Letters to the Editor
MWise
Published Letters: 249 Editor's Choice: 19
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all rage and no substance
[Read the article: Beyond biological sex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sorry, but the hell is a "fucking godbag"? And what does "goddamned dead beat pedophile wife raping FRAs!!!!!!!!!" have to do with this discussion? What is a FRAs? I have no understanding of what you are saying here, other than you are pissed off.
Yes feminists come in all forms, good people, bad people, stupid people. It is a movement made up of people and those people bring their own issues to the movement. I've never said that feminism is the best thing on earth. Within the movement itself there is conflict. There is the pro-sex and anti-porn conflict, there are generational differences and class differences. I don't disagree that there are parts of the feminist movement that are bigoted against transgender people. I disagree that they are the primary movers in the feminist movement and that mainstream feminism is currently acting to discriminate against transgender people (your main claim). I've agreed many times that mainstream feminism (MF) missed the boat on lots of issues (women of color, non-white collar working women, the importance of fathers etc). Did you go to any of those groups that I wrote about and see what they had to say about transgenderism? Nope, because you prefer instead to rant and rave. You dismiss all of those groups working towards more tolerance and diversity as "sugar and spice". I don't understand you, want do you want? Do you want NOW to storm into the Michigan Womyn's Festival and burn it down in protest? What is your beef with this Salon article that we started writing about? Is it that it doesn't tear down other feminists even though it is endorsing a more inclusive view of gender? Which brings me to the fact that you've never even stated what you want other than for feminists to realize that their "shit stinks". Do you even support transgender rights and inclusion? I don't know, because you just accuse and complain and rant and rave.
I think you brought up a good point that it would interesting if Salon/Broadsheet did a more in depth article about the differing factions within feminism especially the ones like the "womyn for womyn" (of whom I had never heard of) because it seems so out of place to find women advocating biologic reductionism. That's an idea which typically has been used to keep women contained in the traditional role of wife and mother. And I'm surprised to see that a feminist group would base their beliefs on it. As far as the impact of RadFem, I think a lot of the anti-sex/anti-porn movement has died away, it was already on the way out when I was in school as was the separatist movement. But then I went to a fairly conservative school in the South, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't representative of the campus RadFem movements across the country.
My point has always been that when I was involved in feminist groups I never experienced this anti-transexual bias that certain writers in these letters rave about. And in looking at the mainstream groups that I was involved with, I still don't find it there nor do I find that your claim of bigotry against transgenderism is rampant in the mainstream feminist groups. But I will take your suggestion and try to read some of those blogs and see what you are talking about. I will take a pass on Marcotte. I've read her several times and I can't stand her writing style but I found her site was just a complete troll magnet.
As for the guy complaining that I'm from a different planet because I said that NOW (along with all those other groups I mentioned) is not pushing legislation to discriminate against transgender people. NOW's site clearly includes a 2005 resolution concerning their committment to include transgender issues. And their legislative record tracks with this statement. This has nothing at all to do with divorce law or father's rights. So other than an opportunity for you to bust on me, I don't see your point here. If you want to talk about fathers' rights, talk to someone who actually DISagrees with you!
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Cary and LW!
[Read the article: I don't want more kids but my wonderful husband does]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you are reading any of these letters, please let us know what the LW's decision is and how it turns out.
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i'm confused
[Read the article: The invisible AIDS cure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nothing in the book review actually addresses a cure for AIDS. It addresses the various types of prevention, but that does nothing for those people that are already infected. Is the title just completely misleading or was there part of the book that addresses local cures to AIDs? It doesn't really sound like these local preventation measures are all that radical or even different from what is promoted in the US. We are told to be monogamous or abstinent and when we have sex with partners of an unknown status, use a condom. Isn't "zero grazing" equivalent to monogamy? And is anyone shocked that there are people that profit from other people's misery?