You Say "Feminist"; I Say "Puhleeze"

Words Don’t Make It So

 

One night a young man in my neighborhood with his pants hanging below his ass looked at me and said, “I’m forty.”  Poof!  I was supposed to go, “Oh then let’s go out.  It doesn’t matter that you don’t look 40, act 40, have the money of a 40-year-old, have any maturity whatsoever.  You say you are 40, and that’s all that matters.” 

A teacher I worked with, who students warned me not to promote anyone to unless they are very secure and thick-skinned, announced, “I’m very sensitive.”  She displayed that sensitivity when I shared with her how a student described a molestation she experienced by her building’s super.  The “sensitive” teacher yelled, “That never happened!”  (I’m so glad for the students that she is not insensitive.  Imagine how that would sound!)

Recently, a man who posts barely clad “chicks” on motorcycles, watches the kind of porn that makes us cringe instead of get turned on, and never learned how to seduce  a woman told me he is a feminist.  I should have just laughed.  But I wasn’t tickled.  I was disturbed by what some will say to score points.  I tend to get insulted like it is a statement about me and my intelligence.  But it really is a statement about them and their self-delusion.

Apparently, since he doesn’t agree with physical abusiveness, he believes he’s a feminist.  Most of my traditional uncles were not physically abusive at all.  Yet none would say they are a feminist.  They just aren’t the scum of the Earth.  We didn’t give out medals and pussy to men who were decent and had enough self-respect to respect someone else.  It was the standard.  The men who were abusive were the ones who stood out as different.  Unfortunately, I think the “feminist” man comes from where men who don’t abuse stand out.

Once I put up a posting about how little girls shouldn’t be called bossy but rather as showing great leadership skills.  This guy argued throughout the thread at how he’s been called bossy.  Typical “feminist” reaction, huh.  This “feminist” didn’t see the need to level the playing field.

He is the only “feminist” I ever met who is so sure he will offend me that he has told me to stay away from his Facebook wall, to visit but ignore most things, to understand that it is all just humor.  In other words, if it offends, it’s just a joke. Can’t you take a joke? Where’s your sense of humor?  He has no idea how he makes himself look.  No real feminist offends me.  They provide air, so I can breathe in spite of the patriarchal pollution.

The only feminist-related impact this man has had since I know him is make me search for my inner lesbian.  And that was unintentional on his part.