A Rejected Opinion Piece On 3rd Wave Feminism From 2013 - IDEOLOGY REWIND

Back in early 2013 I was a student at Reedley College, taking a journalism fundamentals class. Nearing the end of the semester it was my turn to do an opinion piece. At that time the Anita Sarkeesian thing was still being talked about all over and i really felt like I was being attacked as a male individual by group after group of feminists proclaiming the existence of a "rape culture."

𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘦.

Disclaimer - I am an Egalitarian, pls don't hate me for my opinions because i don't hate you for yours. As a wise woman who described the philosophies of a wise man once said; "I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It" - Beatrice Hall describing Voltaire's ideology.

So, long story (almost) short i wrote this article about my opinions on feminism. The editor at the time was very conscious of people's feelings, let's say. After the first submission, she asked me to correct some grammar and punctuation. Okay, that's fine with me, I proceed to edit and submit again. Not 3 minutes later she walks up to my computer again and kneels down next to me, in a very patronizing tone tells me that I need to fix it a little more, "the wording was a bit problematic," as she put it. I say, okay, i understand how that could be, so I changed the wording around again, really studying it to see what was actually offensive. In my eyes, i was just trying to attack the extremist ideas and shut them down because of the sheer amount of falsities their campaign was riddled with. From the wage gap to false rape accusations, it was all too misleading and emotional for people to sort it out. I just wanted to bring the issue to light, get people really thinking about the issue past their own biases and feelings. Needless to say I was denied a third and final time and informed that i couldn't run it because of how PROBLEMATIC the topic was. A newspaper that had literally an average reader count of about 30-40 including staff and our class. So without further ado, my "rape apologist" opinion piece that was too dank and problematic back from 2013:

TRIGGER WARNING

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Extreme Feminism

@thethinkingthing
Advertisement and design editor

Feminism, once a term used for defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women, has now become a sort of women elitist organization because of a collection of people that think they have had enough with the misogynist oppression in today’s society, opposed to what once stood for women’s advancement in today’s society. There are women who take the term and add an array of definitions to the word to make it out to be what they think is equality.

Some feminists have gone to the extent of redefining the word rape, such that it can even be used to describe sexual regret. Everyone at one point in their life will have gone through that sexual regret, but it’s one thing to call it just that, regret, and another thing to call it rape. It’s as if the women in these organizations feel the need to condemn men from the world even if it means castration, so that men may not have the urge to “rape.”

It’s so easy to fall into their category of an anti-feminist or rape supporter because they have lists and lists that will make you hate yourself and question if whether or not you are a rapist or rape supporter. Off the top of one of their lists you would be a rapist if you have ever had sexual relations with a person that was intoxicated. You would also be a rapist if she decided a month later that she didn’t actually want to have sex with you. The funny thing about this is that you don’t see men claiming these kinds of things, and some feminists like to say “well of course men aren’t complaining, they are the oppressors.” Yes, men are the oppressors; let’s believe that they are out for something more than what they actually want. You go and work to try and provide for your family, meanwhile his(the oppressor's) wife stays home and takes care of the children and cleans the house. In no way is it oppressive to be cared for by someone. The thing is that most of the time it isn’t even like this, a lot of the time it is the female that works alongside their male partner.

The idea that men are the oppressors in modern America is something so profound to say. Although we may be in a (somewhat)male dominated society, that doesn’t take away from the roles that women play. There are plenty of people that have the financial responsibilities switched, and I’m sure that the men don’t have complaints about it. The idea that men are oppressive has some truth value to it but how is that even a valid point to make when men are basically working to better their partners lives, not for some secret selfish agenda that these feminists would like to make you believe. Should we have to apologize for taking care of our families or have to trade places and give birth for a while to even things out? There are some things that we cannot change, it is biological fact that women will have babies, and must become caretakers for their babies in order to raise a human being in the best circumstances possible.

Now I know in modern day America families are a bit different, and that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with my wife and I both working, it’s good that we will be two productive people in society. Yet that isn’t enough for the feminist elitists. A man living in a feminist world would be walking on eggshells constantly because of how many rules they want us to live by.

Here are a few reasons from a website of why to be a feminist; “Because women don’t get to decide over their own bodies” with a picture behind it saying “77 percent of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100 percent of them will never be pregnant.” Might I just say that the claim is so ridiculously biased. Of course men will never be pregnant, but men are part of the whole conception of a child. That alone gives the man just as much right to an opinion on what to do with the baby as women. How can a person just say “you’re not going to be pregnant so you have no say.” Well I could go on and on but I’ll allow you to make your own opinions on that one. Another reads “Because women are being discriminated against in the workplace because they have children or may have children in the future.” I think that it may be true in some cases but for the most part that is just a ridiculous reason. How does that even add to the feminist campaign? Something else to add is that this website has no credible sources, yet makes crazy claims about an array of social issues. I’ve looked and looked at this website and it’s just riddled with these pseudo facts and no proper citation of any of the information given. There is so much to say about this webpage but in the end I’m just left dumbfounded and with the question in my mind, “why?” *

To read more on the “33 reasons to be a feminist” go to http://trettiotreanledningar.com/33-reasons-to-be-a-feminist/. In the end I believe that feminism at heart is a great idea, I agree with equal pay and equal opportunity for both men and women. But, these overbearing feminists who would like to persecute men for doing what they think is wrong is so ironic. Most men are not after some crazy world domination type of thing. That agenda is set to an individual, for the most part we would like equality just as much as the next woman, but how can that be achieved when the feminist form of it is just a female dominated world.
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I can see how I came on a bit strong on the rape subject and a bit presumptuous. I must ask then, how else do you approach the topic, when this ideology that you're a rapist for partaking in what is socially acceptable behavior is being pushed by a sizeable amount of people with influence?

I just find it interesting how at that time many saw things such as compelled speech to be unlikely outcomes, yet here we are today, where parts of America and the whole of Canada must adhere to these types of laws in place. Consider this, when subjects are argued to an extreme and allowed to spread, there will always be some kind of outcome, and the longer it is allowed to grow, the greater that outcome, "morally good or evil". The middle ground will move, and the wolves will wear sheep's wool to move it out from right under you to have the advantage..

Tell me if you agree or disagree, and what in particular it is that you agree or disagree with. I'd love to hear what others think about this topic, I hope to be enlightened by my fellow steemians, you are all very intelligent people with some great ideas worth sharing. If this made you consider a new idea, give it a resteem! thanks in advance have a wonderful night everybody!

REMEMBER - YOU THINK, THEREFORE YOU ARE.

extra source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall