Dropping In

[OzarkDem]

The discussions on the Duke and De Anza rape cases have made me realize I should spend more time here. Its sad to see so much of women's progress being rolled back in recent years.

[AllieB]

1. Rolled back by Repubs and enabled by progressives here on DU

It really saddens me to see these kind of attitudes being spewed by so-called liberals/Democrats.

[ThomCat]

6. There are relatively few progressives here at DU.

There are a whole lot of people who are more than willing to go with the status quo. :(

[AllieB]

7. I wondered about that.

I've only been a member of DU for a few years, and it seems to have gotten more conservative. Is it DLC Democrats or trolls that make it this way?

[ThomCat]

8. Some of both

but mostly people who don't think outside of their own little boxes. If they are white they don't think about racism except as some remote, rare occurance that happens somewhere else. If they are straight they don't bother to think about or understand heterosexism. If they are not poor they don't really bother to get a perspective on poverty because only the middle class matters. Etc.

A lot of people think they are more liberal than they are, because they assume that they support people when they really don't. Or worse, they arrogantly "support" people by dictating what is good or important for those other people, which isn't really support at all.

[noamnety]

2. Hi there!

I've been noticing and appreciating your posts recently. Welcome to our little oasis.

[OzarkDem]

3. Thanks!

Good group, appreciate all of you posting on feminist issues in the "big" forums. Its surprising how many Dems are still so uncomfortable with women's issues.

[bliss_eternal]

4. Welcome...!

:hi: Good to see you here! I've been sparse in the main forums. I pop in occasionally to alert on the most offensive stuff.

[gaspee]

5. If it weren't for this group

I would no longer come to DU. Twisty's place is much better now that she has a message board.

I am so fed-up with the men on the left who are supposedly on our side who see absolutely nothing wrong with the degredation of women. In fact, they see it as their right. Excuse me while I vomit.

I can't even articulate how *angry* I am over the way women are treated as the sex class and nothing but. Men feel they have the right to discuss every woman's appearance and the only thing they care about women is if they are fuckable or not. Excluding women in their own family, of course. Well, except for wives. Then they want other men to find their wives fuckable because it gives them status.

It makes me sick. In fact, the older I get, the less tolerance I have for this bullshit. If reality permitted, I would be a separatist and would not deal with men at all. Unless and until the culture changes, we as women are going to be subjected to the same bullshit we are now. Even on DU, women are continually called skanks, ho's, gold diggers, vindictive bitches and on and on and on.

Men the world over seem to think they have the absolute right to use women in any way they see fit, then call them names. I'm even disgusted watching certain "icons" on the left. I no longer watch the daily show or even Olberman. The tone the two of them take toward women was enough for me to say no more. No fucking more. And again, I am dumbfounded that the left is just as bad as the right, just in a different way. They don't want women barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen gazing at them adoringly and submissively (most don't, anyway,) but they sure as hell think their right to *buy* women-- and how fucking sick is that-- is absolute. Think about that for a minute. These assholes in the Duke case are being defended for *purchasing* a human being. Sickening.

The only way I can fight back, just a little, is to call men on their bullshit whenever I see or hear it. I'm not going to take it, period. And if that gives me the label of "angry" or "man-hater," I'll wear that mantle with pride. Because if you can look at the male-on-female violence statistics, if you can watch a night of comercial TV, if you can't walk down a street without being treated as a collection of orrifices for men to stick their dicks in and you are not angry, there is something seriously wrong with you. Some women enablers are worse than the dickheads because they are collaborating in their own oppression and the oppresion of half the human race.

Men are not going to change unless we *make* them.

[ThomCat]

9. "We must empower ourselves."

Isn't that a standard foundation of civil rights? No group will rise up that won't stand up for themselves. That's why paternalism doesn't work.

But, that doesn't mean you don't have some guys working in your auxiliary. Women have been successful enough to convince some of us of the truth, and we'll help convince more. :)

[ismnotwasm]

10. Twisty is revitalizing

I was looking at a "Womens" magazine. I think it was Maire Claire or something--One of the ads showed a woman on her knees tucked underneath her on the floor, with upper body lain completely back on the couch. A dead woman pose. Of course she was "glam" full makeup, Split to naval short dress high heels. She looked like she was in rigor mortis.
The CSI effect? Or Law and Order SVU (One of the shows Twisty has pointed out) or any of what I've come to call "Dead Woman Shows". Or Dead Chick shows when I'm feeling particular cynical. It has indeed spilled over into advertising, although it certainly isn't anything new.

There was little difference in the ad and the condition dead woman are found in those shows.

And of course so often the "dead woman" is a prostitute, or some sort of sex worker, or a cheating wife. Or they go the other route, a nubile young girl in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whore/Virgin, Virgin/Whore. That part hasn't changed in 40 years of feminism.
The last category is "Unfuckable" Or at least unfuckable where other can see or know about it. Dead "old" women aren't sexy.