"I don't need feminism"

We have all seen the images making the rounds on social media.. women hiding their faces with notes about why they do not need feminism. The images, and the ideals behind them, are proof positive that we feminists need way better PR people! We have allowed an entire political/religious party to demonize our quest for equality, and women are falling for the propaganda with wild abandon.

 Why?

It would be easy for us (women) to stand a bit more united if the enemy were clearly defined. Women could easily see the damage being done in the name of religious misogyny or blind ignorance if it were just men strutting about proclaiming what our place is and what our roles are. We could band together and fight our fight with an obvious target. That, sadly, is not the case.

Enter the pretty face of inequality.. Ann Coulter, Michelle Bachman, Phyllis Schlafly, Star Parker, Renee Ellmers.. educated, successful women telling us that we ARE less so we DESERVE less. Spouting off about our intellectual flaws, our emotional insecurity, our basic less-ness in the eyes of men and god. These are our enemies, these talking heads, paid millions to tell women that we are stupid, useless whores unless a man says otherwise. Preaching from a television screen about the evils of independent womanhood. Screaming about the war on men, because wanting equality is emasculating the penis havers.

Really.

What strikes me as so side-splittingly hilarious is this.. without the feminist movement, without the very ideas and rights our feminist predecessors fought and died (Yes.. DIED) for, these women would not have the ability to even be seen or heard.

That's right ladies, you LITERALLY owe your ability to demonize your own gender, to write books, go on speaking tours, immortalize yourself on the internet, or get on television and discuss the horrors of equality, to the very women you stand against.

In order to convince women everywhere that feminism is a dirty nasty thing, women themselves are seeking out the very fringes of the movement. Pointing to the militant man haters and the spoof tampon non-users, women are taking these examples as the be all end all gospel truth of what feminists are, of what feminism stands for. With no thought to actually looking for the reality, the truth, the face of feminism in its gritty realness, women take the lies based on fear and believe them.

Google is a beautiful tool. It's simple and quick, giving even a toddler the ability to access HUGE amounts of  information. Seriously.. Google it. There is ZERO excuse for anyone to not be informed, to not be a fucking expert on the issues that move them. I realize that the entire basis of this anti-feminist thing is completely dependent on people not receiving balanced information, and that so many prefer to simply have their own fears and biases fed back to them via their choice of media, but really, why live in willful ignorance?

(ig·no·rance noun lack of knowledge or information.)

It's easy. Let someone tell you what to do, what to think, what to believe, and you are no longer responsible for yourself. "It's wrong because _______ says so, not because I think so" We make people and religions rich, all to avoid personal responsibility. Yes, it's simple to get both sides of the issue, but so much is riding on you NOT looking away from those spouting their version of truth.. most people just won't do it because they have been told not to. 

The women that fought so hard for the small measure of equality that we have today in America: Abigail Adams, Sarah Moore Grimke, Sojourner Truth, Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Constance Austin, Rachel Foster Avery, Catharine Beecher, Elizabeth Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, Katharine Bushnell, Frances Jennings Casement, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Agnes Chase, Voltairine de Cleyre, Margaret Fuller, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Angelina Emily Grimke, Ida Crouch-Hazlett, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore, Clarina I. H. Nichols, Anna Garlin Spencer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Harriet Tubman, Frances Willard, Victoria Woodhull.. each of these women understood the value of equality, the value of being a woman, the value of our ideas and of our intelligence. These women (how many did you have to Google I wonder) whose names every person should know, women who sacrificed and struggled in the hopes that their daughters and granddaughters and great great great granddaughters would never have to, these women made it possible for women to stand on a national stage as congresswomen and senators and vilify the acts of feminism.

Before you proudly display your notion of what feminism is, and why you as a woman do not need it, take a minute to understand the truth. Stop listening to what you have been told by women making millions to misinform you and look for the reality of feminism. Chances are, you will discover that yes, you ARE a feminist at heart. 

  

  

Why it is ok to laugh at Monica Lewinsky..

Monica Lewinsky is in the news again (because Bengazi isn't really a thing anymore) crying about how she feels feminists let her down during the Clinton scandal. She claims that she was a pawn in a political game and how, as a victim of the patriarchy, feminists should have been in her corner.

Well Ms. Lewinsky, let's discuss that shall we?

(I know, there was an open letter about this already.. this is my take on it.. go here to read the other one) samuel-warde.com/2014/05/letter-monica-lewinsky-feminist/

Why, as a group of people so united in fighting not only the misogyny of our patriarchal society but inequality in all forms, would we not stand up for you?

Feminism did not stand with you because you made a mockery of every woman that fought to get ahead in a male dominated market.

Feminism did not stand with you because you attempted to turn a blowjob and a cum stain into your 15 minutes of fame.

Feminism did not stand with you because you sucked the cock of a powerful man that you knew was married and had everything to lose when you made the affair public.

 Feminism did not stand with you because you purposefully pursued an affair in order to make it public, you saved a dirty dress!

Feminism did not stand with you because you made a choice to be a pawn, you were not used by anyone but yourself.

Your behavior was an affront to every woman that worked her ass off to get where she was, every woman clawing her way through the mire of misogyny our government is steeped in, every woman who wouldn't fuck her boss so she was overlooked, and here you go.. showing your panties and scoring some time with the President for your own gain.

Did Bill Clinton behave like a tool? You bet! Does he carry the bulk of the blame for his behavior? Absolutely! Let's be honest here Monica.. were you really going to take no for an answer?

You were never a victim, you were a woman who knowingly and willingly began an affair because you believed it would get you places you wanted to be. Makes one wonder how you managed to get the internship and job at the Legislative Affairs in the first place.. any coincidence that the word affair was in your job title?? Seriously Monica, we have to ask, did you fuck your way up the ladder?

I know, stop yelling, I'm not being a bitch or anything by asking! You showed that you are not adverse to spreading your lips and legs (there was mention of cigar penetration wasn't there) to further your career.. it's not a stretch to believe that behavior didn't begin with Clinton.

Your words, written in Vanity Fair:

“I still have deep respect for feminism and am thankful for the great strides the movement has made in advancing women’s rights over the past decades.  But, given my experience of being passed around like gender-politics cocktail food, I don’t identify myself as a Feminist, capital F.  The movement’s leaders failed in articulating a position that was not essentially anti-woman during the witch hunt of 1998.  In the case of the New York Supergals, it should not have been that hard for them to swoon over the president without attacking and shaming me.  Instead, they joined the humiliation derby.” 

That's all a bit dramatic isn't it?

You were failed by your own idiotic fantasies, not by feminism!

Are you really so stupid to believe that your own actions would not be looked upon? For craps sake, you SAVED THE FUCKING DRESS!! That smacked of deliberate intent, leading us to believe that you were exactly where you wanted to be, and not an innocent. If for one moment we could have seen anything besides a woman hell bent on ruining a career, a marriage, a reputation, then maybe you would have had some support. You made sure that no woman, much less a feminist woman, could defend the treatment you received when the affair came to light!

As a feminist, as a liberal, as a woman, I laugh at you.

You, Monica Lewinsky, will never be defended by us. We all know you were a willing participant in the attempted destruction of a President.

Your timing is perfect btw, I'm sure your GOP handlers are quite proud of you.

Understand, we laugh at you. Your name is a joke, your actions are used as a caution to women everywhere, you will never be embraced by Feminists (capital F) because you are the antithesis of everything we stand for.