Gender Essentialism, Religion

Pope Francis Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

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His Holiness spoke out against the role of women in the Church shifting from one of “service” to one of “servitude”, as reported on Globalpost. For this, we commend the Holy Father.

However, in elaborating his point, the Supreme Pastor (a man of many names – seriously, check them out here) went on to make some points which are worth questioning:

The “sort of emancipation” that allows women to enter traditionally male domains may rob them of “the very femininity that characterizes them”.
…
Whatever cultural and social changes have occurred or may occur, “the fact remains that it is the woman who conceives, carries and brings into the world the children of men,” the pontiff said.

While his aim was to highlight the importance of women in society, this may not quite be the right approach, because:

  • His claims are essentialist. ‘Essentialism‘ means believing that a woman is somehow truly, deep in her core, identifiable as a woman; being a woman is not simply the result of different attributes and behavior. (as described in this other Hoochie post).

The debates over essentialism rage on. Whether the Pope’s viewpoint is supported by evidence is one question; yet another is whether we should criticize the Church for its views… are the women in question not there of their own will?

I don’t know what is right – but it’s worth asking the question.

What do you think – how do feminist ideas fit in with the Catholic Church?

Related articles
DFM

DFM? #1: Ellen!

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Introducing a new Hoochie project! “DFM” stands for “Does Feminism Matter?”. Of course you know our answer — we’re all friendly fierce fine feminists here, eh? If that’s surprising, you should have read the sign on the door — but another question that matters is, “Do other people in our community think feminism matters?” So we’re gathering some data.

Our staff writers are going to be prowling the streets around the BU campus, stopping passersby each day to put an all-important question to them: “Does Feminism Matter?” We’ll post their responses here, without editorialization, so as to help create an accurate portrayal of the state of feminist attitudes and awareness in our community.

Here to kick off the series is an undergrad we found sunning herself on the steps of the Tsai Center.

dfm-1-v1DFM #1
Friday, October 11, 2013

Hi! What’s your name?
Ellen

Where ya from?
Albany!

What are you studying, what do you do?
Chinese and French!

Tell us: Does feminism Matter?
“I think so, yes! Men and woman matter equally, so the study of men and women as a whole matters.”

One a scale of 1-10, how much do you think feminism matters? 10

Activism, Awareness, Equal Rights, Politics

Pakistani Feminist poised to become youngest Nobel Peace laureate ever

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Read this article! It’s referring to an interview with Malala Yousafzai and Jon Stewart. Malala is a famous Pakistani woman who advocates for women’s rights, specifically rights to education. In the past, she was subject to assassination by the Taliban – it’s an amazing story. Check out her response to being threatened by them:

http://www.businessinsider.com/malala-yousafzai-left-jon-stewart-speechless-2013-10 

Being a Man, Masculinity, Satire

“But Empowered Women Deflate My Dick!”

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Every once in a while, someone decides that it is advisable to spew their ignorant, asinine nonsense all over the internet in a perfect representation of the hideous, nauseated cave-dweller which they prove themselves to be.

This is exactly what the hobgoblin who goes by the name of Matt Forney has accomplished.

See if you can tell which statement regarding women comes from his personal blog, and which is a collection of factually inaccurate, inane ramblings crafted by yours-truly (spoiler: this will be more difficult than it looks):

Option 1:

Whenever a girl I’m talking to brags about how she’s “confident” and “strong,” I can feel my dick deflating like a punctured tire. I’d still bang her, of course; a repellent personality doesn’t negate the fact that she has a slammin’ body. But a crucial part of the attraction is lost. I’d be less offended if she ripped a fart in my face.

The idea that women should have self-esteem or need it, beyond a low baseline to ensure they don’t commit suicide or become psycho stalkers, is one of the most disastrous social engineering experiments of the modern era. A woman with excessive confidence is like a man with a vagina. It’s an attribute that is at best superfluous and at worst prevents women from fulfilling their natural biological and social functions.

Option 2:

Whenever a girl I’m talking to goes off about how she is an “empowered” woman cause she has a job and career, all I can think of is “Wow, what a waste of a fine pair tits-and-ass.” I mean, I really can’t think of a bigger turn-off than some chick who acts like she deserves respect for pretending to be a serious professional. There is nothing more useless to society than a “career woman.” Her time would be better spent on my dick or in the kitchen – for the sake of efficiency, let men do men’s jobs so they don’t have to waste their time cleaning up the mess some chick made, and regretting that they hired her in the first place.

The idea that a woman deserves the same respect as a man is absurd. She is half as capable as men are if she is lucky. If a girl expects to be regarded as a man, she has to play by our rules, and I haven’t met one woman who wouldn’t crumble if she were held to the same standards as men are held to.

Well, there you have it.  Can you tell which one is real? Click here to find out (but not if you want to be in a good mood afterwards).

The point is that us feminists need to be cognizant of the fact that people like this do, indeed, still exist. Hopefully, you will only have to come into contact with them rarely. When you do, proceed with caution, as it may be difficult for you to resist body-slamming them off of Planet Earth for the good of humanity.

Feminism

Why Feminism Does Not Perpetuate Gender Categories

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Many open-minded and freedom-loving young adults do not like the term feminism because they believe it perpetuates gender categories. Is the world not ready to move on?, they ask. Being ‘nice’ to women is ‘common sense’!

That is not the case – here we discuss why.

In a thoughtful post titled Feminism: A Male Anarchist’s Perspective, Pendleton Vandiver highlights how the attitude toward women has indeed changed for the better – not because humanity has slowly come to its senses; not because some vague sense of justice has cured bigotry – but only because of the ongoing struggle of feminism that has pushed through the past two centuries and still burns passionately today.

Vandiver writes:

To deny this struggle is to perpetuate a myth similar to that of the happy slave. Yet this is precisely what we do when we speak of feminism as somehow perpetuating a gender divide, or hindering our progress away from identity politics. Feminism did not create the conflict between genders: patriarchal society did. It is important not to forget that the aforementioned idea that women are fully human is not common sense but absolutely, emphatically, a feminist notion.

He goes on to discuss why many ‘freedom-for-all’ advocates, especially anarchists, have criticized feminism for being:

  • Essentialist (“believing that a woman is somehow truly, deep in her core, identifiable as a woman; being a woman is not simply the result of different attributes and behaviors.“)
  • A philosophy that asserts female superiority to men.
  • A perpetuation of gender categories.

Vandiver walks us through the arguments against these views. Here is a good snapshot:

Feminism can perhaps be best defined as the attempt to get beyond the state of affairs where people are oppressed because of gender. Thus, it is not possible to go beyond gender without feminism; the charge that feminism itself perpetuates gender categories is patently absurd.

The post is well worth a read. Check it out here.

So, what do you think – is the struggle perpetuating the problem?

Media Criticism

Film screening: “Miss Representation”

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Hey Hoochies; mark your calendars. A screening of the film Miss Representation is being sponsored by The ManKind Project of New England on November 14, 2013, at 7 pm at  Kendall Square Cinema, One Kendall Square (at 355 Binney Street) in Cambridge. However:

A minimum of 122 tickets need to be sold in order for this event to happen! Please buy yours now and also help spread the word.

The film, written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.

Tickets are available at: https://www.tugg.com/go/vcjy0d for $15.00. There will be an opportunity to gather to meet and discuss the film immediately after the show. Tickets will go on sale a midnight, October 11th.

You can view the Official Trailer at YouTube or below.

More about the film:

Miss Representation debuted in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival where it caught the eye of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. It made its television premier as part of the OWN documentary film club in October 2011, with over 1.3 million people tuning in to multiple airings. More than two years later over 40 countries have screened the film in corporations, non-profits, religious groups, government organizations and communities are happening every day all over the world.

Miss Representation includes stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics like Condoleezza Rice, Lisa Ling, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Jackson Katz, Jean Kilbourne, and Gloria Steinem. The film offers startling facts and statistics that will leave audiences shaken and armed with a new perspective.

In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality — and not in her capacity as a leader. While women have made strides in leadership over the past few decades, the U.S. is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures, women hold only 3 % of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating.

Miss Representation was selected from the Sundance line-up to be part of the OWN Documentary Film Club. “Through personal stories and provocative interviews, Jennifer crystallizes the relevance of the media and its portrayal of women in today’s society,” said Lisa Erspamer, Chief Creative Officer for OWN. In addition, ro*co films will distribute Miss Representation to educational institutions (K-12 institutions, universities and libraries) located in the United States and Canada.

MissRepresentation.org is igniting a cross-generational movement to shift the cultural mindset of communities, interrupt and stop patterns of sexism, change the way women and girls are represented in the media and ensure a tipping point that will lead to gender parity in leadership throughout the United States. Join the campaign at www.missrepresentation.org.

Please feel free to direct questions to MissRep.mlh@gmail.com

a feminist media project