Shit Sexists Say

What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry: Rape Culture In Gaming

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:53:44 +0100

What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry: Rape Culture In Gaming:

About a week ago, I wrote a post on Penny Arcade vs. Rape Culture, which sent my blog traffic skyrocketing after it was linked on Reddit. However, both in comments on the post itself and elsewhere on Reddit, quite a few people seemed to be missing the point: or, more specifically,…

This comment appeared on my blog today in response to a piece I...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:04:23 +0100

This comment appeared on my blog today in response to a piece I wrote two months ago on the inherent sexism of friendzoning as a terminology. (I also put it on tumblr, where it quickly became the most reblogged original piece I’ve ever posted.)

Clearly, the article struck a nerve - not just with people who agreed or disagreed with it to various degrees, but also with people like this commenter, to whom the worst-case behavioural scenarios it describes are apparently normative, natural and desirable. Despite this conviction, he still felt the need to drop by and justify himself.

And even as I’ve been writing this up, another male commenter - whose contributions to the debate merit a post of their own - has dropped by to offer the following endorsement:

Sir, you have described what i have thought perfectly and i thank you, you deserve a knighthood for your services to men and women everywhere, take a bow son.

Some days, there just isn’t enough facepalm in the world.

What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry: Penny Arcade vs Rape Culture

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 11:45:39 +0100

What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry: Penny Arcade vs Rape Culture:

fozmeadows:

Penny Arcade is the webcomic that got me into webcomics, which is saying something. The first truly geeky friends I met at school showed it to me almost as a rite of passage, thereby hooking me not only on the strip itself, but webcomics generally. For years, PA held pride of place with all of…

The gender gap in coverage of the American election, 2012

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:50:16 +0100

The gender gap in coverage of the American election, 2012:

In case you were wondering, this is what sexist bias in the media looks like.

Hullo. Quick question - this blog seems interesting, and I look forward to seeing it progress, but I was wondering how much will you be covering male-oriented sexism as opposed to female-oriented? I ask mostly as I hear a lot about this sort of thing, from certain people who are very obsessed with "equality" in all coverage of such subjects.. so was just wondering where you were going with this. Hope that wasn't too badly construed, and have a good day/night wherever you are :3

Thu, 31 May 2012 21:08:00 +0100

The question of anti-male sexism is, I think, a vexed one. What makes anti-female sexism so problematic - and so prevalent - is the fact that it’s backed up by social expectations and sexist culture worldwide, to say nothing of legal and religious restrictions placed on female freedoms. What this means is that, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when someone tells me about how terrible a particular instance of anti-male sexism is, I’m going to treat it with skepticism, because culturally, politically, socially and institutionally, that discrimination is counterbalanced by the enormous historical weight of anti-female sexism. By which I mean: the guy’s feelings might be hurt, and I’m not going to say that’s OK, but in the vast majority of instances, the person doing the discriminating will lack the ability to fire, physically threaten, economically threaten, sexually threaten or otherwise back up their attitude with anything that can actually cause the guy harm, distress or inconvenience beyond the level of any garden-variety insult. Anti-male sexism simply isn’t loaded with the history that anti-female sexism is, and nor is it supported by the same institutional and cultural biases that keep women underpaid, underappreciated and victimised by the societies in which they live.

However.

There are nonetheless instances of anti-male sexism that are backed up by privilege, culture and hierarchy, and these will always concern me. Though different in impact, extent and frequency, these instances are generally united by a single common facet: the penalisation of men who engage in traditionally-feminine or perceived-feminine activities. This hurts everyone, and is something that makes me absolutely furious, not only because it manages the impressive feat of discriminating against every gender at once, but because it demonstrates the underlying prevalence of what we might call traditional (or anti-female) sexism, viz: that women are inferior creatures. This ranges in impact from dads being treated like sexual predators in the playground to advertisers masculinising products previously marketed towards women to the demonisation of men who like ‘girly’ things like My Little Pony. This sort of sexism is toxic and awful and just as anti-female as the regular kind, because it’s ultimately based on a fear of feminine things.

So, to answer your question: I will be covering any and all sexism that is perpetuated by society, culture, politics and religion, and which is backed up by existing institutions and hierarchies. Most of the time, that means I’ll be talking about stuff that affects women, because the vast majority of sexism is anti-female, but the whole point of equality is that we’re all in this together, and while women now have the freedom to behave in traditionally masculine ways without raising eyebrows - wearing pants, driving trucks, playing with robots, excelling at maths - there’s still a huge social stigma around men behaving in traditionally feminine ways - raising children, wearing dresses, playing with dolls, excelling at dance - because at base, we still think feminine things, and the people who do them, are lesser. And until that changes, we will always live in a sexist society.

quixotess: kateordie: This comic is about how there are two...

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:49:34 +0100

quixotess:

kateordie:

This comic is about how there are two sides to every story.

“My last girlfriend was totally crazy, not like you right?” is like……practically the #1 red flag as far as I’m concerned.

Bullshittery I just read: "I mean, I want a woman who can maintain her figure, but can eat whatever she wants, not work out and not gain weight. I want that 'SnapBack' after kids... like Beyonce"

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:40:13 +0100

str8nochaser:

So…..you want a unicorn.

Okay.

Got it.

Cuz last I heard… Bey has a professional trainer, nutritionist… oh and rehearses like 8 hours a day in heels.

Shut the fuck up and come back when you’re an actual adult.

What in the actual fuck.

A screengrab I took on 28 August 2011 for inclusion in this...

Wed, 30 May 2012 10:03:09 +0100

A screengrab I took on 28 August 2011 for inclusion in this article. Which pretty much sums up the problem, really.

By happy coincidence, today’s Sinfest perfectly...

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:06:46 +0100

By happy coincidence, today’s Sinfest perfectly encapsulates the hidden sexism of blog comments that this tumblr intends to make public.

A hideous rape joke that appeared in my Facebook feed on 16 May...

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:57:00 +0100

A hideous rape joke that appeared in my Facebook feed on 16 May 2012. The comment conversation went on longer than is shown here, but though multiple friends of the original poster expressed disgust at the post, he remained baffled as to why people had found it offensive - or rather, why they’d bothered to express their disgust through commenting as opposed to just looking away. Additionally, the female commenter who thought it was funny responded to my criticism by saying that her life was “too complicated” for her to think about the deep and meaningful subtext of jokes like this, and that as the OP wasn’t (in her estimation) a fuckwit, his post couldn’t possibly be offensive, and that only people who weren’t really his friends would have a problem with it. *facepalm*

"The fact that you’re engraged is amusing to me. Don’t worry pumpkin, one day you’ll come to terms..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:49:07 +0100

“The fact that you’re engraged is amusing to me. Don’t worry pumpkin, one day you’ll come to terms with fangirl marginalization. Maybe, generations from now, your fangirl descendents will actually spend as much money on comics as The Men do. Of course by then it won’t matter because apes will have taken over the world and outlawed the works of annoying hack bitches like faith hicks, vanessa davis and all the contributors of womanthology (the book that charity created because no one who appreciates good writing would buy it otherwise). Female bloggers will no doubt live as mutants underground where their whining will no longer be heard.”

- So I made a post on my book blog recommending some graphic novels/comics for my readers, partially as a response to seeing a whole bunch of guys lately (more so than usual) insisting that girls don’t read comics and comics aren’t for girls anyway.

I got one comment. From this dude. And I had to share.

(via amynta)

From my Twitter run-in with conservative journalist Kurt...

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:58:16 +0100

From my Twitter run-in with conservative journalist Kurt Schlichter on 29 April 2012. (The reason for the clash can be found here.)

Why The New Blog?

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:52:40 +0100

As of May 2012, author and blogger Foz Meadows has finally undergone the rite of passage invariably and inevitably faced by women on the internet: dealing with the presence of abusive, sexist commenters on her blogs. This tumblr exists to catalogue not only their particular species of drivel, but also the more garden variety sexism Foz encounters in her day-to-day existence, whether directed at her personally or at others. It also features sexist quotes taken from public figures, literature and pop culture.

The aim of this tumblr is to demonstrate the casual nature of sexism both on the internet and in wider culture. Of necessity, most prominent blogs run by women, or which routinely attract sexist commenters, tend to be heavily moderated: abusive comments are screened or deleted and their writers banned, the better to create an environment where neither the blogger nor their readership has to deal with that sort of toxicity. This is a sound policy, but one which often proves both time-consuming and emotionally draining to those tasked with implementing it. It also has the side effect of masking the true extent of the problem from readers and bloggers who, for whatever reason, don’t experience it themselves. This tumblr is therefore open to submissions from bloggers who’d like to make a public record of the sort of comments that don’t appear publicly on their sites, but which they are nonetheless forced to deal with.