A little while ago, I wrote a blog post called Some Thoughts on Rape Culture.
Every time I write a blog post like this, as sure as night follows day, the same thing happens. Invariably, I will get at least one, and sometimes several, private emails in my inbox. The content of these emails is always the same, and they're rarely stated in the blog comments. Every time, they're some variant on the same theme:
That must be working pretty good for you, huh? Pretending to be a feminist must really get you laid.
This has happened for years, and this last blog post was no exception.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the assumption that a man who espouses feminist values must be using it as a ploy to get sex. The first time I encountered this, it was quite a head-scratcher, I must confess. Really? I thought. That's your take-away? I am pretending to support values and ideals about women's agency because I'm trying to score sex from feminists? Seriously?
Now, in all fairness, if you look at all my partners, it's very unlikely I would be involved with them if I weren't a "feminist man," or, as I like to call it, "a man who thinks women are people." I have simple tastes; I prefer strong, smart, confident women, and those tend--surprise!--to be women who like being treated as people.
But here's the thing.
The fact that these women would only be likely to get involved with a man who respects the ideals of feminism doesn't mean that they'd get involved with every guy who respects those ideals. Treating women as people is necessary but not sufficient; if you treat women as people, that doesn't guarantee you'll be involved with them, but if you don't, you won't. Yes, in order to have sex with my partners, you have to be a dude who's a feminist. You also have to be a dude who they think is worth having sex with, and you can't fake your way into that.
So as a strategy for getting laid, adopting feminist ideals is, by itself, kinda rubbish.
And pretending to adopt feminist ideals is even more rubbish.
I don't quite get what's going on in the head of some guy who thinks pretending to be feminist is a ploy to get laid, but I have to assume that a guy who thinks that, probably doesn't think women are very smart. If someone pretends to think women are people, but doesn't actually think women are people, I suspect the ploy would be revealed rather quickly. Probably some time between appetizers and the main course, and certainly well before any clothes come off. I really don't think it's possible to pretend to be feminist, at least not for any length of time longer than a dinner conversation.
I don't say that rape culture is a thing because I'm hoping to get laid by women who say that rape culture is a thing. I don't think women deserve agency and personal autonomy as a tactic to try to get them to use their agency and personal autonomy to fuck me. I mean, seriously, what the fuck? How is it that someone might seriously think that being nice to feminists is a strategy for getting laid? Is it because he thinks feminists are so well-known for...um, having sex with any guy who's nice to them?
If I were to advocate some kind of duplicitous scheme to get more sex, I would definitely recommend "learn to swing dance" over "pretend to be a feminist." It certainly seems far more likely to succeed. Pretending to be a feminist when you really don't think of women as real people, just to try to get in the pants of women who want to be treated like real people, is just...it...I just...what is this I don't even.
Every time I write a blog post like this, as sure as night follows day, the same thing happens. Invariably, I will get at least one, and sometimes several, private emails in my inbox. The content of these emails is always the same, and they're rarely stated in the blog comments. Every time, they're some variant on the same theme:
That must be working pretty good for you, huh? Pretending to be a feminist must really get you laid.
This has happened for years, and this last blog post was no exception.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the assumption that a man who espouses feminist values must be using it as a ploy to get sex. The first time I encountered this, it was quite a head-scratcher, I must confess. Really? I thought. That's your take-away? I am pretending to support values and ideals about women's agency because I'm trying to score sex from feminists? Seriously?
Now, in all fairness, if you look at all my partners, it's very unlikely I would be involved with them if I weren't a "feminist man," or, as I like to call it, "a man who thinks women are people." I have simple tastes; I prefer strong, smart, confident women, and those tend--surprise!--to be women who like being treated as people.
But here's the thing.
The fact that these women would only be likely to get involved with a man who respects the ideals of feminism doesn't mean that they'd get involved with every guy who respects those ideals. Treating women as people is necessary but not sufficient; if you treat women as people, that doesn't guarantee you'll be involved with them, but if you don't, you won't. Yes, in order to have sex with my partners, you have to be a dude who's a feminist. You also have to be a dude who they think is worth having sex with, and you can't fake your way into that.
So as a strategy for getting laid, adopting feminist ideals is, by itself, kinda rubbish.
And pretending to adopt feminist ideals is even more rubbish.
I don't quite get what's going on in the head of some guy who thinks pretending to be feminist is a ploy to get laid, but I have to assume that a guy who thinks that, probably doesn't think women are very smart. If someone pretends to think women are people, but doesn't actually think women are people, I suspect the ploy would be revealed rather quickly. Probably some time between appetizers and the main course, and certainly well before any clothes come off. I really don't think it's possible to pretend to be feminist, at least not for any length of time longer than a dinner conversation.
I don't say that rape culture is a thing because I'm hoping to get laid by women who say that rape culture is a thing. I don't think women deserve agency and personal autonomy as a tactic to try to get them to use their agency and personal autonomy to fuck me. I mean, seriously, what the fuck? How is it that someone might seriously think that being nice to feminists is a strategy for getting laid? Is it because he thinks feminists are so well-known for...um, having sex with any guy who's nice to them?
If I were to advocate some kind of duplicitous scheme to get more sex, I would definitely recommend "learn to swing dance" over "pretend to be a feminist." It certainly seems far more likely to succeed. Pretending to be a feminist when you really don't think of women as real people, just to try to get in the pants of women who want to be treated like real people, is just...it...I just...what is this I don't even.
- Current Mood:perplexed
Comments
And I'm certainly right there with you that pretending to be a feminist in order to get laid is about the silliest thing ever. WTF indeed.
Also, I have met quite a number of feminist women who similarly assert that my feminism is a ploy. I cannot imagine the confusion of ideas which gives rise to this assumption.
Edited at 2013-08-07 11:36 pm (UTC)
As a strategy for getting laid being a feminist is... a good start, I guess? Yeah, it boggles me that people think no man can truly be a feminist unless he is looking to get laid by women who are feminists. Wut. As my partner says, it's oppositional sexism at its finest.
I suspect what's going on is just simple projection: if someone thinks "I'd only do that as a ploy to get sex" then there's a chance they'll project that on to others "you must be doing that...". My guess is that calling it out is then a combination of rejecting the idea that behaving differently might help ("nah, that'd never work"), and possibly looking for a "dude, you should totally do it, it's an awesome strategy" reply. It should probably just be regarded as a close cousin of rape culture.
Ewen
Now, the accusation that you attend anonymous swinger sex parties to get laid, that might have a bit more traction (were, of course, it were true).
Does this mean that you are doing this? I've read your work for a few years now, starting with posts I saw on other LJ communities. Based on that, I really don't think that's the case. But I do see exactly why other people are paranoid about the idea. And then we have that small group of feminists who think that no man can ever adopt womanist/feminist ideals because all men hate women or something, so you'll always get hate mail from them.
The troubling part is that women DO fall for guys who just pretend to be feminists/womanists. Because some of us are so incredibly surrounded by violence and craziness and misogyny that the second any guy treats us like an actual human being, we think we're really lucky. That this is a special guy. I should know- I did it, too. So it works. And so more guys catch on to that, and the tactic just spreads.