Tuesday, October 17, 2017

#MeToo Makes a Mess Out of Feminism

Mayim Bialik revealed via #MeToo she has a modest manner and dresses that way as well.  Maybe it's a surprise but she got slashed for saying that ... maybe even more so that it came from other women.

Meanwhile, those women who do speak out face being shouted down -- including by other women. The actress Mayim Bialik wrote an op-ed in the New York Times this week, in which she described the discomfort of life in Hollywood as "a prominent-nosed, awkward, geeky, Jewish 11-year-old." The backlash was immediate.

Like many readers, I also bridled at her suggestion that women who "dress modestly" are less likely to encounter sexual harassment. Women should never respond to culture's sexualization of the female body by further fetishizing it, but nor should we shift the burden of responsibility from male predators to women's clothing choices.

CNN:  What Mayim Bialik reveals about #MeToo

That's an extreme interpretation of Ms Bialik's words which does nothing for feminism and really does nothing for anyone.


The Harvey Weinstein witch hunt is another example of mixed-up feminism.  He has been charged with everything from groping to rape by about a dozen women but there's been little in the way of substantive proof.  Regardless of the credibility of the complainants, the situation looks much like that of Bill O'Reilly except Weinstein has vastly more talent in terms of his creativity.  His level of creativity doesn't absolve him of overbearing and abusive behavior but characterizing Weinstein as the face of American misogyny has no value.

CNN:  Harvey Weinstein is a symptom, but what is the deeper problem?


Woody Allen got shredded for saying he thinks Weinstein is a sad, sick man which was slammed as a defense of Weinstein in specific and men in general.  I don't have any personal sense of defending anyone but I'm pleased to revile a witch hunt any time.

New York Times:  Woody Allen Warns of ‘Witch Hunt’ Over Weinstein, Then Tries to Clarify


Suzanne Moore of The Guardian is pleased to observe how #MeToo demonstrates the ubiquity of abusiveness from all males.

The Guardian:  It’s not just one monster. ‘Me too’ reveals the ubiquity of sexual assault

America doesn't demonstrate ubiquity in much of anything as we have been seeing in the chaos before and continuing from the last election.

While #MeToo demonstrates ubiquity in those who responded to it, the protest says nothing about those who did not and there are vastly more of the latter.


I know only of one example of Mickey Men and this was way back regarding a high school friend when when one of my sibs saw him on Brookline Drive (Bishop Street?) where he hit someone who was ostensibly his girlfriend.  My sib was furious and wanted to go back to show him some whoop ass for it but I was more in fear of the hammering if I failed to return the car in time.  Note:  it was something of that nature but I'm not sure.  In any case, I did not stop and, yes, that was chickenshit of me in that failure.

I accept that my behavior was chickenshit and my sib was right but I do not accept the ubiquity of abusive behavior of all males when, in my own experience, I have known so few who demonstrated behavior of that nature whereas I have multiple examples of young men repeating the age-old wisdom that you don't hit girls.  It's not that my experience has been a velvet room filled with bleeding hearts since it includes the military and various other views of life and males in our form.

Note:  some of you may think it's a sexy thing with a herd of young men naked in the shower and shaving areas of the lah-trine but I assure you it's not and I would be surprised if even gay men get off on it.  All backsides are not equal and (sob) ain't that a shame.

Zen Yogi:  do you have a great Hollywood ass, Silas?

I'm not advised I have any ass, Yogi.  Woe is me since I will never get a gig in a Hollywood war movie.

Zen Yogi:  I bet the casting directors grope them too

Maybe so, Yogi, but there's so much smoke around the subject it's tough to tell.  Hollywood has always been La La Land with all its pretty people and a plentiful supply of Lotus leaves ... plus often an ample supply of cocaine for extra thrills.  There are some brilliantly-talented people among them but that doesn't mean the behavior of that subset of people is representative of others.  It's a whole different Universe which most of us will never see except from a guided tour bus or some crumby tabloid.


Jessica Valenti, also from The Guardian, advises that instead of showing victims, she will show us the names of the perpetrators.  However, she only teased with some Shitty Media List which is apparently a blacklist being circulated by who knows what nefarious individuals who don't require validation for anything they do.  No wonder Valenti doesn't name them directly in her own column.

The Guardian:  #MeToo named the victims. Now, let's list the perpetrators


The Secret Actress from The Guardian gives us more revelations but there's no validation for any of them.  (The Guardian: The Secret Actress: I've lost count of the unwanted hands that have touched me)


Throughout all of this there's been Hillary Clinton claiming misogyny cheated her out of a win for the Presidency in 2016.  (Washington Times:  Hillary Clinton blames ‘sexism’ and ‘misogyny’ in campaign defeat)

In her first television interview since the election, Hillary Clinton relitigated some of the 2016 campaign’s biggest talking points, saying “sexism” and “misogyny” were majors factors in her defeat.

“I started the campaign knowing that I would have to work extra hard to make women and men feel comfortable with the idea of a woman president,” Mrs. Clinton said in the interview with CBS broadcast on Sunday. “It doesn’t fit into the — the stereotypes we all carry around in our head. And a lot of the sexism and the misogyny was in service of these attitudes. Like, you know, ‘We really don’t want a woman commander in chief.’”

- WT

This one may be the most important since Clinton believes she has some form of evidence which gives her a shady form of validation but she uses 'they' indiscriminately as if her charges are fair relative to any man in America.  In fact, however, the people taking that attitude were typically also extolling white supremacy and that range of demonic thinking.  Applying that behavior and / or thinking to all men shows the same mistake as Suzanne Moore in assuming ubiquity in it and it's flatly false.

My objection to Clinton was due to her well-known reputation for military aggression rather than her womanhood which was never much apparent anyway.  Even Obama was aggrieved by her military aggression and he was chucking drone bombs in every direction.

Clinton's claims seem to have started the hysterical feminism of today.  Clinton also makes claims regarding her own feminism but she didn't support the Minimum Wage increase and she must know millions of women who are not celebrities and actors don't make wages sufficient for survival beyond a bestial level and they're pained hard every day by it.

If we're to talk about feminism, the priority for a Minimum Wage must be first rather than last or there's really not a whole lot to say.  These are the people on the bottom who live in daily poverty yet have so few speaking for them, least of all Hillary Clinton.



Multiple articles have been published in Ithaka to feature highly-talented women.  The women have rarely been celebrities for whom it seems mostly the feminist complaint is unfair pay and who know what's true with people who are paid bundles of money for each movie.  Over time that seems to evolve toward improvement but there are large subsets of women who have little to say about money and they don't particularly complain about the lack of recognition.  Instead, they continue forward in doing incredible things.

Ms Moore is happy to observe the way feminism of the modern kind draws the inadequacies of men but it's not clear if she has a perspective on "Hidden Figures," the movie about the human computers for NASA during the early space program.  The stars of "Hidden Figures" were black women so it gave us an example of racial equality as well.

When I see Feminism with beef of that type then I will believe the proponents but the bloodlust type in which All Men Are Pigs doesn't serve anyone to a good purpose.  The Rockhouse believes so much in the Feminism inherent in the "Hidden Figures" and particularly since they succeeded and are recognized to this day.

Zen Yogi:  hear, hear!

Too right, Yogi.  That's fair dinkum and all those things.

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