Sure, I have a fanniesroom Twitter account, but as you can see on my "Twitter Updates" widget to the left (on the homepage of the blog, if you're not reading in a Reader), I tweet maybe once every few weeks.
I guess I'm just not a 140 character-per-thought kinda gal. And, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, LOL.
Anyway, what inspired this post was a Tweet I saw following my post about many people's belief that a violent killer's misogyny and anti-feminism are irrelevant details about his character. If you scroll down to the Reactions to my post, you will notice that kayodei tweeted a link to my post and asked:
"@rebeccawatson an experts opinion? http://t.co/6EoMksp #feminism do you think male ignorance of fem issues is sometimes mistaken for hatred?"
Holy strawman, Leftist Gender Warrior!
A couple things.
1) If kayodei or anyone else read my post and thought my thesis was that male ignorance of "fem issues" (feminist issues? female issues? feminine hygiene issues?) is misogyny, then we're having a major miscommunication issue.
It really is amazing to me what some people read into feminist blog posts.
Nowhere did I make the mainstream media's failure to talk about Anders Breivik's misogyny an issue about male ignorance of "fem issues." When I pulled quotations from The Guardian of people saying that Anders Breivik's misogynistic motivations were commendable or irrelevant, I was careful to refer to the commenters as "persons" and "people" and not "men."
While I might have a hunch that a commenter who says that Breivik's misogyny constituted the "finer points" of his manifesto is a man, I have no way of knowing for sure, so I kept it gender neutral.
Furthermore, the reactions that I pulled from The Guardian go well beyond mere "ignorance of fem issues" and constitute either (a) active hating on "fem issues" or (b) active trivializing of "fem issues." The commenters I noted weren't just not paying attention to "fem issues," they were lauding Breivik's misogyny and trying to shut down conversations about it by calling it unimportant. Of that, I said, "that right there takes misogyny to a whole new issue."
2) I found it odd that kayodei directed his strawquestion @RebeccaWatson for her "experts opinion" instead of me. Not because Watson isn't an expert and I am. Indeed, I often read Watson's blog, appreciate her feminist work, and think she would have something valuable to say about the matter, but, like, I'm the one who wrote the blogpost in the first place. And, I also think I sometimes have good and valid stuff to say about "fem issues," even if random people on Internet might not recognize me as having an "expert opinion" on such matters.
It just sort of struck me as stirring up shit, even if it wasn't intentional. Like, dude totally misreads my post and then goes and asks a Real Feminist about another feminist's wacky "opinion"?
Besides, this blog certainly isn't a man-free commenting space, nor are questions about my posts discouraged. As evidenced by Neverending MRA Thread a while back, I also don't typically moderate comments no matter how non-feminist/anti-feminist they are. People can even use more than 140 characters if they want!
So, if you have something to ask, just ask it. I might even answer. I'm also pretty sure I couldn't have tweeted this response.
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