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Modern Feminism Is Pointless

1) But women aren't doing that currently, and that's unfortunate. I don't wish for all those lazy helpless women to define my entire gender, though. 2) People care about breast cancer and "save the boobies" because breasts are mystical, pretty, valuable in our society. That's why breast cancer gets more attention than other "unsexy" cancers. 3) Two different kinds of rape. Random acts of sexual assault by criminal strangers tends to be clothes that's easy to remove, and rape at home by a non-stranger (the majority of cases) isn't scathed by unglamorous hoodies and pajamas. Society doesn't explicitly tolerate rape, and I never meant to suggest that, but it can excuse cases and make them out to be not a big deal. For example, if a girl is a slut, it's culturally assumed that "she wanted it" and the sexual assault is therefore not as big of a deal. It's unfair. As I said, women get raped more in countries where they're in veiled burqas rather than bikinis--clothes don't provoke rape--but they make ALL the difference in whether a rape is considered excused, justified, or enabled. Also, girls are told not to wear revealing clothes because they "don't help in a rape situation." If you're concerned about stranger rapes, though, that link shows that rapists like grabbable ponytails. So why is a party girl in a short skirt causing more of a fuss than a late-night jogger in easy-to-pull-down overalls and a ponytail? Because of cultural sex-negative mindsets regarding sluts. 4) If I act extremely hungry, that doesn't mean you can shove food down my throat. Likewise, if I'm flirty and slutted up, that could be interpreted as an OK sign to look and flirt. But that doesn't give anyone the right to violate my bodily autonomy or make me uncomfortable. Even if I'm a slut, sluts have feelings; we're thinking beings. That's a message society needs in the public discourse, because the mindset of "consent to look can be consent to anything" is toxic and leads to assaults and sexual harassment. That's not cool. 5) I wasn't quite bringing up sex either. Rather, I was saying that sex-negative mindsets hurt female victims of rape cases, and that certain societal attitudes are also hurtful to male victims of rape. While I'm on this subject, I want to stress that neither form of sexism is inherently worse. They're just different. 6) Oh, okay. That's understandable. Well, it IS a women's liberation movement, so it would make sense that they'd tackle issues that negatively impact women. Rape to men is worth focus, as I mentioned earlier, but if feminism is focusing on rape to men, that's just a fortunate bonus, not a duty. 7) Yeah, my views are pretty radical. But the "appeal to tradition" fallacy just falls flat on its face--just because it's existed for a long time, how does that make modesty standards inherently good? Some cultures across the world, such as the Nuba, Surma, and Yawalapiti tribes, are often naked. There's nothing wrong with that; there's nothing shameful about the human body. 8) Well, feminism IS a women's liberation movement. It only makes sense that they'd tackle issues that are negatively impacting them. It's not right that feminists should see men as demonized oppressors; men are civilized members of society, and they're not the only ones perpetuating anti-woman mindsets. From my experience, the everyday women who calls herself a feminist is quick to blame things on men, but the scholarly feminists blame things on societal attitudes and gender roles, which is more accurate. It's not fair to blame things on men alone, so I think we should also start discussing society's attitudes and gender roles as the demons. Does there need to be a national movement? I suppose. It's pointless to tackle the little tangible things, like Barbie dolls or Goldie Blox, when there are broad mindsets against women. For example, it's common that men are portrayed as the "default" and that women are a token variation, that stuff regarding men is the mainstream and women's stuff is segregated off as "chick stuff." Though any reasonable person will say that men and women are equals, few (if any) dare to claim that femininity is masculinity's equal. Girls who do guy stuff are cool, whereas girly stuff is laughable on a guy--implying that femininity is weak and less valuable. But nonetheless, it doesn't matter who's MORE oppressed by gender injustices. We just need to focus on the fact that they unfairly exist. So feminism could be a great tool to dissolve the issue of women being viewed differently. Also, "you have to earn it." That argument is always, always brought up against sluts. We're all born with the human right to respect, so demanding a woman to conform to a limiting set of archaic sex-negative ideals is just cruel. Society has a terrible idea that sluts aren't worthy of earning respect, and that's awful and needs to be fixed. Are there issues with some modern feminists? Yeah. I'm not denying that. Feminism might be jacked up in current practice, but it's still important in philosophy. Same with men's rights activism--there are some visibly notorious members, but it's still necessary to dissolve men's injustices. Gender injustice is far from resolved, so we just need to listen, care, and fight alongside each other.