I came across yet another random blog thread this morning where it devolved into radfem hand-wringing and sticking-out-of-tongues at the so-called (by them) “YAY PR0N!!1!” crowd. (And no, I am not going to provide a link. I am sick of people going, “OMG WHY WON’T SHE PROVIDE A LINK???” My blog, my call.) As if on cue, a commenter chimed in with, “Well, Biting Beaver used to be a sex worker, and she’s anti-porn and anti-prostitution!”
This strikes me a bit like, “Well, I have a black friend, and she says it’s okay for me to use the N-word!!”
Which is, of course, one of the most fundamental trappings of unrecognized privilege - viewing one person who is a member of a group as a representative of the entire group. (So, for example, a woman who wrecks her car proves that women are shitty drivers; an unemployed Latino man proves that Mexicans are lazy; and so on.)
One sex worker’s bad experience does not negate another sex worker’s good experience; and vice versa. A fundamental concept that we’re all supposed to be keeping in mind here is that people are individuals who experience the world in unique ways, and my experience will never be like yours, or hers, or his… etc.
I don’t want to harp on this anymore, though. I don’t like to fall into the trap of just doing blog posts about, “Oh look at this shitty thing another radfem blogger said!!” because even though I blog for myself first and foremost, sometimes I do worry a bit about what people might think of feminism as a whole if they see posts like this one. -And, yes, I know that if someone draws generalizations about all of feminism based on my complaints with one miniscule segment of the feminist blogosphere, ultimately that’s their problem for not using their brains; but still, I don’t like to be negative more often than positive. However, I do feel compelled to comment on stuff like this from time to time, because it upsets me to see such sentiments expressed under the guise of feminism.
And, now, I’m off to photograph dilapidated old buildings.
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One Response to "Just a thought"
ah, pppppbbbbiiiiit.
That’s what I have for them at this point. Seriously. I think they spend more time snarking on us than the reverse these days. It is, in short, bullshit :)
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