History of Feminism

And I think in my haste to write these morning replies I have not even been fully aware myself of what I really want to say about this thread, what motivated me to respond in the first place. Maybe it is best said as:

I look at these patterns of abuse, dominance and social hierarchy, as a problem we people of today have inherited from the people of the past. I do also think that most of these issues fit under the umbrella term of "patriarchy."

The word people is key to me. I think that children take social cues from adults and develop attitudes about things like sex and gender before they are old enough even to understand what those things mean. There can be no doubt that our cultural traditions give primacy to men, and generally portray women as they are seen from a man's perspective. However those traditions are embraced by people of both sexes. Patriarchy certainly benefits men, but it was not created by people alive today, and it is not maintained only, or even mostly, by men.

As an example of this in relation to rape culture, off the top of my head, I would point to that horrible Steubenville case. As you may recall, the prosecuting attorney for that county is the mother of one of the perpetrators. When the rape was initially reported, she told the victim it would not be worth pressing charges because they would be hard to prove and would involve a lot of attacks on her reputation. SHE used all the tropes of rape culture in an effort to protect a male rapist.

Similarly, before the case made national news the families of Steubenville, who have mothers as well as fathers, were apparently willing to let that assault slide. Do you think it is outrageous for me to believe that the PA and some of her fellow Steubenville mothers took some comfort by telling themselves "that slut just should not have put herself in that position?"

When someone says that "men generally do x," the implication is that women do not. This is a point that was made often by earlier feminists, who resented that men would write about "mankind" or "all men being created equal," instead of saying humanity or people. The obvious implication from those patriarchal writers was that women did not count, the very language used to describe history deliberately left women out.

And therein lies my complaint with your post, which I was unfortunately unable to state concisely, and maybe still have failed to do. To the extent that all this horrible slut shaming, victim blaming and objectification makes up a "rape culture," that culture is supported by a lot of PEOPLE, not merely a lot of men.

Having said that I am sorry to have been so short with ya'll, to have gotten so angry so fast. Looking back over this thread I do not know that my posts contributed anything useful, in fact the opposite is quite possible. Maybe tomorrow morning I will go back and replace those posts with apologies...but for now I gtg my rl won't wait!

Hope your day own goes well, take care, peace, que le vaya bien, etc...