If I sounded like a feminist, would you hold it against me?

[The Newswire]

In recent years, I realize I have shied away from talking about certain topics such as feminism or sexuality or even actual products. This is kind of odd as these were certainly pretty cornerstone issues which were, not only covered in Blue Blood in the past, but were instrumental in why I wanted to do it in the first place.

I feel like feminism on the net, particularly when associated with the site genre dubiously dubbed altporn, is pretty much a mockery. The language has been so co-opted...

Read the full article

[Bondage Clown]

Part of me wants to scream "What the hell is the point?" Then another says, "Well that makes sense. Today in society we have so much information at our finger tips, and new fads are coming into play then going the way of the Dodo. Old society standards are being changed, reordered, or completely done away with. The once "Underground" is more mainstream than Mainstream could ever be.

If you want to know about anything having to do with sex... you can find it.. For example, I didn't know until a week or so ago, I didn't know there were fetishes for people that like to act as "Babies".

With the internet you can be anything that you want to be. I could sign up on a board and put on the airs that i am a woman.. I could join a group of Midget -hating homophobes that paint the anti-Bush slogans on Sidewalks. If I really wanted to. I don't but that is not the point.

[styggian]

I'm one of those people whom that, if I don't know who the person talking is or their opinions don't mean anything to me, than they might as well have not said anything.
I'm not up on the gossip and shit that runs all over the world. I went back and watched Zoolander the other day and saw paris hilton in it and realized that I just thuoght she was some random person when I saw it the first time.

Of course people are just going to attack someone, that's what people do when they find someone who disagrees with them.
It is so much easier than having an actually intelligent discussion.

[Bondage Clown]

I'm one of those people whom that, if I don't know who the person talking is or their opinions don't mean anything to me, than they might as well have not said anything.
I'm not up on the gossip and shit that runs all over the world. I went back and watched Zoolander the other day and saw paris hilton in it and realized that I just thuoght she was some random person when I saw it the first time.

Of course people are just going to attack someone, that's what people do when they find someone who disagrees with them.
It is so much easier than having an actually intelligent discussion.

That is not so... You don't know me... You opinion is invalid, because you just don't understand what its like to be an afro-Indonesian addicted to comic-books that have the letter q in the title. I wish I could relate to you what I have to go through ever admiring the Belly-button lint of the Alabamian's wearing beeerrrr-stained wife beaters.


Please don't take this seriously.. there are too many people that do already.

[styggian]

That is not so... You don't know me... You opinion is invalid, because you just don't understand what its like to be an afro-Indonesian addicted to comic-books that have the letter q in the title. I wish I could relate to you what I have to go through ever admiring the Belly-button lint of the Alabamian's wearing beeerrrr-stained wife beaters.


Please don't take this seriously.. there are too many people that do already.

You forgot to include the fetish for dutch apple pie.

[Bondage Clown]

Damnit... you caught me

[HempKnight]

And nobody wants to know just
what happens to the pie.

Poor pie

Now would that be a crumb top,
lattice, full crust or an open face?

And is there ice cream involved?

[Amelia G]

Hey kids, my ******* friends are giving more thoughtful and intelligent answers to this than you guys and that just isn't like you all. Read the damn article and shape up. Mmkay.

[Exquisite]

Whatever you want to talk about you should, its your site, your little window into the world. Yes you open yourself up by doing so but to not would be hiding from the world and that doesn't really seem like you. That being said the things that I wrote about 2 years ago have changed ... hell I can't keep the same hair colour for more than 3 months.

I admire your art as you guys take amazing photographs and I wish I had a grain of that talent or the beauty of your models. I think I would probably take your opinions on sex, products or almost anything as interesting as you seem like interesting and intelligent people.

That being said I can tell you that at least 13% of people will hate something that you have done/said/opined on ... but 13% of people hate everything! So screw em!

[ForrestBlack]

...at least 13% of people will hate something that you have done/said/opined on ... but 13% of people hate everything! So screw em!

That should be my daily affirmation... Thanks!

[Morning Glory]

well, the problem is deep rooted. the cause is the myth of the mainstream. the idea that there is this "mainstream" is a social construct that exists, ironically, only because of it's absense. Think about it, if there really was such a mainstream, then why is everyone struggling anf trying to be a part of it? let me turn that around and ask it this way: if everyone is not part of the mainstream (which they can't be, otherwise they wouldn't need to try and be) then what is the mainstream and how can there be one? That's the myth of the mainstream. to counteract this paradox, it was neccesary to instill in the public mind the invention of that infamous clandestine group known as "They". "they are doing this, they are doing that. They are the mainstream. We need to be like them.

Which brings us to the anti-mainstream. Of course it's ideals are in the right place, it's always strived to go against the corruption, to speak the truth. But it is it's own fatality. By buying into the legitimacy of the mainstream, it can never go against it, it just becomes captured by it. Idealistically at first, and then litteraly as it slips away from the people that created and embraced it to take up the monsterous form that they opposed.

So it happens that these things thay were once personal and meaningful to us become lost in a fog and reflected back at us from everything that we see as vague astracts... and guess who's to blame? It's just a repeating cycle.

[Buster Friendly]

well, Amelia... i guess you'd have to sound like a feminist first, before i could hold it against you...

i don't mean that as a dig, i just don't see any 'feminist' slant to this particular article, or anything else i've read around here lately. which might be part of your point, eh?

it's interesting to note, for myself at least, that the idea that women can be highly competent, capable, and just as intelligent as the most accomplished men, no longer seems like a 'radical feminist' notion anymore... which is in a way a good thing. it wasn't always the case of course. since you've proven yourself, time, and again to be highly successful, talented, articulate, and so forth here in 2007 this feels less like some sort of political statement, and more of just a given that you could accomplish these things, but i remember small bits of the 70's and 80's, enough to know that even then this wasn't a 'mainstream' concept.

the mainstream has co-opted so much of early feminist ideals, while refusing to address some of the more unbalanced underlying issues. (as if the 'mainstream' even exists, or 'does' anything.)

anyway, before i go into full rant mode here, i'd love to read more of your feminist thoughts Amelia. i might not agree with anything you say, but the fact that you wonder if people might hold those views against you points to a perceived cultural bais against them that you might want to look at. why should anyone hold it against you?

i doubt it will win you any points with the tucker max crowd though.

[Amelia G]

well, Amelia... i guess you'd have to sound like a feminist first, before i could hold it against you...

i don't mean that as a dig, i just don't see any 'feminist' slant to this particular article, or anything else i've read around here lately. which might be part of your point, eh?

it's interesting to note, for myself at least, that the idea that women can be highly competent, capable, and just as intelligent as the most accomplished men, no longer seems like a 'radical feminist' notion anymore... which is in a way a good thing. it wasn't always the case of course. since you've proven yourself, time, and again to be highly successful, talented, articulate, and so forth here in 2007 this feels less like some sort of political statement, and more of just a given that you could accomplish these things, but i remember small bits of the 70's and 80's, enough to know that even then this wasn't a 'mainstream' concept.

the mainstream has co-opted so much of early feminist ideals, while refusing to address some of the more unbalanced underlying issues. (as if the 'mainstream' even exists, or 'does' anything.)

anyway, before i go into full rant mode here, i'd love to read more of your feminist thoughts Amelia. i might not agree with anything you say, but the fact that you wonder if people might hold those views against you points to a perceived cultural bais against them that you might want to look at. why should anyone hold it against you?

i doubt it will win you any points with the tucker max crowd though.

One of the most difficult feminist issues to me is that I find a significant number of internet companies get press for themselves by going on about how "wowzers omg jeepers, a girl runs their company" when in fact they have a female mouthpiece who runs nothing but repeats whatever PR drivel a male team wrote for her and jammed into her mouth. I agree with you that a successful businesswoman should not be a freakshow talking point in 2007, but a lot of people seem to treat it as such, which presents sort of a conundrum to me.

[Buster Friendly]

yeah, i guess we know a company or 3 that does that, huh? espcially in porn and alt.porn...

...i'd love to add more, and hear from other bluebloods on the subject, and your self Amelia, but i gotta run.

[One Eyed Cat]

Greets Amelia.

Personally? No. I don't like the idea of people being pinned down to a viewpoint based on public perceptions etc etc.

Would it be held against you by some chumps trying to make cash? Definitely. I could even take that a step further. If *your* specific terms and arguments gained resonance? They'd take those as well. It doesn't invalidate your reasoning, but it dilutes your message as it travels to wider audiences.

My question to you though is: Does it really matter? Those who see through this shit will hear you. Those who don't will buy what amounts to "rebellion". Speak your mind and fuck everyone else. In my own obscure way, I can relate to what you are saying here. Don't worry about pissing people off, savor it. You'd have to go dead silent not to.

Alt. porn is something to laugh at this point. While I know you will have difficulty disassociating from it, it's all bullshit. The debate is bullshit. It's a done deal. I'm socially very liberal. When I found myself opining on that bullshit, I hit the walls of my own convictions right and left. Contracts are contracts are contracts. I know novel ways of breaking them, but it exacerbates the problem. You start doing that and it is paternalism. It says: these women are fools. They need someone from clever clever land to save them from themselves. This does not advance feminism as I see it.
(I am assuming a lack of coercion/trafficking in these instances)

You would have to unpack feminism in 2007 for me to really get a grasp on that. I did not see that in academia at all. If you are speaking of the "sex positive" v. MacKinnon, Dworkin divide? That is dangerous. Feminists should find issues upon which they all agree and work towards those first. Roe v. Wade has already been narrowed by subsequent decisions. It may well be gone in the next few years. If this is a matter of importance to feminists, they better stop bickering and start fighting. Otherwise, they are their own worst enemies. Reproductive Rights will be a matter for states to decide (and several have enacted Post-Roe trigger laws banning most abortions). It would take one Justice for this to happen. The test balloon case is already coming up the food chain.

I definitely hear you on the privacy issue. I was kind of irked when they outted Stephen King's son. Who gives a shit who wrote it? At the same time, it does become relevant when speaking of social/political issues. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people want fame for the sake of it. Thus, the birth of reality tv and all this other garbage. It's almost better for them I suppose. They tend not to have track records to criticize.

Amazon "reviews" crack me up. I pay little to no attention to them. I would tend to agree. If I see a known Prof. recommend a treatise I'll be more likely to buy it. Peer review was never meant to be a gazillion "reviews" from people who probably didn't even read the damn thing. I did come across the marketing scheme you mentioned once. It was some contentious book on politics. Generally, the shit I buy is too obscure for people to bother with.

OK: So if you were to write a review pro or con would I assume material gain? Hell no. I know you have about as much give a fucks as me on that. Will others? yes. You'd have to unpack "products". It wouldn't phase me either way.

Unfortunately: I think the ultimate reality is: Yes, some will do what try to fuck you in all every and all instance you mention.

OEC

P.S. Greetings All. I'm still alive.

[incog]

I miss loudmouthed Amelia. I don't want to have to get a ride some place to hear them. I want to be able to just log onto the internet and get my fix. People seriously do want and need to hear your opinions and you can't silence yourself just because some scum are going to repeat what you say to make themselves look better.

[Gram_Ponante]

I wouldn't hold it against you, but I think we all have to get used to defining and re-defining our labels as part of natural conversation, because people have a tendency to aggressively misunderstand.

I like your site, by the way. I don't register for just anyone's chatboards.

[Amelia G]

I wouldn't hold it against you, but I think we all have to get used to defining and re-defining our labels as part of natural conversation, because people have a tendency to aggressively misunderstand.

I like your site, by the way. I don't register for just anyone's chatboards.

Aw thanks, that means a lot coming from you

[EasyRider]

Depends on what you mean by feminist.