Womankind, arise!

[kristin1105]

I consider myself a feminist. I go out of my way to defend women in certain areas.
Currently the biggest thing bothering me is Glee. Never Been Kissed stabbed me in my feminist heart. The main story was Kurt being bullied, then there would be clips of Finn and Sam complaining about the girls not putting out, then Puck teaching Artie how to get any girl he wants, the douchy way.

Anyyyway, I'm not too radical, or at least I like to think I'm not. The movie 'Itty Bitty Titty Committee' bothered me because of how crazy these feminist were.

Here is a little clip from the movie so you know what I'm talking about.
NSFW!!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp8M5eyfZos[/ame]

 

[InsaneMystic]

miromurr agrees: But to me, "tomboy" isn't negative, whereas "sissy" is. Also, I thought a gal, too, could be described as "a sissy". Am I all wrong?

That kinda was what I was aiming at. 😉 It's a perfect example of a sexist double standard...

Tomboy = girl behaving like a man = unusual, but kinda cool, as being a man is better than being a woman
Sissy = guy behaving like a girl = very bad indeed, as being a woman is far worse than being a man

And I've not heard "sissy" used for gals. To me, it definitely conveys an undertone of "effeminate male gay". (Lumping homophobia and sexism together, again - as being a non-straight male is about as bad as being a woman from the "macho" perspective.)

EDIT.
Digging out my dictionary, and it supports my view:

sissy, also spelled cissy
1 Some people, especially men, describe a boy as a sissy when they disapprove of them because they think he is not manly enough, for example that he does not like sport or is afraid to do things that are slightly dangerous; an informal use.
2 if you describe an action or activity as sissy, you disapprove of it because you think it is unmanly; an informal use.

 

[prophecygrrl]

I consider myself a feminist. I go out of my way to defend women in certain areas.
Currently the biggest thing bothering me is Glee. Never Been Kissed stabbed me in my feminist heart. The main story was Kurt being bullied, then there would be clips of Finn and Sam complaining about the girls not putting out, then Puck teaching Artie how to get any girl he wants, the douchy way.

Anyyyway, I'm not too radical, or at least I like to think I'm not. The movie 'Itty Bitty Titty Committee' bothered me because of how crazy these feminist were.

I've never seen truly aggressive or over the top feminists in real life though...certainly not like in that clip. Am I just a lucky girl who's surrounded by more progressive feminists, or do other people find misandry and offensive attitudes commonplace? I'm honestly curious. I don't know whether this sounds naive or not.

It just seems like when we (feminists or those who consider themselves for gender equality) talk about our beliefs, we always have to clarify it with "but I'm not one of those crazy ones". I'd personally rather not have to add that caveat, but I wonder if the bigger question is whether clarifying that is necessary in the first place. Do we have to distinguish ourselves from 'crazy' people to be taken seriously?

Outside of media representations of feminists or what most of the public thinks feminism is, (in which y'know, we're all dirty, hairy, man-hating lesbians, yay! :3) it just doesn't feel like there's this faction of unreasonable militant feminists bringing the feminist movement down. I'd argue that what's really bringing us down is, once again, patriachy. The stereotyping of people who stray from the heteronormative or traditional gender roles and the easy dismissals of feminist concerns.

ETA: I'm not calling out anybody on this, by the way! I hope it doesn't seem like that. 😱 But I see this happen a lot and God knows I've done it before too, and I'm wondering why? Is there a legitimate reason why we consistently have to qualify our beliefs like that, or is it a product of outdated and external pressure/perceptions of feminism?