A pseudo-feminist du jour has come up with the following pearl of wisdom:
By refusing to acknowledge men as feminists that is not to say that I want to exclude them from the feminist movement, on the contrary we need as many men in the feminist movement as possible, but their role is different.
This funny simpleton with poor writing skills doesn’t realize that she has just justified every gender-based injustice under the Sun. Talk to any anti-women chauvinist, and you will hear the same argument verbatim. “I have nothing against women,” such woman-haters always say. “In fact, I love women. All I’m saying is that women are different, so their role in society has to be different.”
Of course, the moment you have justified a single instance of the gender-based separation of spheres, you have justified all of them.
The hilariousness of the quoted post does not stop here. If you follow the link, you will see that the post’s author argues that this “different role” men should play in the feminist movement is none other than protecting and defending women from nasty Internet trolls.
This makes sense, too. If the only admission ticket to the feminist movement is a vagina, then the old and tired stereotypes of womanhood have to follow. Women become pathetic little damsels in distress who need their separate sphere to be protected from encroachment by strong and powerful men. This is where every attempt to ascribe meaning to physiology always leads: right back to eternal stereotypes about gender.
Clarissa's Blog 
WTH? No one gets to play with my internet trolls but me! They are mine, all mine. I’m not giving my toys to some icky boy! (Licks claws.)
Seriously, it is to laugh. If you can’t take care of a stupid person on the internet, male of female you should hang up your keyboard. It’s not like a troll is physically punching you in the face. Anyway, I stopped reading her post after I saw that she “responded civilly” to what was obviously some teenager spamming her for lolz. That wasn’t a troll — he wasn’t looking for an argument, just getting his jollies before lighting up his next spliff. You don’t get into an “exhausting” argument with such, you delete your comment and go on with your life.
I did search around and note that she is British. It’s been my experience that a lot of British women have this delicate femme thing going on. I once worked with a woman from England who was so feminine she made me feel like a dock hand. She was a single mother with two young sons that she referred to in worshipful tones as “my boys.” We couldn’t get her to talk loud enough on the phone to be heard. (This was the telemarketing department of a mortgage company in Miami.) She didn’t last long among us rough characters from places like the Bronx and Miami Beach.
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Ya gotta loveeee them feminists. 😉
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You laugh, but I’m getting desperate here with the complete and utter inanity of these people. They can’t even be bothered to strain their puny little brains to make the easiest logical connections. Like this sad guy you linked to yesterday. That’s a PhD student, mind you. Jeez.
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Not only a PhD student but a bonafide feminist. Cheer up it could be worse. Hmmm, not quite sure how, but, well, you know. 😉
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” Cheer up it could be worse. Hmmm, not quite sure how, but, well, you know. ”
– He’ll graduate and will teach Women’s Studies.
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No – thats different roles within the feminist movement, because the experiences of men and women under patriarchy differ and consequently only women can lead the liberation movement.
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Yes, exactly. The experiences of women differ, so they should be stuck in the kitchen while men rule the world. Same logic.
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The feminist movement won’t get anywhere if nobody recognizes how it all got started: equality. That means equal societal roles, corresponding to equal responsibilities. Which means men should have the exact same role in the feminism movement as women. People need to practice what they preach, lest they be called hypocrites.
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Equality is neither men nor women getting access to abortions, contraception, maternity care, or ante-natal care. Perfectly equal innit.
Equality is insufficient, women’s liberation requires a radical restructuring of society to remove patriarchy.
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“Equality is insufficient, women’s liberation requires a radical restructuring of society to remove patriarchy.”
– Yes, everybody agrees. But we won;t achieve that by building a ghetto around women.
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Equality in responsibility and social roles does not mean no access to abortions. It means being responsible for your own actions in whatever way is necessary–whether that be dealing with trolls on the internet, making and following through with your own decisions (whether that be abortion, contraception, etc.). Biological differences mean different people will slightly different choices to make, a person is responsible for themselves, whether they be male or female.
An example of equality in responsibility and social roles: I am a female physics major. To complete a class without any respect to my gender is a matter of taking responsibility for my own actions: completing homework on time, going to office hours if needed, going to and completing exams and labs, etc. I have just as much responsibility as my male counterparts, and that in turn gives me an equal standing amongst my peers. It has absolutely nothing to do with whether I’m male or female–it has everything to do with me as an individual. Similarly, I am in charge of my body. This includes access to abortion, maternity care and appropriate contraception if necessary. Males are also in charge of their bodies–this in turn includes access to appropriate contraception and other medical care and procedures that they deem necessary. You can’t cry for social justice without taking on the responsibilities that entails.
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Equality is insufficient, women’s liberation requires a radical restructuring of society to remove patriarchy.(Mhairi)
Disregard my earlier statement, Im now sure how. 😦
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Of course, we will need a radical restructuring of society to create a separate sphere where women stay while men protect them from evildoers. My question is how is this an attractive goal for anybody?
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Women become pathetic little damsels in distress who need their separate sphere to be protected from encroachment by strong and powerful men.
You nailed it. These pesudo-feminists have internalized patriarchy to such an extent that they now see themselves as inferior, weaker human beings in dire need of external protection, as opposed to normal persons who are discriminated against by society.
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Of course, the moment you have justified a single instance of the gender-based separation of spheres, you have justified all of them.
While I agree with both your premise and ultimate final conclusion that is not right to exclude male feminists your syllogism above is fallacious.
A unique exception to a specific rule does not mean that from now on every other violation is allowed. For example, we can agree that males do not qualify for abortions, women do not qualify for vasectomies and bald people do not qualify for haircuts without justifying any type of gender inequality or discrimination.
What the original posting fails to do is to create an argument why gender discrimination which is generally rather undesirable could possibly be justified in this instance.
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“A unique exception to a specific rule does not mean that from now on every other violation is allowed. For example, we can agree that males do not qualify for abortions”
– Not really, no. Think of a transgender man who gets pregnant (there was a story on Oprah about one such man, for example.) He got prenatal care and gave birth. And should have received an abortion if he had so wished. People who are not pregnant do not qualify for abortions. Albeit rarely, such people can be men.
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Ok, bad example. My point still stands: a single exception does not automatically justify the overthrow of the rule.
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I’m okay with males taking care of trolls. Not in an old fashioned way, mind. It’s just when they develop a pack mentality and the males who would in other circumstances adopt the posture of being friends stand around and do nothing. Later they may say, as happened to me, “It’s just human nature.”
Even later in time, one finds that the seeming “friend” had assumed that perhaps the trolls were not just trolling, but pointing out home truths. They had insights into Reality Itself.
This is what I call bullying and standing around acting helpless.
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Also, I should add, many of those who choose identity politics feminism, rather than equality feminism, are mentally disturbed. There was an instance of this recently, when Mike was told that women (in the leftist movement he’s a part of ) need their own separate organisation within the organisation, since they have their own “issues”. Every time Mike explained why fracturing the organisation had a very negative effect historically, he was silenced by the accusation, “You’re just trying to dominate us and take control.”
I should say that Mike is the least sexist person you could imagine. There is no trace of sexism in his attitude to me or other women. I put much of this down to the fact that he was brought up by a very strong woman, whom he respected.
Nonetheless, these mentally ill folk haven’t stopped with their aggression.
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“There was an instance of this recently, when Mike was told that women (in the leftist movement he’s a part of ) need their own separate organisation within the organisation, since they have their own “issues”.”
– I have always been completely appalled by that.
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Mike has over fifty years of experience in the broader organisation and this women joins it a couple of months ago and is spreading her toxicity everywhere.
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