Letters to the Editor
Linney Uston
Published Letters: 269 Editor's Choice: 6
-
Hey Holly, got a question..
[Read the article: The reluctant feminist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You say: "I've written for the various famous feminist mags and have had to interview various famous feminists and what I've learned is that feminists voices are as varied as the veggies at a farmers' market."
So whenever "feminists" get criticized, it's said that you can generalize... And yet, if that was true, one couldn't make POSITIVE generalizations about feminists as well, right?
Because I see quite a lot written about how great feminism is, how wonderful it is, how it's the best thing since ice cream, etc... but to suggest that SOME feminists are intellectually lazy is an outrageous overgeneralization.
How does that work, exactly, where the positive generalizations are to be assumed true but the negative generalizations can't ever apply? Can you explain how that is? Because it sounds pretty damned intellectually lazy to me.
-
Holly, thanks for the quick reply
[Read the article: The reluctant feminist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If, by "read between the lines" you mean that I should've read what you did not articulate, then no I didn't do that.
Here's my beef: when Lessing says that feminism has been hijacked by knee-jerk man-blamers, the popular Broadsheet reaction is "Overgeneralization!" because of "diversity" within feminism.
Okay, fine. If one accepts that, then what I don't understand is how it's NOT an overgeneralization to say "feminists don't hate men" or "feminists are a progressive force for positive change" or talk about "THE feminist perspective" and so on if there's such great diversity within feminism that NO statement can possibly apply to all of them.
And even if a negative statement did apply to PART of feminism but not the whole, you kind of wonder why the bad portions of feminism are allowed to wear the team jersey and speak from the team soap-box and have their books endorsed and be considered part of the Sisterhood. Really makes you wonder, hmm?
-
Tickled by this comment especially...
[Read the article: The reluctant feminist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Yeah that's pretty stupid stuff, but ... can we really extrapolate on the failings of feminism from the silly comments of an elementary-school teacher?"
What a stupid old twit that Nobel-laureate is. She must have NO idea what she's talking about when she criticizes feminism.
So except for any remarks she's made which are vaguely critical of any aspect of the precious ideology we hold so dear to ourselves, everything else she's ever said in her life is brilliant. Just not the comments I dislike hearing.
...or that's how the reasoning seems to be at Broadsheet, at least.
-
@leftychris
[Read the article: The reluctant feminist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Why is it so hard to understand her message?"
Because Broadsheet contributors are dead-set on missing Lessing's point at all costs, so as to not ask painful questions about their own behavior and the behavior of the blogs they link to.
Of course, if a man were to say things identical to Lessing's comments, he would be excoriated and ignored for his stupidity. As a female intellectual that Broadsheet admires, Lessing can get a pass. Such comments are spun as incidental silliness which can be swept under the rug and ignored.
So Lessing is surely overgeneralizing about feminism based SOLEY on one schoolteacher's behavior and not on anything else she's ever observed in her entire life. She's certainly not commenting on any recurring themes that currently predominate within feminism. We all know that feminism cannot be criticized for any reason, therefore Lessing must be mistaken.
Lessing's disturbing conclusions about feminism can be ignored as a matter of her drawing conclusions based on the behavior of one feminist; now Broadsheeters may resume their usual activities of making disturbing conclusions about masculinity based on the behavior of any one man.
-
Lesson for all female faculty...
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...if your college administrator ever says that women are too emotional, the women in the audience should react as emotionally as they possibly can.
So stomp your feet, pound your fists and threaten to cry if he doesn't apologize immediately. This will demonstrate that his statement was wrong.
-
Uh huh
[Read the article: Guilty of murder or seeming unmatronly?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Interesting how Broadsheet doesn't talk very much about how lawbreaking women are usually given lighter punishments by the courts and how this doesn't fit-in too comfortably with "Teh Oppressive Patriarchy" theory of how society works, eh?
You'd sort of expect "Teh Oppressive Patriarchy" to punish women, uh, MORE severely than the group which is favored by it, right? "Teh Oppressive Patriarchy" must be doing a really, really piss-poor job.
Not that this will change the worldview of those who have been sucked-in to the pathetic cult of female victimhood that feminism has become.
-
@mappeal
[Read the article: Guilty of murder or seeming unmatronly?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]ONE exception to the rule. Whoop-de-doo. Teh Oppressive Patriarchy is as monolithic as it ever is, yabetcha.
And I can find exceptions to your rule, too:
http://www.ohionewsnow.com/?story=sites/ONN/content/pool/200709/1352288903.html
What's even better- if it was the case where men were treated more harshly for leaving kids to die in a car, it wouldn't even make the paper; it would be considered normal.
-
Sentence error...
[Read the article: Are our husbands really so helpless?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Though we do wish they allowed men to participate, as we have always tried to do here...
...and if they admit to being evil morons, they might even get a red star.
I fixed your sentence for you. You don't have to thank me.
-
In other words...
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It says a lot about the first 50 years of spaceflight that this is where we're at."
In other words... spaceflight has become safe enough for women to do it.
Let me know when the first all-female coal mine comes into existance.
-
@leftychris
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Say, you do realize that after the Soviets launched Valentina Tereshkova into space, they never launched another female Cosmonaut, showing that it was mainly for propaganda.
Based on your reaction today, I can see the propaganada worked pretty well.
-
Why aren't boys allowed to be victims?
[Read the article: Why aren't boys allowed to be victims?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Here's one big reason: The instant such a thought comes-up, feminists instantly and without hesitation mock and jeer it away because they think it's an attempt to steal attention away from the all-important victimhood of women.
It's a sick mentality, I agree. It's good that Tracy can at least sense that something rotten is going on.