As With Most Men
posted by Christi Nielsen at 1:09 PM
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Saturday, March 03, 2007
I myself have never been able to find out precisely what a feminist is, I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.
~Rebecca West
"Well behaved women rarely make history."
~Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
8 Comments:
This post has been removed by the author.
(sorry for the deleted comment above, had some typos and might have some others below)
As a man I am not sure if my comments are valid with this post. And sometimes I feel out of place commenting in this blog. Because I have been told that without knowledge of it, I show my privilege. And that is not what i want to do here. So, I will try to make a comment that doesn't show my privilege or invalidate me.
Here is what I would like to say; that its very prolific in the words that I just heard from Mr. Gonzales. The message that he speaks of is moving in a sense, so much so that in the future if I ever think about calling a female a bitch - that I wouldn't. Because she doesn't deserve such a name. Like he said no matter what she does. I would think that I was raised better than that.
The message as a child and through out life for men are/is "be a man" but what does that mean. I know we are not perfect and make mistakes. But I hate it when i hear that a man has raped a woman. I hate it when I hear that a man has hit his wife or any female at that. Because these men are not men, these men are weak. And to show that they are not week prey on those weaker then them.
And with the women in my life, I have seen the results of what men have done to them. And I hate those men for it, those cowards that call themselves men. And in being apart of a gender that is stereotyped to fearing intimacy, those men are creating that in the women that they bring harm to.
I can't begin to understand the repercussions on oneself after being raped. But I have seen some of results. I wish the future parents of the world would not only teach their sons to be brave but at the same time to respect women.
I also recognize that not only does the physical scare but the verbal as well. I know that there is a large majority of men in the world that think of women as property, as another items to obtain, to disregard and then throw away. Getting older and being around people and women such as Christi Nielsen, has opened my eyes to more and to a greater insight and respect of women.
And because of these men who bring harm to women, use them, and or abuse them - they have tarnished my gender. Most of us (as men) are seen as just out for one thing, a "hit it and quit it" kind of guy, just want sex. And if we aren't, there is no way to prove otherwise.
That's why i hate those men, because they have ruined what it is meant to be a man. They have made the women in this world not trust a true man, a man that respects women. They have taken what I revere some of the best qualities of a woman, her trust, her love and her kindness - and they have taken that away from them. I am sorry for those men that will never know what it means to be a man. Because that's one of the things I feel makes you a man, to respect women.
I myself am still learning how to be a man.
The man in that video said the most feminist, anti-bullshit, profound and real and actually showing that he might actually know that women are human stuff I have ever heard from a male mouth.
I am blown away. I didn't think I would live to see the day where a man would say such things or put himself out on a patriarchal limb like that.
Blown away. I hope he was heard by the men in that audience especially. It's about time they heard what's what from one of their own.
This is profoundly real, insightful, smart, feminist, and against what so many buy into. Gonzales must be lauded for saying what no man ever dares to say: I love his statements of men's contradiction and the power of his words. I love this man.
There's another video in the same series called "Feminism". She talks about rape, and about men calling women names and claiming she deserved it and rape is something in dark alley ways.
She ends it with "If this is feminism, then what the f*ck are you? If this is feminism, then what are you?"
Very powerful stuff.
Needless to say, the YouTube comments are horrific.
that's a great clip. i love def poetry jam, there are so many talented people out there.
Wow.
Good to find your work and collections here. You're in my RSS.
Hey brendadada! Glad to see you here.
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