So I did an interview about my Confused Cats Against Feminism blog with Catster.com, a site that devotes itself to collecting “helpful and hilarious information for the worldly but still infatuated Cat aficionado.” Alas, as a result of publishing this interview with me yesterday, they now seem to be collecting angry MRA commenters as well.
Here are some highlights of the, er, debate so far, which I’ve waded into myself, perhaps unwisely. (These are selections, with a bunch missing, though the comments that look obviously like they are responses to other comments, are.) Maeve Connor is the author of the post about me.
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Here, by the way, are some of the not-belittling, all-inclusive, non-mocking contributors to Women Against Feminism.
I’m just taking a wild guess here, but I’m pretty sure none of these gals are “tweens.”
It’s not like David is trying to be THE VOICE OF FEMINISM, Schwyzer-style. He is not undermining female voices, and in fact he works with and promotes the work of female feminists (for example, in this very blog post!)
He doesn’t tell people the correct way to be a feminist. He just says “look at this awful shit I found” and mocks it.
And isn’t David really the best candidate for curating CCAF because he is actually just made of cats in a David-suit? How dare humans try to tell cats how to feel about feminism!
re Plan and Non-Plan:
Interesting… Martin still lists the documentary as a work in progress. How long has it been since he said they shot the footage?
>also wtf is with “here in Portland” as some statement of social superiority over Chicago?
Well apparently, the Hammerskins had a hand in making Portland is a city that isn’t too urban, if you get my right-wing lingo.
The Tom Martin “documentary” (because, like it will be a documentary) appears to have sunk without trace. The most recent mentions I have seen are on this blog.
I wonder if he made enough money to pay off the debt he incurred as a result of being a dumbass. Probably not.
Neither have mine.
::huddles in Corner of Grief::
Soooo, my feminist beeothches (slurred on account of celebratory drinking). How are things? Tough few weeks, aye? Failed to tie Rogers to the MRM. Failed to prevent the MRM conference. And what the hell is that whole #WomenAgainstFeminism thing! WOW! Did you do all that?! FanFuckingTastic! Thank you! Thank you very much!
Don’t let it get you down! Turn that frown upside down!
MGHOW Tim
Just saw this on xojane:
I have a twin out there somewhere.
pallygirl: He lists is as a work in progress on his twitter bio. It’s pretty funny. 😉
It’s probably more ‘in progress’ than him paying off his debts.
Imagine if debtor’s prisons were still a thing, as they used to be. I’m seeing a Hogarthian scene, with poor Tom Martin sitting, shackled, on a Hard Stool, and typing furiously on his notebook (second-hand, of course) about the cruelty of it all.
There is nothing wrong with pointing out misogyny from women, and mocking the damaging rhetoric spread by nasty ideologies.
If a woman says she doesn’t need feminism, that’s her opinion and I can respect that. However, when she actively opposes feminism based on willful misinterpretation of what it is to be a feminist, and expect not to be challenged and called out for it, then sorry but not sorry.
The MRM can’t use supportive women as shields from criticism by men and women alike who object to their horrible arguments.
If a woman told me she didn’t need feminism, I’d want to ask if she expected to, say, vote, or take out loans without male permission, or even open bank accounts, or have any access to birth control, or keep her job after she married, or have any chance of the same pay as her male colleagues, or access to divorce without having to prove adultery and cruelty from her husband. Because if she doesn’t need feminism, she’d better walk the walk and give up all those gains.
@ kitteh
Make that a triplet 😉
I actually have this unhealthy sort of Nice Guy relationship with one of the neighbourhood cats who won’t let me pat her. I’m all like “Come here puss! Kitty kitty” *makes kissy noises*
And then when she just sits on the front mat of her house staring at me and not coming towards my loving arms I’m just all “FINE THEN YOU WITHOLDING ICE QUEEN I MAKE KISSY NOISES AND MEOWS AT YOU AND YOU GIVE ME NOTHING IN RETURN DON’T YOU KNOW I AM A NICE GUY I AM ALSO A REALLY GOOD CAT-PETTER WHICH YOU’D KNOW IF YOU ONLY GAVE ME A CHANCE INSTEAD OF BEING A JERK”
ROFLMAO!
I think I have been a NiceCatPerson(TM) too.
This is a shattering moment of self-awareness.
…So I may have tried to upvote a comment in the screenshot.
It’s early. My brain has evidently not clocked in for work yet.
As far as the “Should a man run CCAF” bit–it seems to me that this would apply if CCAF was saying “All women who reject feminism are illogical/ignorant/uninformed”. But CCAF doesn’t claim that any woman who is not a feminist is an idiot. It’s not engaging with a serious debate. It’s not even mocking any specific woman/women who have held up a sign; it’s countering some rhetorical non-sequiturs and overt mischaractarization with cute, fuzzy overlords posed next to rhetorical non-sequiturs and overt mischaractarization–about the same subject, no less!
I get why it’s inappropriate for someone from a privileged group to lecture people from an oppressed group about how to properly deal with their oppression. But I feel like, for a lot of reasons, CCAF doesn’t fit that description.
Kitteh, this unhealthy relationship has been going on for more than a year. Every time that I pass and she’s there I try again. She still won’t come to me. WHY DO YOU FEAR MY LOVE.
She’s friendzoned you, saphy! She’s made you an inpat! D:
This should not be allowed to happen, kitteh, it violates my human rights and natural human needs CATS HAVE TOO MANY RIGHTS THESE DAYS WHAT ABOUT MORE RIGHTS FOR ME
There needs to be A Voice for Patters! Patters’ Human Rights Movement!
@pecunium: and I hope he asked Richard Dawkins to create his scale of funniness for rating their jokes.
@saphy and @kitteh: one of my cats walks over me, literally, every night. He goes around the bed, jumps up next to me for a snuggle then walks on me to go to the other side. Sometimes he omits the snuggle part. He is also the one that has the “no, mummy” meow down pat too. And he has ruined two suitcases of mine – from getting home, after I take all my stuff out, he jumped in them and peed in them. He’s *never* toileted incorrectly. I read that as a “piss on you mummy for being away for 5 days” message.
He, along with the other boys, if annoyed with me will sit on the floor with his back to me, perfectly perpendicular. Cats – not subtle.
::nods::
We definitely need a Humans’ Human Rights Movement for Humans. This furzoning has gone too far!
And apropos of the Tom Martin comments:
Sexismbusters…
If there’s somethin’ misandrist in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call (sexismbusters)
If it’s somethin’ feminist then it don’t look good
Who ya gonna call (sexismbusters)
Hi, my name is pallygirl, and I was furzoned.