Threads like the ones you mentioned will keep coming every once in a while, because people forget that there are still some women around here.
This is what bothers me. It's the idea that it's fine as long as there aren't women around to hear.
I am not offended for myself. I'm scared about how other people will be treated in the future. What about children growing up in environments where all this is passed of as "right?" I know that I have enough backbone to defend myself. Not everyone does, though, and I don't want other people to feel hurt without feeling that they have the right to shout back and say: "Hey, you, quit it!"
There's no reason for you to feal appealed by every angry rant, since you're a good person.
I'm not going to just ignore what people say about others, just because it doesn't apply to me personally. This is not about personal affronts. If it were, I'd probably just laugh it off.
Part of being a good person is being angry when this sort of thing happens. Part of it is being angrier when it gets swept under the rug and excused, rather than forgiven. I have no problem with forgiving. I have a problem with excusing, rationalizing, and forgetting.
It just doesn't seem quite fair that I'm getting the label of "honorary good woman," does it? The fact is that you guys happen to know me in all my ill-tempered, wise-cracking, mathematical glory. There are plenty of other women like me out there, who you don't know, and who can also hear you.
I am going to say this now, because I was too shy and scared to say it before: You are making a big fucking mistake. People can hear you, and they are going to be affected by you. They will internalize your disinterest and uncaring, just as they would absorb whatever warmth and support you gave.
If your answer is that we should all just brush it off, I am going to call you out on rank cowardice. We learn to brush off things that hurt us, rather than changing the world, because it is
easier, and because everyone else does it. Are you going to lie back and be passive because there's no reason to get so
upset about someone claiming that
he hates all women on the
internet? Well, it's a hell of a lot easier to post here than it is to stand up in public--I can tell you that for a fact. Are you going to speak for equality in your daily lives, or are you going to just passively sit by and say "yeah, he was frustrated, it's fine?"
And for those of you who say you would get up and do something, why not here? Are you afraid of what your bros will think of you? That they'll think worse of you because you don't denigrate women for laughs? That it will be awkward? That your humor will be constrained because you don't have a scapegoat? That you cannot express your anger without making hateful statements towards people that, for a large percentage of you, you will one day vow to treasure and hold in the highest regard for all your days? That one day you may contribute to, for they are your children, your very flesh and blood passed on? What are you going to say about those people? If you have a daughter who feels afraid, hated, and a lesser creature by sole virtue of her sex, how are you going to feel when you realize that you helped create this fucking world she lives in?
And yet... it's okay?
Think about it.