#for instance i'm sure some radfems would say my analysis/criticism of womb envy *is* what womb envy is
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gendercriticalthinking · 9 months ago
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My thoughts:
The main intent of this post is very eye-opening and true. While I think a lot of psychological analyses, including this one, tend to create meaning and complexity where there isn't any (to get an intellectual/detective/solving-a-puzzle "wow" factor), and a lot of "womb envy" analysis seems to be more about comforting and empowering women than accurately analyzing male motivations (most violent men aren't subconsciously* resenting the fact that women can give birth, they just like to hurt people), the overall message does have truth to it. Many, maybe even most, violent men use violence as a way to gain control/power. (But all of them do it because they like to cause suffering.)
My eyes rolled into the back of my skull upon reading this author mention the Columbine shooters played video games. (I can kind of give her a pass since her writing was published in 2004, since I absolutely support questioning new things and investigated them to see if they cause harm. Also I'm only calling this out just because I didn't see anyone else doing so.) I'm sorry but if video games cause/escalate violent urges to the point you just have to kill someone, most people should be dead by now. It is a multi-billion dollar industry. Countless women have played violent video games since their creation and yet we for some reason have never had a sudden uptick in female violent crime in the late 80's or the decades since. It's a male problem. Men who have violent urges come to video games, movies, television, hobbies, schools, malls, grocery stores, life in general, seeking a way to unleash their urges through what is otherwise benign. They come to these things already violent, and saying a piece of media (or clothing) was the/a reason they hurt people is to absolve them of the blame they deserve for their own actions. Again, it's just because they like to hurt people and have control over them. The hypothetical man who used to be pure and kind but got corrupted by an FPS game still would have become a murderer if he had watched a horror movie instead.
I'll close out the compliment sandwich by appreciating the teardown of (popular/organized) religion, and how clearly it's laid out that its invention was by and for men to make a system where they could gain and abuse power and control over others (women especially). Men would not and do not worship a female God because God is meant to be a surrogate for themselves.
*Incidentally, I realized this idea from "womb envy" actually contradicts a belief a lot of women who believe in "womb envy" also seem to hold (or at least flirt with): that men are biologically inferior (usually the reason cited is because of their role for reproduction, which one Google search for how emu parents act should disprove) to the point they're mentally incapable of deep/complex/intellectual/etc thought. If men are so animalistic they can't do anything besides feel carnal/animalistic emotions, then they also can't have subconscious desires, because they wouldn't have a subconscious. And if you instead/then believe "womb envy" is a conscious desire that they just hide from us then the fact that they know to hide it (and are decent enough at it for "womb envy" to be a Feminist Iceberg Tier 4 Concept most people haven't heard of despite its supposed prevalence in causing male behavior) is, again, not something a stupid, purely animalistic being would be able to do well, or possibly at all.
having a good day then thinking about this one quote about no woman ever comparing herself to god after creating life by giving birth but every boy with a gun is a god in his own eyes because he has the power to choose who lives or dies and he uses it to take and destroy lives. coughing up blood right now. i need to be hospitalized.
#misogyny#radfems please touch#radfems please interact#my intent was and is never to put down other women's analyses! i'm just taking what's good for me and criticizing#what's bad to me like everyone else!#for instance i'm sure some radfems would say my analysis/criticism of womb envy *is* what womb envy is#(i.e. men seek control through abuse and death period. no conscious or subconscious connection to women at all)#but overall i see it used and discussed in a different way so i have my disagreements#(it's actually kind of a reversal of how i felt and somewhat still feel about using the term ''patriarchy''#in the context of talking about post- or non-patriarchal countries. because patriarchy is a real system with a specific definition#and i think it's important for that to be distinct from the after-effects of that system once it's been removed. and certainly there are#still patriarchal renmants in post-/non-patriarchal societies! i just feel a little uncomfortable having the same term used for#describing places where women have zero human/independent rights legally and at the same time describing#things that could just as easily be labeled as sexism/male entitlement/male violence/internalized misogyny/etc#and maybe it was just because i was a stupid teenager but i do think that fact partially contributed to me being an NLOG#and pseudo-anti-feminist of the ''women are discriminated against yeah but women in thrid-world countries have it way worse'' variety#and i probably felt that way because even now hearing the same word being used for places with legalized FGM and places#without still puts a bit of a bad taste in my mouth#but i'm just a rando on the internet what do i know lol#at the end of the day as long as we're working towards ending misogyny and supporting women and girls that's what we should focus on
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