How Femism "As Activism" Defeats Itself.

 

Di An Brandy

Sounds like a creepy dude

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Alex Herrera

Di Brandy why does a man have to be married to not be creepy?

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James Apperson

Alex Herrera It is an unspoken (but common) bias in America.

However, this effect is worse within "liberal" culture.

[keep in mind that I lean left, and generally align with most liberal talking points]

When I'm with a respectable woman, I'm seen as respectable and safe.

When I'm single, I'm regarded with suspicion; until an impressive-enough woman vouches for me.

In our current culture, the perception is that we are all 'guilty (of dangerous character) until proven innocent'.

This is largely the fault of media generating what's called "The Jerry Springer Effect".

They make the entire world look like one big trailer park (with mostly 1970s trailers) in the Bible Belt.

Within that paradigm, the only way to verify our innocence is for a female character-inspector (and/or character-tamer) to vouch for us;

especially by being seen and happy with us.

In other words, we get our culture's 'regard of worth' from a woman.

And only a woman of sufficiently impressive social presence can bestow a sufficient amount of said worth.

This is why the 2024 trending meme about women being safer alone in the words with a bear than with a man ... only applies to any straight man whom no sufficiently impressive woman is vouching for (with her approving presence).

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Alex Herrera

James Apperson which reinforces my statement that feminism is not about equality at all. It’s biased against men and the primary reason why men are choosing to stay single.

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James Apperson

Alex Herrera If we're talking about feminism as a sociopolitical movement, then I agree with you.

This is why I call myself "egalitarian" instead.

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James Apperson

It's a very ironic quirk of human social psychology, that even the most noble and necessary of sociopolitical causes ... inevitably warp into destructive and self-defeating social machinery.

As humans band together to ammas power for change,

they gradually become a rival version of the hate they hate.

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James Apperson

One of the Bible scholars I work with ... has serious issues with men.

It's why her career focuses on the "Biblical" roots of patriarchy and misogyny.

Mind you, I greatly respect her work.

In my opinion,

her work should be required reading for biblical studies and for all social studies. Because we all need to understand how we ended up with a world on fire.

She turned her own pain and trauma into something intelligent, productive, and powerful.

However, at the same time, her fight against 'the patriarchy', ...

is preventing her from healing. Because she keeps recycling and reinforcing a very troubled psychosocial paradigm.

It causes her to perceive disrespect from all men (even academic peers she works closely with); even when they aren't being disrespectful.

It's very much the same as when a person of color starts thinking that literally every time they don't get a job they applied for ... it must have been for racist reasons.

This has made it hard for her to keep going with her social media platforms. Because it always feels like she's surrounded by dangerously disrespectful adversaries.

So she acts like she has mutual respect with the men she professionally collaborates with. But she privately admits she doesn't believe they rightly respect her.

Feminism, as "activism", is keeping her mentally stuck in a self-defeating paradigm. And she keeps mistakenly thinking it's men's fault.

But at the same time, she's not *entirely wrong*.

Sometimes, she really isn't being shown the respect she deserves.
And sometimes, that is because she's a woman. 

Our society (and our larger world) DOES have a lot of growing and healing it needs to do,

in regards to how women and girls are regarded and treated.

And most of that is caused and worsened by Abrahamic religiosity.

And we do need empowered voices to speak out;
in protest, and to educate.

But activism, in general, is like mental quicksand.

It more deeply imprisons the minds who struggle the hardest for freedom.

Over time, it gets harder to see the humanity
within those we call "the enemy". 

So then,
the things we do (to make our world safer)
just make it more dangerous.

This is partly because we end up feeding the very same polemic that we're railing against. 

It's also because DOING SO further isolates the enemy (in this case, "men").
 
That, in turn, then makes it harder for them to get compassion, connection, and justice (for example: how men are treated in family courts). 

-That, in turn, actually does make (many) men more dangerous; because it forces them into a perpetually desperate fight to survive.  

We also end up greatly exaggerating "the enemy" within our own mind than they are in reality. 

As "the world" becomes more dangerous,
so do we all.