RE: Why so many "anti-feminists" in the atheist community?
January 5, 2015 at 3:05 pm
(This post was last modified: January 5, 2015 at 3:14 pm by Dystopia.)
I think there's no way to measure anti-feminism in the atheist community, there's no relevant statistic to prove it and on top of that atheists are a very diverse groups... Other than that, feminism also has a wide demographic and there's no common political view, no agreement on every social issue or methods to solve problems, so there's no way of saying what "anti-feminism" actually means - It may as well be "anti-misandry" or "anti-feminazism" or "anti-extreme-feminists" but simply labelling yourself as anti-feminist by definition makes you look like someone who's against the whole group. A lot of it comes from lack of knowledge on the definition or the movement itself - Those extreme "feminists" everyone talks about are no more worse than men that hold ideologies with misogynistic content, like people in far right parties who believe gender roles should be reinstated by law - Yet no one is saying all men are sexist because that would be a lie... On the other hand, if anti-feminism results in death threats, insults and petitions to get someone fired just because a female game reviewer did her job and gave her opinion on a game then I'm sorry but I don't want to be associated with those people and I think that association is not any better than the stigma to feminist ideas.
For solving the issue, I propose above all that people discuss, have rational debates without personal insults, be open to new sources and embrace the fact not everything they think is right - In the case of feminism as I've already pointed out it's easy to dismiss it using an example of tumblr and ignoring feminist literature, articles, studies on gender differences and so on but it's not the rational position to take...
Because of these facts and in case you haven't noticed I've been answering to the OP - As a male I support equity feminism because it has benefited me and women as well (even if some of you may think I'm sexist against myself which is an irrational position by itself), I also support LGBT, I support associations that fight for social justice and social equality - All of that is a part of the so called egalitarian orientation, I'm an egalitarian, and a lot of ideologies are part of it, that includes feminism but others as well - For that reason, and given that I don't have motives to think or believe in conspiracy theories that feminists are trying to rule the world, I'm not an anti-feminist but I can understand how some might choose to be so because of social stigma associated with the word.
IMO OP, you shouldn't care much about what others in the atheist community think - We are an heterogeneous group, in my case I'm a gnostic atheist and I hold a minority position as well, I've been criticized for it - Don't give a shit about it, you have critical thinking, your opinion, rationality, as long as you think for yourself and have reasons to voice a feminist position as part of an egalitarian philosophy then I fully support your decision.
It's funny that even between feminists they disagree with each other and usually form different groups - For example some decades ago there was socialist feminism, radical feminism, liberal feminism and so on - The point is that in a diverse group making assumptions is not healthy, but if we put away the misandrists who claim to hate men, equity feminist which relies only on gender equality is the most acceptable form of feminism and is the most common discussed definition of feminism you'll find - It's very easy to be anti-feminism without studying it, or reading some literature, or hearing some critics and scholars with rational thoughts and well structured arguments - This is also the Dunning-Krugger effect, people who don't have knowledge on something form opinions and think their opinion is super correct. while ignoring people who've actually gathered some information and are more educated to speak about it.
Bennyboy, now that I've addressed the topic, I'm really interested in you showing me another definition of feminism accepted by scholars - This is not an argument, rather a request, I'm interested in knowing a modernly accepted definition, you can search wherever you want - Just be sure the source is credible.
For solving the issue, I propose above all that people discuss, have rational debates without personal insults, be open to new sources and embrace the fact not everything they think is right - In the case of feminism as I've already pointed out it's easy to dismiss it using an example of tumblr and ignoring feminist literature, articles, studies on gender differences and so on but it's not the rational position to take...
Because of these facts and in case you haven't noticed I've been answering to the OP - As a male I support equity feminism because it has benefited me and women as well (even if some of you may think I'm sexist against myself which is an irrational position by itself), I also support LGBT, I support associations that fight for social justice and social equality - All of that is a part of the so called egalitarian orientation, I'm an egalitarian, and a lot of ideologies are part of it, that includes feminism but others as well - For that reason, and given that I don't have motives to think or believe in conspiracy theories that feminists are trying to rule the world, I'm not an anti-feminist but I can understand how some might choose to be so because of social stigma associated with the word.
IMO OP, you shouldn't care much about what others in the atheist community think - We are an heterogeneous group, in my case I'm a gnostic atheist and I hold a minority position as well, I've been criticized for it - Don't give a shit about it, you have critical thinking, your opinion, rationality, as long as you think for yourself and have reasons to voice a feminist position as part of an egalitarian philosophy then I fully support your decision.
It's funny that even between feminists they disagree with each other and usually form different groups - For example some decades ago there was socialist feminism, radical feminism, liberal feminism and so on - The point is that in a diverse group making assumptions is not healthy, but if we put away the misandrists who claim to hate men, equity feminist which relies only on gender equality is the most acceptable form of feminism and is the most common discussed definition of feminism you'll find - It's very easy to be anti-feminism without studying it, or reading some literature, or hearing some critics and scholars with rational thoughts and well structured arguments - This is also the Dunning-Krugger effect, people who don't have knowledge on something form opinions and think their opinion is super correct. while ignoring people who've actually gathered some information and are more educated to speak about it.
Bennyboy, now that I've addressed the topic, I'm really interested in you showing me another definition of feminism accepted by scholars - This is not an argument, rather a request, I'm interested in knowing a modernly accepted definition, you can search wherever you want - Just be sure the source is credible.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you