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Modern Feminism Is Pointless

Just to clarify: I identify myself as a gender-egalitarian, which means I believe that men and women (and people of non-standard genders!) should be viewed on the same level, as people foremost, with gender as just another aspect of someone like height or eye color. I believe gender should not be used to define, categorize, limit, or repress. I believe in feminism as a women's liberation movement is still necessary. 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. 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. Onto your points: 1) That's totally unfair that women can get away with things solely for being women. It's gender roles--implying that a woman is innocent and weak, saying that she couldn't possibly hurt someone and that hurting a woman is intolerable. Those are terrible mindsets that limit women's potential, and while some sects of feminism unfortunately perpetuate this (which just makes the genders further imbalanced), I think responsible feminism should pave the path to women being treated the same as men, even if it means that things will be tough. 2) Onto rape. People tend to think of rape as a stranger jumping out of the bushes to assault a revealingly dressed woman. Wrong, wrong, wrongity wrong. 73% of rapes were committed by a non-stranger, and 50% of them occurred at home.[1] From anecdotal EMT experience, those victims were in sweatpants, yoga pants, hoodies, even footie pajamas with Elmo on them. All this "rape prevention" advice falls flat on its face when you realize that the perpetrators were boyfriends, stepdads, uncles, etc. If you're talking about stranger rape discourse, you're also wrong about revealing clothes causing rape! http://www.ripleycounty.com... According to the Ripley County Sheriff's Department, rapists don't look for revealing clothes. They look for passiveness, easy-to-remove clothes (such as overalls--they cut the straps off easily). Also, rapes occur more in countries where women wear veiled burqas than where they're strutting around in bikinis. Yet people say revealing clothes cause rape. It's a horrible anti-woman mindset, claiming that consent to look at a woman is also consent to do more than look. It's sex-negative, claiming that a woman's sexiness negates her right to respectable personhood. That's far from the truth. She's still a thinking human being with feelings and bodily autonomy; consent to look is not consent to touch. You have no more right to ravish a slut's body than to a woman in baggy sweatpants. Men aren't animals; they're civilized members of society. I get turned on by toned biceps and abs, but I don't go around ravishing buff strangers. Why? Because I have a smidge of human decency. Everyone has the potential for that same self restraint, so it wasn't the victim acting a certain way--it was the fault of a jerk. Men are people who make decisions. Let's stop talking about "he couldn't stop himself" and start talking about "he decided not to stop." Men deserve that dignity, and the responsibility that comes with it. By framing their actions as a force of nature, you're excusing them. So, women can't "take responsibility" for the actions of someone else that they didn't ask for. They did not provoke it; it was the societal attitudes and gender roles that excused the rapist's acts, and it's time to take a stand against such unfair cruelty. Sure, if my rack and butt are hanging out, I may certainly want to bang. Come flirt with me. But when you take it as a given, acting like horniness is consent to everyone and you don't need to ask, and going ahead and banging me without me even speaking up, that's a violation. I didn't consent to be in that position. If I say I'm hungry, that doesn't mean you can shove food down my throat. Sure, men can be horny "idiots," as you call them. Horniness is fine; it's a natural feeling. But their horniness doesn't excuse them from politeness and certainly doesn't excuse them from violating or making people uncomfortable. And "proper women" just sickens me. Why is it that sex degrades a woman's character, but enhances a man's character? Unfair, to say the least. As a woman, I believe we need to take a stand against societal attitudes that could hurt us.