She in her madness prays for storms

man: jump

liberal feminist: okay, but I'm doing this because I WANT to

radfem: ... just to be clear, nobody HAS to jump, you know that, right?

libfem: 🙄🙄 here we go again with the women shaming

A woman: Eh, I don't want to jump

Libfem: lol😆😆😂😂 just say you don't know how to jump and go 🙄🙄🤷🏻‍♀️✨💅😂😤😤

radfem: when a man says "jump", it is advisable to not blindly obey

libfem: umm some women find it empowering to jump on command?? 😡

Radfem: you don’t have to jump on command.

Libfem: my jumping has nothing to do with any command. I jump because I want and choose to. That this happens to be whenever a man tells me to jump is irrelevant.

A person: why are you even jumping in the first place?

Libfem: because it makes me feel more confident. Jumping for confidence is ✨valid✨

Radfem: You know you can jump in your own time. You will have other opportunities to jump.

Libfem: You just hate jumping! What if the floor was made of lava? What if this stranger telling me to jump was actually my loving husband with a reasonable if arbitrary request? Do people who jump disgust you, Conservative? I'm glad that my rebellious jumping makes you uncomfortable.

Trigger warning: violence against women

And yet woke feminists parade the hijab as a free choice and a tool of empowerment, it's a free choice when you have the freedom to say "no", to actually be able to change your mind about something without fearing for your safety, men in the middle east are some of the most misogynistic creatures ever, you can see how they dress whichever way they want and yet have the hypocrisy to abuse women should they even think of doing the same.

The hijab is a tool of patriarchal oppression, it is used to oppress and subjugate women, in some countries women lose their lives for choosing not to wear it and yet woke liberal leftists celebrate it, they celebrate "world hijab day", they call it empowering even though women like them are being treated violently for wanting to feel the wind in their hair like a normal human being.

The world disgusts me, the hypocrisy disgusts me, virtue signaling also disgusts me, like "OH LOOK AT ME I'M SO TOLERANT AND LOVING".

aaaaaaaaaand she blocked me lol I thought she wanted to “educate” me. boohoo for me :( not gonna get educated :( anyway, tell “my country” not to invade you? it says in my profile that I’m “middle eastern” you genius, so no “my country” isn’t “bombing you”. I’ve had an islamic bringing, Oh please “educate me” I’m begging you, hijab was a tool to differentiate between a “free” and an “enslaved” woman and it has nothing to do with decency or whatever, your religion “forbids” forcing your religion on anyone? tell me, what is the punishment for apostates such as myself?

stop saying things are empowering when what you mean is they make you feel more confident about how you appear to other people

Talking about empowerment in that way is just saying "I feel safe from other people's judgement when I look this way."

I would rather be able to say "I have the resources and power to withstand other people's judgement no matter how I look."

tumblr is the weirdest hotbed of misogyny ever

tumblr used to be known as the “cringe crazy liberal feminist” hang out for people who want to smash the patriarchy with a high heel and now you find “why would your first concern be women’s safety during a taliban takeover” sandwiched between a milf girlboss joke and a uquiz that asks you if you’re submissive and breedable

I think arguing about whether conventionally feminine women can be ‘strong’ is focusing on the wrong question, like women who conform to societal expectations frequently possess inner strength and resilience. You can obviously be ‘strong’ whilst being conventionally feminine.

The real question, is whether you can achieve independent success and personal freedom when conforming to behavioural expectations of femininity, and the answer to that is unfortunately no 🤷‍♀️

Old Misogyny: “She was asking for it”

New Misogyny: “We need to critically examine the notion that all women are victims under a monolithic patriarchy and stop assuming that women need to be protected from sex and that they can’t make their own choices and be empowered by [prostitution/porn/surrogacy/statutory rape/bdsm], women who consider themselves victims need to take accountability for the choices they had.”

"here's how being a piece of meat is empowering!"

When there is no women’s movement, no consciousness raising effort, and little to no political will, what women are left with is piecemeal trauma confessions, in which women are told to recall, in great detail, the many incidents of assault and battery done to them by men.

These are then used for the benefit of publishers and other media outlets to make money out of these confessional autobiographical pieces, advertising them as wild “sex scandals” and the like, encouraging a rubbernecking consumption of women’s trauma in the wider public. This is especially popular for industries that enjoy precarious veneer of prestige, and the resulting shock value allows the public (especially men) to feel vindicated that all this only ever happens “over there”. Women are encouraged to relate to and share these pieces endlessly, while offering women as a class nothing in return except maybe a temporary catharsis.

We have seen many cases of women being easily sued for defamation whenever the male rapist decides to do so, and these media outlets will not defend the women — we have to ask: to whose benefit are these autobiographical pieces published?

I have nothing but endless sympathy and solidarity for women who come forward with these extremely painful experiences and publish autobiographies detailing them. I also fully support them when they admit that they feel a sense of catharsis having finally told the world what has been done to them. This is not aimed at these women in any way. I only mean to question the propaganda that publishers/media outlets put out that this is some type of praxis for understanding women’s condition, even seeing this as feminist action, when it is far from that. All it does is offer women an endless look into the blackhole of male terror, without any political empowerment to answer back for.

What is feminism to you?

Nudity and modesty are two different sides of the same patriarchal coin. Neither empowers women. Feminism is not about getting to choose how you decorate your prison. Feminism is about liberation.

What gives you power is constant. clothing are neutral at best, but they are obviously cultural. The culture, regardless if you personally agree “says something” about you. Clothes are man made. what is empowering, is realizing the trap and seek comfortable, practical, durable clothes. It’s to realize your body is neutral and not sinful and other people’s gazes are their own issue. Self love and self confident that doesn’t rely on others is empowering. It allows you to exist free from manipulation. Hiding your body because of your culture isn’t a free choice. Displaying your body because that’s how you get praises and fleeting confidence isn’t a free choice. An empowered woman may choose to cover up or not. But it isn’t “nudity or modesty” that makes her empowered. The choice to do either is great. However it doesn’t make our world neutral and incapable of influencing her choice. What gives you power can’t be taken away by going outside and being seen with new pair of eyes.

I think the place where so many of these “hyperfemininity but make it empowering” ideas fail is the assumption that men care about your interiority. Like “I present myself as a bimbo but I’m actually a full, self-aware, empowered person with thoughts and ideas”, yeah they don’t give a shit though. Every woman who has been made out as a bimbo or a sexpot or a Playboy bunny is a full entire person, with thoughts and experiences and opinions and feelings of her own. It’s not subverting anything to pretend that’s an innovation and that the new, ~empowered~ bimbo is separate from ye olde pinup girl. As long as they’re getting the catering and sexual gratification out of it, men aren’t gonna care about the personhood of the woman under the makeup. They never have.

And you’re not ‘tricking’ them if they can’t see your inner life underneath the hyperfeminine accoutrements, because no matter what a woman looks like, huge swathes of men don’t understand or care to consider womens’ inner life.

You’re not ‘tricking’ them any more than the average normie woman on the bus is ‘tricking’ men by not publicising her economics degree, talent for prose, or interest in mid-century modern furniture or whatever. Living your life isn’t a surprise gotcha to men.

I love when women Wake Up and tell everyone about it.

If I, (an Indian woman) bleached my skin and said it was for self-empowerment, you would point out that regardless of intent my actions perpetuate colorism and racism.

If you agree with this statement, then you can understand how women getting plastic surgery, wearing makeup, and removing body hair in the name of self-empowerment perpetuates misogyny.

If your empowerment makes your oppressors happy it ceases to be empowerment. The rebranding of dehumanising, expenisve and painful sacrifices made at the alter of femininity as female empowerment was truly the greatest trick ever pulled in history.

Old Misogyny: “She was asking for it”

New Misogyny: “We need to critically examine the notion that all women are victims under a monolithic patriarchy and stop assuming that women need to be protected from sex and that they can’t make their own choices and be empowered by [prostitution/porn/surrogacy/statutory rape/bdsm], women who consider themselves victims need to take accountability for the choices they had.”

the muddling between the words “empowerment” and “confidence” has got to be one of the worst things that has ever happened to feminism 

society doesn't care why you conform to patriarchal standards, they just care that you do conform

“I’m giving the oppressor class what they want, but I have a unique perspective (bc I’m not like other girls 💁‍♀️) so it doesn’t count as giving them what they want”

men laugh at women who call themselves misandrist while doing this shit because they know you're still compliant

we went from a golden age of feminist blogs and online content to men's rights activists calling themselves the One True Feminists and women calling themselves misandrists while continuing to perform for men

defanged

Just in case you thought liberal feminism was anything other than debasing feminist beliefs for men. Men know that liberal feminism is a repackaging of what they have always wanted. Men want us naked, hairless, unquestioning, and catering to their wants. If they have to pat us on the head and call it “empowering", they will. 

From Maxim, 2003.

this is literally what men did as a pushback against actual feminism and y’all fell for it like IDIOTS

There’s a lot of notes on this post saying things like “isn’t this satire?” etc.

It isn’t satire. Sure, it’s tongue-in-cheek on a some level, but it reflects a certain kind of try-hard self aware “cleverness” that is pretty specifically gen-x.

I think we’re really aware of what, say, the kind of in-your-face boomer brand of misogyny looks like with it’s forced birth focus and pussy grabbing, and we definitely know about the millennial variety with it’s cooptation of progressive language and visceral addiction to violent porn.

This is a little peek into gen-x’s brand of attempted intellectualization and strategization of woman hating in the early 00s, right before the internet became the end game of public discourse.