feminist historian

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feminist historian

"Unless women are prepared to fight politically they must be content to be ignored politically. " -Alice Paul

Hi, I'm Lisa. I'm a huge ass history nerd. I'm a women's historian.I study European and US women's history. I am most interested in women's suffrage, especially US and British suffrage.

Patriarchy is rooted in a hatred of women

[TW: rape culture]

You don’t have to step foot into a college women’s studies class to see that people use insults like “you throw like a girl,” “you are acting like a girl,” etc. You don’t have to follow social justice blogs to see a father yelling at his son for being interested in “girly things” or “girl toys.” You don’t have to take a class on women and politics to see women politicians are treated differently than men. You only have to turn on any new station to see them complaining about Hilary Clintons pant suits and not her opinions. You don’t have to step foot in a women’s studies class to know you are uncomfortable when someone calls you a “cunt,” “slut,” etc. You only have to have someone call you that. You don’t have to step in a women’s studies class to know you are uncomfortable when men get pissed off when you don’t give them the attention they demand from you. You don’t have to be well versed in feminism to know this. All you have to do is trust your gut (if you are a woman) or talk to your mothers, sisters, aunts, grandma, girl friends, etc.

The only thing feminism does is connect you with other people who think that everything I mentioned is fucked up and want to change society. The only thing women’s studies classes do are put everything you know into perspective and show you other women care enough about women to create a whole field around their experiences. All taking women’s history classes does is show you how this is systematic and has been going on for a long ass time. While these things are great, they are not needed to know your experiences are valid and patriarchy exist. We see it every damn day. We understand that when we get creeped out by some guy not being able to take a fucking hint. We understand that when someone calls us a bitch. We understand that when we see people focusing on how female politicians look and not what they are saying. We see something every day that shows women being degraded.

Every single thing I mentioned is fucked up. So fucked up a bunch of people have joined feminist movements, womanist movements, etc. to fight against sexism. Women’s centers are on college campuses. Women’s studies was created to show women’s experiences matter. There are kick ass women in politics, media, academics, the sciences, medicine, law, etc. doing kick ass work to change how society views women. There are kick ass parents who are raising their kids to be who they are and teaching them there is nothing wrong with who they are. There are amazing organizations working to end intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and gendered violence. There are amazing people who are willing to actively change the fucked up notion that women are bad and change how society views women.

So this post that ended up not really having a point was started by me asking myself “is it really that hard to understand patriarchy is rooted in a hatred of women and all things associated with women?” I don’t think it is. We see how people degrade women every single day. Whether it is something like someone making a rape joke, harassing women on the street/in school/etc, or just not taking a woman’s opinion seriously. If every single person things hard enough, they can think of a time when they have seen a woman be degraded. Women can think of times where they have been degraded. Then I started to realize that no, this is hard to understand because society does not value women’s opinions and experiences. Women can list every single instance they have been degraded and they will most likely be told they are over reacting and imagining things. Men wonder why women do not always trust them. When men tell us we are imagining sexism, we aren’t going to fucking trust you. Not all men do this but enough do for our experiences to be ignored. It is fucked up and needs to change.

I’m going to stop because I have no hell of a clue where this is going…

date: January, the 13th in 2012.
total notes: 158 notes.
tags: patriarchy. misogyny. feminism. sexism.