Emma Watson UN Speech

[Red Son]

Did you catch it? I know it's easy to get cynical and dismissive about anyone with her level of fame trumpeting any cause, but I thought she was genuine and her intentions are good.
What's your opinion of the HeForShe campaign? Is it going to be any more effective than similiar awareness campaigns in the past or should energies be focussed on other work / campaigns?

Sad, though unsurprising, to note that the day after this UN speech, the shitrag Daily Star newspaper's front page is all about Emma Watsons nude pics being leaked :mad:

[Red Economist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug6adjb8u88

apprehensive but passionate and spoken with great conviction. We need more people like this.

As a bisexual man, I know that gender sterotypes and conceptions of masculinity can be a prison (even though I'm in a better position than women as a man); so I would welcome this as gender equality has to be a liberation for men too. I've only just started looking into feminism as I've only just begun to recognize my own male privilege- but if this is where it's heading- it is desperately needed to breakdown the roles and sterotypes of both sexes (and I can only imagine how difficult it must be to be neither male nor female) and create an inclusive egalitarianism.

Edit: if you're a man and want to sign the petition...

http://www.heforshe.org/

[consuming negativity]

My thoughts.

1. Probably a good idea being promoted by someone intending to change the world for the better.
2. Website has way too much flash/java/non-text and I don't even see where I'm supposed to sign anything at.
3. It's being sponsored by JP Morgan/Chase. lol

[Sasha]

Great and important speech (within the limits of liberal democracy obviously), i hope many young people, female and male see it.

We had a great radical feminist festival this month in amsterdam, the last workshop i attended was given by a male friend of mine and was essentially a discussion on the role, place and need for male involement in feminism, while at the discussion there was, just because a feminist festival attendance is sadly still by definition mostly a female affair, a majority of females (which also gave a very good and humbeling dynamic) it really inspired me to talk more with fellow males about feminism. I too noticed that while i often talk about feminism its almost always with feminist females, while i guess i can be a real agent for change if i would engage other males, esp those who give little thought to feminism and sexism.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

As good as her intentions are, she is still speaking to the same "den of thieves" that constantly props up misogynist regimes, and the campaign itself is liberal - and not even in the vaguely radical "women without class distinction need to unite" sense. It would be nice if such campaigns could change the world, but if that was the case there would be no need for socialist politics.

[Red Son]

My thoughts.

1. Probably a good idea being promoted by someone intending to change the world for the better.
2. Website has way too much flash/java/non-text and I don't even see where I'm supposed to sign anything at.
3. It's being sponsored by JP Morgan/Chase. lol

Agreed.

I spotted the Chase and Barclays sponsorship after I'd clicked I Agree and it made me feel a lil icky :unsure:

[Rosa Partizan]

of course, I won't measure this with my own radical feminist guidelines, she's not the next Shulamith Firestone, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a nice start, especially after that #womenagainstfeminism-bullshit, just showing that feminism is not about manhating or trying to overpower men or stuff. I also like it that she shows that feminists are not (exclusively) short-haired and masculine-looking. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, you don't have to justify at all if you look like this, and you don't have to prove to anyone that feminism can be "feminine", but I like that diversity is displayed when it comes to how feminists look.

[Red Son]

As Bill Hicks once said, 'If anyone here is involved in marketing or advertising...kill yourself'

(From BBC NewsBeat)

There's anger on Facebook after a website that had threatened to reveal naked photos of Emma Watson was uncovered as a viral marketing hoax.
The EmmaYouAreNext.com now redirects to the front page of a social media company in the US called Rantic.
A message on the firm's front page calls for anonymous online message board 4chan to be shut down.
The website was blamed for hosting the threat to Emma Watson with a countdown towards the release of nude pictures.
However, when the timer ended it started to link through to the marketing company's website.
The fake threat to Emma Watson was posted online just hours after the 24-year-old launched the HeForShe campaign in a speech at the UN on Sunday in which she appealed to men to speak out over gender equality.

[Rosa Partizan]

http://feministcurrent.com/9635/emma-watsons-speech-isnt-the-problem-the-problem-is-liberal-feminism/

oh God. So much yes it almost hurts.


So you know what is more problematic, male-centric, and piecemeal than Emma Watson’s speech?
Liberal feminist analysis. Let me give just a few examples:
1) The liberal feminist movement argues sexist objectification and violent pornography can be feminist (http://time.com/30397/duke-porn-star-is-right-kink-can-be-a-feminist-choice/), but that Emma Watson’s speech was barely sufficient. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/xojane-/emma-watson-feminism_b_5884246.html)
2) Liberal feminism frames sexual violence in porn as an empowered choice for women.
3) Liberal feminism responds “Not All Porn” (#NAP) in the same way sexists respond “not all men” when we talk about male violence and misogyny. Feminists ought to be aware that criticism is aimed at cultures, classes, and industries — not individual people.
4) While we are in the midst of a child porn and pedophilia epidemic (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11114937/More-than-25000-people-caught-viewing-child-porn-online.html), liberal feminism argues we should sell sexy lingerie to seven year old girls (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/15/primark-padded-bikinis-mumsnet-sexuality) because children need “sexual choices.”
5) Liberal feminism applies criticism to every industry except the sex trade despite the fact that the sex industry hinges upon classism, sexism, racism and a global trade which commodifies violence against girls and women.
6) Liberal feminism prioritises first-world women’s accounts of feeling empowered, shunning women who don’t have the language, resources, Twitter/Tumblr accounts to articulate the extent of their oppression.
7) While liberal feminism claims to be “intersectional” it concomitantly evades structural analysis and conceals multiple oppressions with a rhetoric of agency. This is an issue that Kimberlé Crenshaw has spoken on recently (http://books.google.ca/books?id=xv46tpxONoQC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=Kimberl%C3%A9+Crenshaw+a+conversation+with+foun ding+scholars&source=bl&ots=0bH_M8uMBn&sig=4f8fUWe1gJF4Px6_gxTY1a-REvA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BT4zVNTmOqL7iwLWiIHgCQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Kimberl%C3%A9%20Crenshaw%20a%20conversation%20wi th%20founding%20scholars&f=false). As if feeling agentic is going to keep the most vulnerable women alive.
8) Liberal feminism claims to want to end sexist stereotypes, but freely labels women “thin-lipped,” (http://www.salon.com/2014/09/14/mainstream_feminism_is_tepid_and_cowardly_work_sex _race_having_it_all_and_true_liberation/) prudish, and anti-sex if they dare say any of the things that I have just written here.
9) Liberal feminism has been so concerned about “including men” and being “pro-sex” that they have repeatedly published “feminist” works on behalf of male sex predators (http://jezebel.com/tag/hugo-schwyzer)and attempted killers.
Liberal feminism is not only male-centric in rhetoric, but it positions male entitlement as feminist.




Liberal feminist rhetoric is dominated by first-world accounts of “I think this is empowering so it is.” This apolitical approach evades the statistics and realities of millions of girls and women whose stories we will likely never read about in a feminist bestseller. Feminism has come to mean whatever wealthy consumers want it to mean — “feeling good,” rather than actual change or justice. We seem to forget that the world is not full of women who are privileged enough to try out oppressive systems like pole-dancing for “fun.” We’ve ended up in a situation where Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus call their actions feminist — while that’s ludicrous, I can see exactly how they came to that conclusion.

I understand that liberal feminism does seek to change sexist norms and attitudes, but it does so by supporting the industries that ensure sexist behaviour is normative, institutionalized, and profitable. Not only does this garner political legitimacy for sexist industries, but it bolsters male consumers who can argue their sex tourism and excessive porn use is acceptable or even “feminist.” Empirical evidence shows that first-world male consumers of pornography (https://www.academia.edu/240476/Foubert_J.D._Brosi_M.W._and_Bannon_R._S._2011_._Po rnography_viewing_among_fraternity_men_Effects_on_ bystander_intervention_rape_myth_acceptance_and_be havioral_intent_to_commit_sexual_assault._Journal_ of_Sex_Addiction_and_Compulsivity_18_212-231) have higher sexist (http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/13/0361684313515185.abstract) and rape-accepting (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-005-7136-6#page-1) attitudes (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19862768) — attitudes that they can more easily enact in locations with fewer law enforcement resources.