Coito ergo sum wrote:hadespussercats wrote:
I think I agree with most of them on the core issues you're referring to there.
Well, of course. Everyone agrees with the general statements of principles -- well just about everyone. I agree with justice, equality, equal rights, an end to violence (against women, men, children, dogs, cats, plants...), and I'm against harassment and discrimination, homophobia -- pro gay marriage and equal rights/benefits for gays -- all that sort of thing.
However, the Devil is in the details. They use those general principles to also advance the creepy and whacked out notion that Ms. Hall cannot wear this t-shirt:
I was told in no uncertain terms on Greta Christina's blog that if I think it is "whining" for Surly Amy to complain about that, then I am among those not welcome -- I'm a disgusting jerk who needs to "fuck off" -- if I think Ms. Hall did not do anything "wrong" in wearing that t-shirt.
I think that is the point that needs to be rammed home. I think that implicitly you are expressing this same distinction, and that to me is evident from your puzzlement with agreeing with their "platform" but being unable to "join" them. It's because they are taking those very agreeable terms and applying them to situations to which they are inapplicable. It just is not "harassment" for Ms. Hall to wear that t-shirt. It is not harassment. It is not hate. It is not discrimination. it is not misogyny. It is not even "against" women in any way, shape or form. it is a wholly proper, appropriate and acceptable "parody" -- and the appropriate response from Surly Amy and the Skepchicks would be to sit down with Ms. Hall and discuss why she is making that joke and come to some meeting of the minds.
It is a wholly inappropriate tactic to try to use "hatred against women" (something almost everyone opposes, except psychopaths and sociopaths) to bootstrap a claim that Ms. Hall ought to be prohibited as a matter of convention policy from wearing that t-shirt.
And, the apologists here who say "what they're talking about is hatred against women, and you can't use minor complaints about nothing to discount the import of hatred against women..." --- I respond that nobody is discounting violence against women. We're discounting t-shirt wearing, business card handing, jewelry parodying and elevator coffee-ing. Those things AREN'T hatred or violence against women. And saying so is not discounting or minimizing the real problems.
