Quote of the Day

"From March 7 – April 7, I documented everything blatantly sexist anyone has said to me. None of these comments were provoked, none of them were replies to something I said, none of them were at all out of the ordinary and the vast majority of them (an original count of 77 images) have been taken out so that this post isn’t as long as it probably should be. This is a 10-picture indication of what it’s like to be a woman who endorses game culture, every single month." 

-Alanah Pearce, videogame journalist, in a post entitled "30 Days of Sexism"


[Content note/Spoiler alert: sexism, harassment. Obviously]

During her experiment of Being Female On Internet, Pearce received, and documented, comments such as "I would like to see her boobs" and "Yo bitch! Do you swallow?"

To tie today's post into a post from earlier this week, Rush Limbaugh recently boasted about his role in, purportedly, killing feminism. What an incredible display of privilege, juxtaposing Limbaugh's commentary with Pearce's, when men can yuk it up fantasizing about feminism's demise.

Anyway, to end on a more positive note, Pearce also wrote:

"Honestly, just seeing one down-vote [on sexist comments] or having one person stick up for me is a part of the reason I’m still here and I’m not going to stop fighting. Every single person has the power to fight sexism."

Yes.

Like I've written before, I don't blog about feminism primarily to convince men that I'm right and that they're privileged or wrong or sexist.

At a certain point, many men are just going to have to recognize all by themselves that being an ally, if they even want to be one at all to women, will involve them feeling discomfort at times about them maybe being called out for harboring some internalized sexism or icky thoughts themselves even if they're otherwise Really Great Guys. It will have to involve men calling out other men for their shit when they can, instead of assuming that that's Women's Work. I mean, who here thinks that a man who says "Yo bitch! Do you swallow?" is going to listen to a woman who calls them out, anyway?

And, of course, to quote the great Jenny Schecter, "It's not my job to make you a better man and I don't give a shit if I've made you a better man. It's not a fucking woman's job to be consumed and invaded and spat out so that some fucking man can evolve."

So, yeah, I said I'd end on a positive note, so.

Basically, I'm far more concerned with snuffing out patriarchy's/kyriarchy's gaslighting by, in whatever small way I can, letting other women know, "I get it. You're not crazy for thinking that's sexist."


Related: What Would You Do If You Witnessed Bigotry?