Okay, I’ve put my finger on part of what hurts so much and sends me into sad, dejected spiral about Al Franken.
There are men who actively cultivate feminist support who don’t deserve it. They depend on feminists risking the limited political capital we have to promote them as the leaders we need.
Some of these public men loved by feminists, we know they don’t deserve it and they are *still* sucking up oxygen they don’t deserve because they actually are toxic to women in their personal lives.
Other men who depend on feminist adulation to succeed — we don’t know that they actually harass or stalk or abuse women. But THEY DO and THEY USE US while pretending to be an ally, or worse, one of us.
The hard question we have to ask ourselves is, why are we baking cookies for (in many cases, literally) dicks who use the right feminist lingo for our Good Housekeeping seal of approval? Why are we not leading our own political movement instead?
Men repeat what women feminists have been saying and get way more love and attention for it.
(Whispers: Maybe a man who has the gall to feel entitled to your work is exactly the type of man who feels entitled to your sexuality.)
(Whispers: Maybe a man who has the gall to feel entitled to your work is exactly the type of man who feels entitled to your sexuality.)
I could just cry to consider how often abusive men are tolerated in feminist spaces in those instances that several people blatantly, unavoidably do know the men in our midst are abusive to women.
I was stalked within a feminist organization for fucking crying out fucking loud.
I was stalked within a feminist organization for fucking crying out fucking loud.
And the men we do know about ... they are the tip of the iceberg.
I fought for Al Franken so hard. I believed in his character and vouched for it as a MN feminist leader. Tonight, no pronouncements about him. Just honest, rueful pain. Good night.
