At Beliefnet, 'Everyone' Doesn't Include Feminists

Or it could be that Feminism is now a very negative influence in the world today, as it has relegated males (especially white males) to be Persona Non Grata. White males are universally demeaned and blamed by Feminisim, when it's actually only 0.0001% of white men (and a couple of women) who are responsible for what few feminist issues remain relevant (such as the Republican's war against Women's Health). If this pastor is being told that the term "feminism" isn't welcome on that site, perhaps she should look at why. These days, Feminism has become little more than the KKK for women, where they express their hatred of one demographic of people, and cook up rationalizations about why its okay to hate that group.

I recommend every try an experiment to see what I mean. Get a notebook and place it next to where you sit when you watch television. For a week, take note of whenever women are portrayed in a negative light, whether it be in TV shows, commercials or news. Likewise, mark whenever women are portrayed in a positive light. Do the same thing for males; taking not of how many times males are presented in positive or negative lights.

When the week is over, look at the totals. I can guarantee that you will find that the entire media tends to paint women as always good and men as always bad. Remember to take note if you watch crime shows; how many times the actions of a female perpetrator are considered to be justified because of what a male did to you. I guarantee that it will be a rare instance that a man's criminal actions are justified by how a female screwed him up.

So, maybe feminism has earned its negative reputation. It's not what it used to be; now it's about uplifting women by having them step on the backs and heads of men.

I agree with most of the others here, feminism today is negative for the most part. I know some fairly good women that call themselves feminist, but its not the more popular group for the last few decades, and i actually follow feminist issues, it stopped being about equality long ago.
The top selling feminist writings and speeches and debates are just about blaming men for everything.

Feminists who really want equality need to try a new title, its not hard. The dems used to be called republican.

Leave the feminist label to the radical but common feminist today.

Padremellyrn, your attitude isnt helpful. You use anecdotal evidence over the overwhelming evidence that I and others see and follow.

You should see the Atheism+ forums where feminists took over. What a mess.
The popular feminist authors and speakers, like dorkin (I believe thats the name)
Anyway, you just insult people for disagreeing with your view of feminism. It doesnt make you right or the better man.
Its like when people say your not for womens rights if your not a feminist, if conversely, if you believe in womens rights you must be a feminist. Really, get over youselves.

I am a feminist.

I never realized these semantics were a problem until recently. In school I was told feminism was the belief in equal rights for women. At new year's with my inlaws, i proclaimed myself a feminist as an aside during a conversation with my cousin (works at UC berkley, doesn't shave her legs, and ultra socially conservative christian to the point of being a 35 y/o virgin even though she's smoking hot) and she SNEERED at me. The conversation got real quiet real quick (because it's family I couldn't get argumentative like i would at a coffee shop.) It's a shame that people like this who call themselves feminists have given a bad name to the whole philosophy.

Tom Saltsman: you're nuts and/or ignorant of the state of our society. as a male nurse, and B-personality, I work with many women who are more forceful, better leaders, and more confidant than I. so i think you're nature argument is silly. As far as you're "the man holds us all down" argument, you simply have to look at income statistics to see that the man holds down women a bit more than men.

Maybe we should start saying "gender egalitarian" as calling it feminism does seem inherently one-sided and inevitably leading to misunderstanding.

@Judith Berk: I can see that you're surgically bonded to your victimization attitude, and the wool is securely over your eyes. That may have been what Feminism was about in 60's and 70's, but now it has just because an excuse for women to blame men for everything. I take it you aren't going to try my little experiment with television, and thus, you are closed-minded about the issue. That is a common attitude; Feminists keeping themselves blind to the universal harm to Western Society the movement has become. I can tell you that I support women getting equal rights and treatment 100%. But I also believe that they should get equal responsibilities and consideration as well. If you want to be equal, then you have to give up the Special Status that women have had throughout the centuries; chivalry must end entirely and women allowed to fight their own battles and causes without any help, as men have to do. Right now, Breast Cancer Research funding is outpacing the fundraising of all the Male Cancers put together, even though the Male cancers are harder to detect, have a much worse prognosis, and kill far more people than Breast Cancer. That is the Feminist Bias. Women want EVERYTHING to be for them, at the expense of men being treated with even simple common decency.

I lost a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a fantastic job because of Affirmative Action. The government said that all things being equal, they had to choose a woman. Despite constant perseverance and work, I have never recovered from that setback. I talked with that Personnel director later on, and said that he was leaning toward me, but the legal department informed him that he had to pick the female candidate. How is that fair or equal? Men need good jobs, too. We have bills, and hopes and aspiration; why should all those be crushed in the dirt for the sake up uplifting women? it's simply not fair or realistic. Thus, Feminism is a dirty word in the world today. If you don't like that, then do something about it. Strive to make Feminism about something other than punishing men for the sins of their grandfathers.

Wow – judging by the comments, I can see why women are still paid less than men; why men still want to force women to carry pregnancies to term, even when it's not in the best interest of the child or the mother; why we are still fighting to get the Violence Against Women Act renewed; the list goes on and on.

When you're not thinking too hard about it, it seems like women have a pretty good shake in this country (not so much in a lot of other countries) – but then when you start actually examining issues, you see there are still men like McBob, Tom and Walter who want to keep women in their "traditional" roles; men who get nervous when women start speaking up about their rights.

It's especially true in the Christian community, where "feminism" is a dirty word, and there is an active movement to keep women from speaking – whether from the pulpit or in the literature. Having lived most of my life surrounded by Evangelical Fundamentalist Christians, I can guarantee that is not an overreaching statement. And this article just goes to prove the point. It's ok if a woman speaks, as long as she is "soft" and "sweet" about it.

Thanks to blowhards like Rush Limbaugh ("feminazi" anyone?), feminism has a bad ring to it – and that's a shame.

And this is why Feminism is such a problem. We have people like DeeLemon who clings to her victim mentality. If you examine the world today, compared to what it was 50 years ago, it is a really great world for women. I never said there still aren't problems; nor did I ever claim that I wanted all women in traditional roles (there's nothing wrong with women choosing traditional roles, either. That's a choice they can make). The problem is that there are similar issues that demographics other than women face, including groups like white single men. In fact, white single men have become the go-to "dump" group to blame for everything, to universally demean with society's approval. Feminists consider a single white male to be a crime against women somehow, and automatically always assume the worst about them — just as you did in your comment. Thank you for the excellent example of the corrosive influence of Feminism.

The idea of Feminism as an equal rights movement is dead. It is all about imposing the trials and tribulations that women suffered in the past on men, but without men enjoying that special status that women were still afforded (chivalry, exclusion from violence, etc.). If you think Feminisim is a positive thing, I challenge you to try the experiment I outlined above. Further, I challenge you to see what Feminism has made of Family Law. Fathers are rarely given custody of children, and have to fight tooth and nail just to get time with them. Then there's the matter of dividing stuff in divorces. It's funny how everything of His becomes community property, but anything the woman brings into the marriage is considered off limits for the man to get half.

You need to take a long, hard look at Feminism, and at the lot of Women in the Western World today. Have you looked at the fact that other demographics, some of which include white men, get paid even less on average than women. I'm not saying don't combat it; I'm saying combat ALL of it. Combat all of the social injustice in the world of Capitalism, because focusing on just women is abusive and narrow-minded.

Feminism……a simple word that means so much.Yet it sure took a beating at the hands of some of the militant types that ran it into the ground.Now it has a bad rap.Remember Gloria Stienem saying it was at first ,"a place for ugly angry woman to get together".Now feminism is largely a moot point.There are truisms left that the sexes are different.But woman are roaring ahead in every field.The word almost feels like someone throwing the peace sign and saying- burn your draft cards man.Look out for the fuzz.Antiquated with a militant feel.