The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Lesbians ‘Learning How to Scream’

  More than 40,000 students are enrolled at Concordia University in Quebec, one of Canada’s largest universities and home to the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, named for the author of The Second Sex (and Jean Paul Sartre’s lover). The institute employs four full-time professors, 10 part-time professors, two visiting professors and 25 research associates. The […]

The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Guilt and Queer Theory in Wisconsin

“The excitement around [Jessica] Valenti’s visit ignited activism among Women’s Studies Program faculty and students. . . . The students enrolled in WMNS 250: Feminist Methodologies felt inspired to join the national and international viral movement called ‘I Need Feminism Because’ . . . University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire feminists felt that Valenti’s visit was a […]

The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Fat Lesbians vs. the ‘Heteronormative Gaze’

Does the “fat acceptance” movement “destabilize the heteronormative gaze”? Can women overcome “gender inequality” by a “radical rejection of beauty as feminine aspiration”? Those possibilities are suggested by two Canadian sociologists in an article, included in a leading Women’s Studies textbook, that compared Dove’s “Real Beauty” advertising campaign to a protest by lesbian activists in […]

Intolerant Diversity, ‘Rape Culture,’ and the Feminist-Industrial Complex

Perhaps yesterday’s discussion of academic feminism — “The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Academia and the Means of Production” — was one of those “TL:DR” experiences for you. Certainly, when I stretch it out to 3,600 words, with lengthy quotations from Queer Theory scholars, I understand that many readers will skip out after a few paragraphs. The reader’s […]

The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Academia and the Means of Production

@SarahNAhmed a/k/a “feminist killjoys.” Sara Ahmed is a lesbian and a feminist, not necessarily in that order. There is always a chicken-and-the-egg question about such matters. Correlation is not causation, but this particular correlation is sufficiently common as to be a phenomenon deserving its own categorical label, as Professor Ahmed acknowledges. “Last week,” Professor Ahmed […]

Flashback: Feminists Hate ‘Nice Guys’

  Amanda Marcotte has been lately busy promoting her book Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set on Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself, which is perhaps the most unnecessarily far-fetched explanation of why Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. Even more weird than the “Russians hacked the election” conspiracy theory, Marcotte wants us […]

Never Take Advice From Feminists (The @FactoryGrrrl Edition)

How many times do I have to explain why you should never take romantic advice from feminists? Feminism is a movement organized around the grievances of unhappy women. If a woman is happy and successful in her life, she doesn’t need feminism, and so everything that feminists write about love and sex should be viewed […]

More Feminist Tumblr Stupidity

Here is a classic in the annals of bad logic: I’ve never met a self-identified men’s rights activist in real life and I’m guessing that’s due to any combination of the following reasons: 1. They realize that their passionate crusade against a fictitious version of feminism doesn’t hold up outside of their Reddit/4chan/meme troll internet […]

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