Being Threatened?

Gee… I didn’t realize I’d started such a fuss. :slight_smile:

As I said in the other thread, I think that the litmus test here is: would the article have been accepted if it had been written by a guy? And I think that the answer would be “no”. So that was my objection to the original piece, that there was nothing particularly noteworthy about it, and that - on the contrary - it was actually pretty banal, the only possible point of interest being that it was written by a woman. (Given the fact that most women generally don’t write in such a forthright manner about sex and whatever else, that gave it a certain cachet. But not enough, in my book.)

But I do think that the “you’re just threatened by me” argument is pretty much baseless - at least if you’re talking about adults. In a college course once we had a guest lecturer who, upon gaining the podium, immediately said that she was an unapologetic feminist, that she didn’t shave her body in any way, refused to conform to society’s vision of beauty, etc. etc. This generated a lot of debate (as she had intended), and during the debate one of her statements (in respoinse to some question or other, I don’t remember) was “Personally, I think men are terrified of women from adolescence. The idea that a person can bleed continuously for a week and not die is deeply frightening to them.”

As a guy, I can tell you with absolutely no iota of self-doubt that this is a bunch of horseshit. Actually, I had never even thought about it in those terms before she put it that way. It’s just wrong. I’m not sure if she really believed what she was saying herself, but if she did she was wrong, pure and simple.

Still, I think that some of ~karma’s~ points are valid. It’s definitely true that a lot of the posts went over the top in terms of personal attacks, and that maybe (I don’t know) there was some psychological button that was pushed for those people. My point was that I’m tired of hearing that if I don’t like something that a woman has to say about sex, it must be because I’m somehow afraid of it.

I also have to say that while I very rarely find myself in disagreement with karma, I don’t think that the comparison with Chris Shugart is valid. Shugs has been a part of the T-community for a long time, and has earned our trust in more ways than any of us can count. Hence, he’s built up some credit in the “emotional bank account” here. He can make a statement that people don’t agree with, or even one that’s just plain stupid, and we’re going to cut him some slack. Just as we would Patricia or Michelle. It has nothing to do with his being male; it has everything to do with his being known. But if you get some yahoo with a penis out here for the first time saying stuff like, “I used to get laid a lot, but it seems like no one’s good enough for me lately”, you can bet that that person is going to be flamed to death. And I don’t believe that any of the female readers out there are going to feel particularly “threatened” by what he has to say.

More like they’d just laugh at the poor bastard.

Someone who basically says “I’m too good for everyone I meet” and is not really that much to look at or listen to is going to get flamed, and lonely.