Prompted by the comments on a post a couple of weeks ago, I started thinking more about privilege, and how we all have it, in some form or another. Male privilege is everywhere – men are assumed to be the default, and women are assumed to be weaker, less capable. If a man fails at something, it’s not because he’s male. If a man has sex, he’s not a slut – he’s a stud. Men can be loud or aggressive without being called a bitch. Men are under less pressure than women are to be thin and sexy.
But there is privilege EVERYWHERE, you guys, and we all have privilege too, even if we’re not male. There’s straight privilege – having the assurance that no matter where
you go, your relationships will be…
One of the coolest things about running the FBomb is when people email me about really awesome stuff they want me to pass on specifically to teenage girls.
I recently got this notice about the ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship Program:
Seeking Passionate Young Activists!
If you are a high school senior committed to activism and defending civil liberties in your community, then we have an opportunity for you: the ACLU is now accepting applications for the 2010 ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship Program. For those of you who don’t know the ACLU, they are our nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee to everyone in this country.
You know what I’m tired of? My boyfriend immediately looking at me when he’s hungry. Like I’m supposed to be this huge sandwich machine and just because I have a vagina it must mean that I make super sandwiches. He complains about how he can’t make anything that isn’t in a box. Well guess what, I didn’t either until I picked up a god damn cook book and slowly taught myself to cook a decent meal. My mom has always raised me to be proud of who I am and I can do anything that I want to do. She took charge and fixed up our whole house with her own tool box and stubbornness. So here I am fixing my heater when it’s broken,…
I am a geek and have been since I was young. Like many of us here on the internet, I say this with a hint of pride. That kid who stayed at home playing Super Mario Bros. and reading the encyclopedia? Yeah, that was me. Knows every anime to hit America since 1995? Also me. Can recite multiple episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series? You get the point. But geekdom is not always the shining Mushroom Kingdom we make it out to be. Like every group, we have our share of misogynist douchewads. for instance, let’s look at one of my earliest hobbies, video games.
Before the ragestorm hits let me say: I AM BY NO MEANS DISSING GAMING. I am a gamer. I specialize in a genre frequently…
When my peers find out that I am a feminist blogger, I am generally faced with a few questions. “So you’re a lesbian?” is a pretty common one. “What’s a feminist?” is another. I have honed answering these questions into an art form, where I am able to answer both educationally and with a snippet of snark. It’s statements like, “We don’t need feminism anymore,” that truly give me pause.
Of course we still need feminism — but the reasons aren’t so simple anymore. We still don’t have equal pay, it’s true, but there are women who have truly impressive and powerful careers. Women don’t sit at home while men bring home the bacon anymore; in fact they’re 50% of the workforce. Statistically, it would appear that we’ve made…
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