Comments Elsewhere

Amp: Several people have suggested, more than once, that my blog is not a feminist blog because of my moderating policies. A few people have suggested that, by extension, I’m not a feminist. I believe that similar comments have been made about Hugo’s blog, and possibly about Hugo. This brings up the “big tent” issue; is “feminist blog” defined broadly enough to include Hugo’s blog and “Alas,” and is “feminist” defined broadly enough to include myself and Hugo?

Well, O.K., fair enough; but it didn’t seem like that was what was at issue in the thread that Hugo was commenting on, and Hugo seemed to me to be writing about it as if the issue at hand were his attitude towards the claims of third parties to the “feminist” name, not his own claim to it.

That said, the issue has come up explicitly now, so maybe you’re right that it was there all along. Anyway, not much sense in pressing the point now that it clearly is part of the debate.

Hugo: Q Grrl, anytime you want a feminist Christian reading list, let me know!

Hugo, that was a really patronizing comment.

Gonzman: I’ve heard a lot of feminists here complain that they are tired of being regarded as gender seperatist, female supremacist, man-hating radicals.

Hey. I can’t say that I personally know any female supremacists, but some of my best friends are gender separatist, man-hating radicals.

Gonzman: And even though I’m sure someone will point at me as being hostile but I will say it anyway – those are the voices coming loudest from the discourse of the “feminisms.”

See, here’s the thing. All the radical feminists I know feel that their views are unfairly marginalized, ridiculed, and used as rhetorical foils both within the movement and in discussions of the movement from the outside looking in. So there’s clearly a disconnect here. Either (1) you (and whoever it is you’re citing) have a very different impression of the content of public discussions about feminism, or (2) you (and whoever it is you’re citing) have a very different impression of what constitutes “radical feminism” (or “gender separatism” or “man-hating” or whatever) than many self-identified radical feminists do.