Feminist World Problems

When you´re a Feminist, everything is feminist.

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Hey y'all! Are we still talking about feminism on here because I still have some thoughts on some stuff.

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When people who don´t have to endure it, say *just ignore it*

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When there are more and more men* in powerful positions being fired because of sexual misconduct

No pity. Get rid of them. There are enough people who prove that it’s not that difficult to not abuse your power and be a total dick. 

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When there is a live action movie of Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson

I didn’t “grow up with Disney” and therefore didn’t see the animated movie, only read a lot about it, so there is really no nostalgia there for me. But the main reason I won’t pay to see that movie is, that it’s not only Stockholm Symdrom-y, but also relies on the idea, that a soft and gentle woman* can turn an beast into a loving man*. Fuck that. It’s not a woman*’s responsibility to make an abusive man* kind - which means, it’s not a woman*’s fault, if a man* stays abusive. Disney sends out problematic messages and “as a feminist” TM, I won’t support that with my money.

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Listen up people, I finally brought myself to watching the film. (The live action film with Emma Watson.) And I am sorry to disappoint some of you, but I stand by my initial point: still problematic and not a feminist film.

Belle is still a prisoner and is burdened with the task of taming and therefore saving the Beast:

Some people pointed out that she chooses to stay, but I’d insist that she is very much a prisoner, she gets used to her life with the Beast, but she knows that she is a prisoner, otherwise she wouldn’t need the Beasts permission to go to stand by her father when he is threatened by the villagers. She is surprised that the Beast lets her go, so she was aware that she could not just leave on her own.

She wants to leave, but the staff of the castle convinces her to stay, because the Beast is allegedly a nice guy - a total manipulative lie, because we learned in the beginning of the film that the Prince was a dick and that the staff is driven by their fear or staying objects forever.

Also if Belle seems not really bothered by her new life as a prisoner and she falls in love with the Beast, that doesn’t mean that the underlying narrative here isn’t that gentle women* can tame abusive men*. It’s a story, somebody wrote it, Belle is not a real woman* who happened to go through that story and totally has a profeminist view of things. It’s a fairytale story we tell little children and they do transmit values and ideas. If there were equally famous stories of women* not taking this kind of abuse and men* changing their ways on their own or a gender-reversed story, it would be different. But the trope of women* saving men* from their abusive selves is very popular, powerful and harming. So the question is not, does Belle choose to stay or not, the question is, why this is such a popular trope (and why should we keep it alive with this film).

The Beast/prince is an ass:

The live-action film tells us that this prince was already a dick when he was human. He was superficial, self-centered, only cared about partying in his wealth and with beautiful people surrounding him and serving him. That witch was right to curse him. Then he very well knows what is at stake if he doesn't find true love (he and the staff will stay cursed forever), but he apparently never makes an effort to find love, not even out of pity or respect for his servants, who keep serving him. What an ass. Then he does find some good in him, so that we can be sympathetic to him and feel bad for him, and “understand” that egocentric assholes can be turned into good people if you just put enough work into it. So no, I don’t think the prince/Beast deserved to be saved, I would have preferred some scheme to save the staff, but let him live as a beast or give him another challenge if he wants to be human again. That would have been more educational, I think.

Belle is not a feminist heroine

Belle loves reading books, wants to see more of the world and is smart. Fair enough. But her favourite part of a book is when the protagonist meets prince charming. First eye roll for me there. It’s totally fine for people to love romance novels. But again, bringing the character Belle back to these traditional images of women* longing mostly for love, always bringing her back to finding a man* to love as the best thing that happens to her is kinda old school. Belle’s favourite moment is not when the heroine of the story overcomes obstacles / achieves her goals / goes through important character development and growth, it’s when she finds prince charming. It’s this idea of women* looking for something outside of themselves to make them complete because they cannot be and feel complete on their own. Can’t live a happy life without being a devoted daughter/wife/mother, always “doing the labour of love”, taking care of others and basically existing in relation to others. Single women* and women* who don’t want children are still often seen as selfish and assumed to secretly feel incomplete and lonely.

So Belle dreams of finding “more to life” — and ends up being a princess in a castle. The Beast does kind of “take her” to Paris, but that’s it. Apart from that, it seems like they will just live in the castle and it seems like Belle is totally fine with that. She has her library and she can travel the world by reading books? Books are fine, but isn’t it better to look for your own adventures and achievements and then relax with a good book? She did seem like she wanted to experience things, she is not a total introvert.

The first point I made about her still being a prisoner who maybe makes the best out of that situation for her, but is still burdened with the task of having to tame the Beast and that just is not a feminist character to me. Maybe if she inspired the Beast to be better from afar, maybe if he read some of her books on toxic masculinity and bettered himself, then maybe I could get on board. But she does kinda sacrifice herself for him and teaches him how to be good, being very aware of being a prisoner.

I insist, she knows that she is a prisoner, otherwise, she would have gone to see her father and made sure he knows that she is fine. They have a pretty close relationship and she seems to take care of him a lot. (I won’t go much deeper into that but Belle basically lives her life for her father or the Beast.)She doesn't even ask to go see her father and then she is surprised and grateful when the Beast lets her go.

Again, this is not about personal choice, because Belle is not a real woman* who makes her own choices. She is a fictional character and someone wrote her and made decisions for her, dictating what her character would stand for.

The film fetishizes wealth and is classist

Belle wants there to be more to life than her “boring” village. That “more” she wants seems to be wealth, plain and simple. She enjoys the staff putting on a show for her, all the food and all the books. The film deeply fetishizes wealth and being a wealthy princess with servants. She does pity the staff but is totally fine with them serving her and being servants forever. She wants more for her own life, but she and the film seem to say, that some people are just born as servants. The servants themselves seem to like it or at least accept it. It looks like they are having fun, but let’s not forget, that this kind of power hierarchy is never only fun, the prince was clearly a dick.

Belle also doesn’t think much of her village neighbours and they are shown as simple people who just don't get her. Following your daily routine and living and working in a village doesn't make you a pitiful simpleton and also let’s not forget, that many people want more from life, but it’s just not that easy for everyone.

Would Belle still fall in love and help the Beast if he wasn’t rich? If he could only talk about books, not offer her a whole fabulous library? I don’t think so.

I stand by my initial comment and now I am convinced that this is basically 50 shades of grey for kids: wealth porn with assholes as male leads and no feminist heroines or even feminist characters in sight.

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In the middle of Europe today the spanish governemt uses violence to keep people from voting in a referendum on catalan independence. An independence movement that has always been peaceful, lead mostly by the political left and includes people of all ages and classes. Instead of talking with the catalans, the spanish government decided to take back earlier agreements about catalan autonomy, provoking by overturning the catalan bullfight ban (among other provocations) and sending the military police to catalonia. It should be common sense that this is not how you fight an independence movement. Just overall disgrace.

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More than 700 injured from police brutality. wtf.

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In the middle of Europe today the spanish governemt uses violence to keep people from voting in a referendum on catalan independence. An independence movement that has always been peaceful, lead mostly by the political left and includes people of all ages and classes. Instead of talking with the catalans, the spanish government decided to take back earlier agreements about catalan autonomy, provoking by overturning the catalan bullfight ban (among other provocations) and sending the military police to catalonia. It should be common sense that this is not how you fight an independence movement. Just overall disgrace.

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When germany deports people to Afghanistan, because it’s supposedly a safe country, but there are high safety precautions for the accompanying police officers

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Sorge um Polizei bei Abschiebeflügen

After a deadly terrorist attack in may 2017 the german government had paused deportations to Afghanistan, but now they are restarting deporting people to what is supposedly a “safe country”.

The German Foreign Office advises against travelling to Afghanistan, the flights take the police officers back immediately, without the need to even leave the airport, but the german government is proud to go on “solving the refugee crisis”.

Germany, you’re double standards and racist xenophobia are showing.

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When idiots want to decide, where feminism is needed

“Stop whining about sexism in the media when there is genital mutilation in africa” - …stfu.

not agreeing that men* can’t understand any other type of pain, but the argument often seems to be that it’s not really a problem if it’s not physical violence.

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by Zena Tahhan

“The controversial debate over Article 308, which stipulates that rape perpetrators may be pardoned if they marry their victims and stay with them for at least three years, has plagued the nation for decades. It has divided Jordan between those who believe the law is necessary to rid women of the social stigma associated with having intercourse outside of marriage, and others who describe the law as a major human rights violation. 

[...]

Al Jazeera: Can you give us a bit of background on where this article and other laws that affect the status of women in Jordan come from?

Wafa Bani Mustafa: Article 308 has its roots in French and Latin laws. European countries only fairly recently abolished similar clauses. In France, that happened in 1994; in Italy, 1981.

The introduction of such laws in the Arab world happened largely through a mix of colonialism and through the experiences of other countries in the region. Many of the countries used Egypt as an example, which got its laws through the Ottomans and the French colonial involvement in Egypt.

But in essence, it is a European product. The important thing to focus on is that such articles have no religious or societal justification - they only discriminate against women.

Al Jazeera: Why do you think it took this long for Jordan to abolish this article?

Bani Mustafa: To be honest, raising awareness of women's rights and the battles to change laws largely depends on the movements within the parliament and women's movements in civil society and the pressure they put.

I was the first to propose a parliamentary memorandum to abolish Article 308 in December 2013. At the time, a number of deputies signed with me and there was a discussion with the government about formulating a committee to review the penal code. The issue was shoved aside when a new parliament and a new government came into place.

But after it was proposed, a movement started in Jordan to push for abolishing the law. The campaigns tried to unify Jordanians - even well-known academics, journalists and activists participated in this campaign.

They would go to every district in Jordan and campaign in universities, in media, and raise awareness. Several organisations worked hard to produce statistics and conduct studies on this issue. And they came out with numbers that were very powerful.

We also worked on this article on the regional level. We worked with the Arab inter-parliamentary union and we met with heads of state to get rid of this article in all of the Arab countries.”

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When people agree with you, but want to add *all humans*, *equalism*

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Ludwig van Beethoven - “Ode an die Freude”

I understand that most of the protest was peaceful though. But police were not having it. #SchwarzerBlockInUniform

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When the german government votes in favour of marriage equality

Merkel made the vote possible, but voted against it herself. She is a successful politician, but not the feminist hero you’re looking for.

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When a movie is set in the future and women* are still marginalized from powerful or visible positions

If it´s not a social dystopia, but for example aliens attacking earth (as in Pacific Rim) why isn´t greater gender equality and more women* in powerful or at least visible positions an evident part of how we think about the future?

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...and there is the same social inequality as today. you can imagine technological progress, invent whole new worlds, but don’t think that greater social equality is what humans a working towards?

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When privileged people dont want to discuss discrimination anymore with their bigoted friends / relatives

I know it's tiring and complicated, but who else is going to do it? Don't always use self care as an excuse. For marginalized people (regarding different types of discrimination) it’s not surprising that they don't always want to fight. But if you care about change and you are in the privileged position of not being discriminated against because of sexism / racism / homo- and transphobia / antisemitism / antimuslim racism / antiziganism / ablism etc. you don't have that much to lose. It's our / your responsibility. Keep up the conversations and fights. Don't let your aquaintances get away with everything. I realize that it may not always be easy and possible for everyone but don’t be comfortable just to be comfortable.

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France, thanks for voting for the lesser of two evils. It does make a difference.

“Now we can start hating Macron” - my bf

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When someone asks Angela Merkel if she is a feminist and she says no

01:01:05 - 01:02:06

Just because she is a woman* in power does not make her a feminist. Her answer makes total sense and I totally agree with her. She says, that in the history of feminism there are things she agrees with and things she disagrees with. Then she names a famous german feminist activist, Alice Schwarzer (who is now totally out of date and turning islamophobic in her white feminism), and Merkel says, that Schwarzer for example fought really hard and it would not be right for Merkel to call herself a feminist when she did not fight herself. She has been the german chancellor since 2005 and no, her politics are not at all feminist. So why would you want her to claim that label?

Stop handing out feminism-badges to everyone. If we want feminism to stay relevant and revolutionary, we can’t accept everyone claiming that label and asking powerful women* to call themselves feminists when they clearly don’t have feminist goals, is taking away any revolutionary potential. Feminism is not a club you can join, just because it’s trendy. The title feminist has to be earned.

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When Trump congratulates Erdoğan