Meninism

I had a philosophy prof yesterday who was talking about how there are intellectuals and academics who write articles that really are talking about little to nothing, and are really not that academic anyways. He specifically mentioned people in gender studies and historical/classical studies. He didn't mean to offend, he completely welcomed debate from any of these people. He was specifically talking about sentences with fluff in them.

He was talking about how we had over a 1 hour discussion JUST on the first sentence in the first book in Nicomachean ethics and how in these other disciplines students are expected to read several articles in preparation for class and then somehow they are able to cover all of these articles in one class. Taking it one of two ways, either these articles in these other disciplines are just fluffy bullcrap or that the system doesn't allow enough time to truly host discussions on these topics.

I am in a course that counts towards philosophy, gender and religion and sometimes we are told to read 3 articles and they really are not as sophisticated, there is the odd article that really grabs me because it actually informs me of something I couldn't assume. I feel like it's a mix of fluff and not having enough class time.

But anyways, my point is that this professor found that it is difficult to analyze just once sentence in these articles for an hour like we had with Aristotle.

So I was reading this article about "meninism" written by an arguably feminist author, because I was curious about the thoughts of what people thought about this meninist movement on twitter. It sort of started as a parody of feminism with legitimate non-critical issues men have in society (like not having doors held for them, being judged for being short, etc). Like most things, it angered the feminist community.

Here's the article I read

I've got to say I'm "rolling my eyes" over this article, which is funny  because for some reason whenever I picture a feminist I picture someone just fucking rolling their eyes and the number of times this author mentioned eye-rolling just supports my visualization.

So there was a specific quote that was terrible in this article and it is the entire reason I am writing a blog post about it.

This quote: "Men started tweeting at each other with a cute little Meninist hashtag. It started out as a joke (rolling my eyes so hard right now), and then morphed into an outlet where people with penises could bitch about how hard it is to be a man in the twenty-first century."

ISN'T 21ST CENTURY FOCUSED WESTERN FEMINISM THE EXACT SAME FUCKING THING?

I am sorry, but most feminism in the modern sense is when people with vaginas bitch about how hard it is to be a woman in the twenty-first century. 

Again, as I always state, some places women are not equal and some acts of feminism are required to bring equality, but once we reach a society like the one we have today, most acts of feminism can fuck off. The same issues men are complaining about under the hashtag #meninism are the same or similar to the issues women are speaking of. If we are having a fucking crisis over this meninism and feminism stuff over girls saying that guys have a view on them that is to be skinny and pretty, and that men are complaining over the same thing, this society is not modern and not evolved. An evolved society will not be in this state any longer. 

I actually find the meninism quotes and photos funny on twitter. Here's one:

This is an example of the meninism shenanigans (which again, are mostly jokes, so fuck off if you can't take a joke)

It's a parody of the whole "real women have curves" thing which is actually wandering off because of this:

Which is true. 

What makes me angry about these types of things is just that the people giving opinions are not open minded or critical (sorry for the generalization). I read these tweets that are like "I hate women who support meninism, it's why I don't talk to people" and then I scroll to older tweets and it's just like "I want a heart shaped box of chocolates for valentines day <3". Um. Alrighty. So you think women like me who think meninism is funny are terrible people, but then you earlier stated you wanted special treatment from a man on valentines day. I am assuming she wasn't planning on romancing her crush or boyfriend on valentines day. Meninism. Right there. 

Anyways, my point of this post was to draw attention to that disgusting sentence I pulled from the article I posted above. It actually upsets me to see people are just that unable to look at multiple sides of a situation and not see what they are actually writing. I don't think I took more than a half-hour of time writing this, so even I am falling victim to this. But I know that I thought hard about what I wanted to say. 

I am going to make a statement and attempt not to use generalizations. Many women were recently angry about rape jokes (maybe a few years ago it was really hyped up in online media), which is understandable since rape is terrible. They argued that it encouraged it and whatnot, which I think is ridiculous. I don't go around telling rape jokes or anything but there have been some demeaning jokes towards women that I have laughed at because I am able to understand that it is funny and I know I am not going to be raped for laughing at a rape joke. Anyways. My point with this statement is that recently Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (who I love) are feminists and recently made a rape joke. 

So maybe this whole meninism thing in a few years will be joked about by feminists, just like rape jokes. Who knows. 

What do you think about the hashtag #meninism?

I haven't been thinking lately - bread and circuses

Mad Men is an interesting TV show, work is fun, I think about my appearance more than often, school is starting back up, the internet is fucking rainbows and butterflies, going to the gym is important... wait when have I actually been thinking?

It is so hard to find time in a day to actually do critical thinking. I think that so much of my days used to be critical thinking, hence I began writing a blog. Lately I can't find the time. I think the entirety of society is just bread and circuses for logic and reasoning. I guess school is my critical thinking time (usually, depends on the professor) but I don't think critically about things I always want to think critically about. I don't have time to read things to make and opinion about them and to think about.

That is why I have been blogging less.

I keep calling everything bread and circuses lately. It is essentially a term meaning distracting the public from what are actually key issues. Basically if you entertain the public with useless things (like bread & circuses, cheap food and interesting things, ahem, chips & tv), they will distract themselves from important things so society will essentially progress. Fucking help us all if the things we watch are essentially socializing us to be people who we are not naturally.

Which it is.

I just feel like I have not been in touch with my usual life of lack of bread and circuses. I don't consume too much media compared to the average person. Rather than that, I think critically about what I am consuming. I like watching Mad Men as of late (don't talk to me about it, I am only on the 2nd season), and I go on facebook and twitter quite a bit, but I generally think critically about what I see. For example, there have been an immense amount of tweets about Lush's "bath bombs" and I can totally see this as a fucking advertisement through popularization and appeal. Fuck.

Anyways...

I am starting a new semester tomorrow. I have:
Philosophy of Sex & Love
Origins of Western Philosophy
Personality Psychology
Stats for Psych Part II
American Lit

4/5 of those I took last semester but are full year. The only new one is personality psych because I took psych of work part I last semester. Philosophy and Sex & Love still proves to be my favourite course. Last semester was focusing on love and this year is sex and I am loving the readings so far. So good.


Anyways. I'll try to blog more but only time will tell what happens.

Follow me on twitter @SarahFloria if you want to see me be insane 24/7