There’s a giant pie fight going on over at Daily Kos. Some women decided they wanted to have a discussion about how women are treated in our society. And they requested that men sit on the sidelines for this one. Some of them did it politely, and some of them did it less politely. (“STFU men” being the most extreme example of the latter… pretty mild by my standards, but whatever.)
Predictably, neither strategy was entirely successful. It’s funny: if you asked people to comment about their experiences climbing Mount Everest, and that people with no experience climbing Mount Everest not comment, almost everyone would comply. But I guarantee you of the people didn’t comply, all or almost all would be men.
We (white guys) just can’t seem to wrap our minds around the idea that not everyone always needs our opinion in every place. Says the guy who has two blogs and comments on half a dozen more. Uh… yeah. Guilty! But when someone asks me not to comment, I neither feel compelled to disobey, nor take it personally.
We, as a society, have a long way to go, when one of our most ostensibly feminist online communities has so much difficulty with that concept.
Also, Apple is obviously a hotbed of misandry. I dictated this article on my iPhone, and discovered that no matter how I say it Siri always turns the word men into the word mad. Here:
Men men men men men men men men man man men men man man and man man men.
Oh fuck you Siri. NOW you get it right.