Atheism + revisited, anyone here also post there?

[Rampant.A.I.]

That said, the concept of privilege is a valid one, but when people over-use it the same way the religious right uses "liberal," "libtard," or any other "you disagree with me, therefore invalidating slur," it doesn't reinforce someone's position or make them seem more intelligent. It's just a proud display of uncompromising, narrow-minded bias.

Agree 100%. It's a conversation stopper.

Take for instance gender pay disparity. The often referenced study that results in a 17% pay disparity is significantly flawed in that it doesn't address real and valid variance driven by non-gender considerations such as direct comparison of work type/professions, education levels, relevant experience, and hours worked. When these items are taken into account there is still a 5% variance. Certainly not as bad, but something that should be addressed.

The problem is that honest dialogue doesn't happen because the "privileged" group will use the more accurate study to simply dismiss the claim while the extreme feminists will uncritically deny the merits of the new study claiming that it is only 'mansplaining'.

Mansplaining. Now there's another horrible buzzword.

As near as I can tell, radical feminists have subverted the philosophical idea of feminism, and no longer take input seriously if it originates from a source with a penis.

Which works in their favor: That sounds exactly like a chauvinist opinion of feminism, does it not?

Historical feminism had nothing to do with genitalia. It was a worldview not unlike Taoism. And yet, there is this "college feminist" movement, for lack of a better term, that simply relegates men to a subhuman order to balance the scales.

And I don't understand it, because I've never been a mindless, hormonal troglodyte. My best friends were lesbians, girls with a chip on their shoulder but a soft heart, self-identified feather-boa wearing, glitter eyeshadow-applying "faggots," 25 year-old woman who assured my 17 year-old female peers they "would've been lucky to meet a guy like me when I was their age," and a black woman who is now happily married, but still insists on referring to me as her "mancub."

I have turned down multiple threesomes, had Catholic girlfriends break up with me because I turned down sex out of respect for their religious beliefs. I had a 23-year-old woman strip in front of me when I was 17, pull on a dress and ask me to zip her up while bent over her dorm room mattress, and obliged while averting my eyes because I thought it was the respectful thing to do, and had the next year of my life destroyed because I "turned her down" and didn't fuck her.

I had three sets of dorm keys at the time. One from a woman I thought would be better off with another man I actively worked to set her up with, and the other two to women offering a place to crash between classes, and woke up to breasts pressed against my arm and back with a grin I didn't understand, just in time to make the next class.

I've been called a faggot in varying respects for half of my adult life, due to treating women with an irrational, unworldly amount of respect, that they don't even necessarily want.

I'm in my 30's now, and pulled out of it with a reputation for being "a player" because I was able to form lasting relationships with female friends, and other women assumed I was getting my dick wet.

I worked construction for a decade, and had to prove myself daily because of my slight frame. One of my biggest pleasures in life has been watching guys twice my body weight "try to help me carry" something so I don't "hurt myself," and finishing the job while they recover from a strained back.

The faggot jokes never stopped, until I was able to start putting on some weight.

Am I better than the women who practically raised me, including the 23 year-old photographer with flowing red hair who used to pick me up three nights a week for companionship at art galleries, reenacting the museum scenes from Ferris Beuler's Day Off, late-night drives, and laying on the back of her VW Fox, looking up at the stars, talking about life, and eventually how her relationship was going, before a 10-year lapse where she convinced herself I was only interested in her pussy, where I never once expressed interest in her that way before; but it suddenly became a point of contention?


Fuck no. I miss old friends.

The problem I have with pop radical feminism is that it ignores all of that.

I'm not special. My stories aren't unique. Tell me again how "all guys want the same thing," and are equally dismissible.

Because, really; all that tells me is that you haven't learned a damn thing, and aren't half as progressive as you think you are.