Letters to the Editor
stackey-dackey
Published Letters: 287 Editor's Choice: 8
-
Oh Please Inverse
[Read the article: MSNBC on the "pregnant man": "I'm gonna be sick"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look, I understand your position. But you aren't going to get anywhere trying to make people feel guilty about how they feel.
I wouldn't 1) discrimminate against someone transgendered 2) I wouldn't advocate anyone beating up one 3) I wouldn't make jokes or say snide things.
To each his or her own; but I guess because I can't ever imagine wanting to be (for than a 24 hours, just enough time to get some and pee standing up) a man it's something very hard to wrap my head around emotionally. I love my body and I don't know, I can't help but think that there is a part of my soul that is shaped by the container that holds it. So I'm not an essentialist, but I don't beleive the sum of human behavior is all constructed by humans.
But I need to take what transgendered and genderqueer folks say at face value, and not think they're just trying to weezle out of their womanhood. It's a process, though. Something which I've been working on for years.
And I will say this; if my hypothetical kid decided to cut off her breasts (it would make me sad, because I made her) and start taking tetsterone I'd support her. Granted, I might say what my mom said to me when I got my nipples pierced: I took care of your body for 18 years and if you want to go and mutilate it now, it's your right. God, my mom is and was the queen of the biting one-liner. Even if I don't understand it, I don't think anyone should tell any adult (as long as they aren't killing folks) how he or she should live their life.
And I apologize if my earlier post offended anyone. (at least for its horrible grammar!)
-
"White" feminism
[Read the article: Quote of the day ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've felt that a lot of "white" feminists on this board are unwilling or unable to think about anything outside of their own needs. At least black activists don't really pretend to be uplifting anyone other than black folks; white feminists seem to think that what's good for them is good for all women. They ignore the plight of the large number of third world and people of color domestics who watch their children while they are out making the big bucks. How many of these women are actually paid for the amount of work they do? What about overtime? What about a decent wage? How about the disparity between "unskilled" labor for women (like babysitting, housekeeping, etc) and unskilled labor for men?
What about, as Mizblinky said, the large number of black women who are the head of a single household. Ever stop to think that black women might not want to be the head of household; that it's due to the War On Drugs incarcerating large numbers of black men and the endemic poverty in some inner city areas that single motherhood isn't a "choice" for black women? That they would rather have a two-parent household than make a little more money as a clerk at Walmart?
I'm not trying to be snotty, but it seems to me white feminists are always trying to ignore the priviliges that their pale skin gives to them. They go missing, and all of the talking heads on CNN lose their damn mind. They "get" to work out of their home; every one of my foremothers has had a job outside of their home, thank you very much, and to be honest, most of them wished they could stay at home and take care of their kids. But they had to work so there would be food on the table, even the ones who had a man in the house.
I don't expect so-called "white" feminists to give a rats ass about the plight of us colored folk; I just wish they would stop pretending that the solution for them is the same for all women all over the earth. It is demeaning, smacks of paternalism, and it really pisses me off.
-
Oh and another thing...
[Read the article: Quote of the day ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My post also applies to poor white women.
-
Holy Shit!
[Read the article: Confronting Congolese rapists ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What kind of backwards bullshit is that?
I know it's not your intention, Allie, but I feel like with your anecdote about the rich kids raping your friend, your trying to say, men rape, oh well. I think you want to be careful not to sound racist or something.
Look, these men are pretty much the textbook definition of the banality of evil. This is different than a bunch of rich kids gang raping a girl in the parking lot; this is terrorism. This is rape as a tool of war. Sure they are comprable, and their might be a component of mob mentality behind their behavior, but this rape isn't about breaking a single woman's spirit because the abuser is a sexual sadist or serial rapist or a bunch of kids who get egged on by their peers. I don't think any of these guys get "off" on it. I bet you that when this war is over, all of these rape gangs will go back to their lives and probably never rape another woman. That's because this is about breaking an enemy's spirit. All of them, the men, the women and children. Awful, just awful.