Humpty Dumpty Feminism

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=150400" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=160 BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000" background="067f0f03.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sex War"><U><B>Sex War</b></U></A></div> <div>  <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Essays"><U><B>Essays</b></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What is a Hate Movement?"><U>What is a Hate Movement?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Just Sex War"><U>Just Sex War</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id129.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Equity feminism a contradiction "><U>Equity feminism - a contradiction </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Extremists"><U>Extremists</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="No Good Feminists?"><U>No Good Feminists?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id132.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The average feminist"><U>The average feminist</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Profeminism"><U>Pro-feminism</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jokes"><U>Jokes</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Magic Y chromosome"><U>Magic Y chromosome</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Definition"><U>My Definition</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Censorship"><U>Censorship</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Once Upon A Time..."><U>Once Upon A Time...</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lesbian Separatism"><U>Lesbian Separatism</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="51"><U>51%</U></A></div> <div> <B>Humpty Dumpty Feminism</b></div> <div> <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Child of the Glacier"><U>Child of the Glacier</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Open Letter to Mens Activists"><U>Open Letter to Men's "Activists"</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id135.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Letter to the Mounties"><U>A Letter to the Mounties</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id140.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Having your cake and eat it"><U>Having your cake and eat it</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id141.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Women are children"><U>Women are children</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id143.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A criticism of iFeminism"><U>A criticism of iFeminism</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Male DV victims"><U>Male DV victims</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="068f0f03.jpg"> <div> <B>Humpty Dumpty Feminism</b></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="508" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 306 WIDTH="496"><div> <B>There's glory for you!</b></div> <div> I don't know what you mean by "glory," Alice said.</div> <bR> <div> Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. <B>Of course you don't--</b></div> <div> <B>till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!</b>"</div> <bR> <div> But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument," Alice</div> <div> objected.</div> <bR> <div> <B>When </b><I><B>I</b></I><B> use a word, </b>Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful</div> <div> tone,<B> it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor</b></div> <div> <B>less.</b></div> <bR> <div> The question is, said Alice, whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The question is</b>, said Humpty Dumpty, <B>which is to be master--</b></div> <div> <B>that's all</b>.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></I></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.bibliomania.com/Fiction/Caroll/CompleteWorks/p2-ch6.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.bibliomania.com/Fiction/Carol"><U><I>Through the Looking Glass</I></U></A><I>, </I>Lewis Carroll</div> <bR> <div> As usual Alice's intuition is correct. Words have meanings, but the favourite way for a feminist to deflect criticism of their involvement with the rest of the feminist movement, is to say "<B>but </b><I><B>my</b></I><B> feminism isn't like that</b>". In saying this they are admitting they know that much of feminism is bad news. They also implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) agree that much of the leadership of feminism, and the most well known feminists are  the worst sort of sexist bigots. In other words that if there are good feminists and bad feminists, it is the bad feminists who are in control. </div> <bR> <div> But when they say that have their own version of feminism they do <B>not</b> claim an exclusive right to the movement. Very rarely will any feminist say "<B>those people are </b><I><B>not</b></I><B> feminists</b>". Rarely I have seen it, in the most extreme cases of outstanding bigotry, such as Andrea Dworkin, but it would be hard to deny that, for example, Gloria Steinem is a feminist. No. Instead the claim being made is that there are many types of feminism and that it is appropriate for both bigots and egalitarians to call themselves feminists. Any challenge to any specific feminist about their accountability for the wrongs of the movement as a whole can thus be met with "<B>oh that's not </b><I><B>me</b></I>".</div> <bR> <div> But these claims are disingenuous. Feminists are proud to be feminists. Its often said that saying you are a feminist is itself a feminist act.  The feminist webring, for example <A HREF="http://www.jessworks.org/whygraphic.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.jessworks.org/whygraphic.html"><U>specifically requires a graphic logo</U></A> so that feminists will clearly and proudly identify themselves. If feminism is so open to all philosophies that egalitarians and sexual bigots are equally acceptable, then what is there to be proud <I>of</I>? What are these people proudly saying when they say they are a feminist?</div> <bR> <div> There is a fundamental dishonesty about pretending that feminism is so open as to be a meaningless term when the issue is accountability, and then saying you are <B>proud</b> to be a feminist. Clearly feminism <B>has a set of core values</b> and these values are quite compatible with bigotry. It is these values which all feminists endorse and are proud of. But what core value could be wide enough to include, on the subject of gender relations two so apparently opposite camps? It is this (the definition of feminism which Naomi Wolf uses in <I>Fire with Fire </I>in fact): feminism is all about <B>more for women</b>.</div> <bR> <div> But no matter what Humpty Dumpty feminists <B>say</b> the word means, feminism remains a movement run by sexist bigots, opposed to sexual equality. Knowing this, feminists who still proudly support the movement and help to give legitimacy to what would otherwise be seen as the ramblings of lunatics, have a charge to answer. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>     <p align="center"> <A HREF="http://rd1.hitbox.com/rd?acct=WQ5011298NZC45EN0&p=s"> <IMG SRC="http://hg1.hitbox.com/HG?hc=wf153&l=y&hb=WQ5011298NZC45EN0&cd=1&n=Humpty Dumpty" height=62 width=88 ALT="Click Here!" border=0> </A> </p>    </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>