/programmers.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

also sorry that you remain angry at me, too

Apologies: you are doing them wrong

Some Gal Not Bored at All

*parsed should be arsed. Stupid autocorrect.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Am I the only one who’s starting to think DL Colvin is about due to be banned? She’s not even an interesting or amusing troll, just a completely stupid one – though it’s hard to believe anyone could be so genuinely stupid as to not know what

FUCK OFF

means. Wilfully stupid or deliberately trying to make trouble are the options. Though why she should play games with us Russian Mafia types who are out to steal her identity is beyond me.

katz
11 years ago

A lovely fauxpology, too. “Gee, I’m sorry you guys are so unreasonable due to no fault of my own!”

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