Why Women Are Revolting
Women have more reasons to revolt than anyone can imagine, because the reasons all compound on each other. Just about everything I have written on this blog, and the home page, is about that compounding. This list that follows may appear unconnected, but I do not mean to separate them, because my perspective connects them all. Things are the way they are by male design. Females have other ways. Some ways are better than others, but how that comes down depends on the confluence of individual perspective and actual results.
In the spirit of that feminist aphorism from Robin Morgan, all issues are women’s issues, this is a list on my mind presently. This is by no means a comprehensive or in depth list. These issues are not of equal importance or scope, to me or feminist rebels in general. Every woman has different reasons to rebel, or different ways of looking at issues. The multiplicity of issues has been used by men to divide and conquer women. This is a bluff. Women cannot agree on anything in particular, so what? Most women can agree there are too many reasons to challenge the powers that be and how they run things. Individually and in groups, women have worked together on important issues, making a mark on history that cannot be ignored. Women will not go back. Women will not let men go on ruining the world. That is the bluff, that women will find no way to work together on a scale threatening business as usual.
Men run the world. The world is a mess, in more ways than I can think about, but I have to live here and deal with all that. Male dominant value systems demean and devalue women in more ways than I can think about. There are answers to problems men in charge do not want to think about, so they dismiss these solutions, as though conventional wisdom has all the answers. Men think free speech, supposedly meant to protect the right to dissent from authority, means they have a right to buy images of women sexually degraded and violated in horrendous ways. A man taking home millions a year for insulting women and minorities thinks free speech means he can say on the air women playing championship college basketball are whores, because he thinks that is funny. He went too far with that line, cost him his job. Once in awhile when a man goes too far, it costs him. That depends on public reaction. Women have long been forced to tolerate routine vicious male nonsense, at great cost. If a man must express his hate for women, he should do it in private so he can only hurt himself.
A man taken by police for psychiatric evaluation for stalking two women students, initially found to be an imminent danger to himself or others, is then reevaluated and released with a voluntary recommendation of counseling. His hostile behavior causes most of his class to stop attending and a professor to threaten to quit. Yet nothing goes on his record to show up on a background check to stop him from casually buying a semi-automatic with enough ammo for a massacre at his college.
Men have big problems treating women with respect. It is beyond the capacity of typical men, since they believe men are superior. What men believe about women, and how men form expectations of women as a result, has filled volumes, both their expositions and women dissecting all that smug male theory about things men cannot understand, having no experience, no insight or perspective or inside way of knowing that of which they speak so knowingly. Some males pretend they have women figured out.
Men routinely rape women who trusted them, thinking nothing of the violation, as if they did nothing wrong. The idea of consent is twisted to cover for men, to make it almost impossible to prove no meant no, short of visible wounds.
Men think they have some business interfering with the choices women make about reproducing.
Men think a relationship means a woman is his property, to abuse as he sees fit.
Men routinely terrorize and batter women under the cover of love, thinking this is appropriate discipline, or that it was her fault he overreacted, so an apology should mend the fences. Often she has no recourse, no protection if she leaves him. If she kills him, she may be prosecuted for cold-blooded murder, though sometimes juries are wiser than to go along with that.
Men sexually harass women, for fun, and have the gall to think women ask for it, like it, or deserve it for the nerve of competing with men. Men think they have some right to foster a hostile work environment for women.
Women are expected to go along with male decisions. Women almost never get credit due for what women contribute, in all areas of life.
Women are expected to take care of needy men and children, without fair if any compensation, appreciation, or respect.
Some men pretend they can transform into female by hormones and surgery. That certainly can affect appearances and how one is treated by others, but they are not female, nor can they understand how females think or feel, though they may be atypical males. Feeling compelled to express this pretense gives no right to cross natural boundaries to impose beliefs on women. The expression can be done freely in private so it hurts noone else.
Women are expected to wear makeup and high heels. Most cosmetics contain toxic ingredients.
Most food contains genetically engineered and toxic ingredients or residues. Big agribusiness has no respect for biodiversity, nutritional value, or sustainability. Ancient trees are clearcut to make room for development, or paper or biofuel plantations, with token if any respect for biodiversity or sustainability.
Industry thinks it has a right to pollute air, soil, and water, with the gall to claim overregulation while species extinction and cancer rates accelerate.
Millions of women are still prescribed hormone replacement therapy, despite the uproar when the mainstream finally could no longer deny its harmful effects.
Women feel pressured to go on unhealthy diets to lose weight. Some develop an obsession, lose too much, committing unintentional suicide. Most diets can cause health problems, yet these frauds rake in the dough.
Male doctors perform many unwarranted surgeries on reproductive organs of women, especially in the USA.
Uranium is used in conventional warfare, spreading radioactive dust on the winds. Nuclear energy is promoted as an answer to global warming by most politicians and some environmentalists. Safety standards are relaxed to extend the lifetime of old nukes while new nukes line up on the drawing board. This is technology at its worst, while endless energy showers Earth, untapped except by infant industries and plants, naturally tapping sunlight for photosynthesis.
Fluoride is added to public water to prevent childhood tooth decay in many cities in the USA, though most everywhere else abandoned the reckless experiment long ago.
The poisons of orthodoxy and putting profit over truth have taken hold of scientists in service of big business. Regulatory agencies are plagued by conflicts of interest, protecting industry at the expense of public health and safety. Serious charges have been leveled about the poor results of conventional medical practices, and attempts to stifle legitimate competition from alternative modalities. These charges should be fully investigated by independent reviewers. Science should be about truth, innovation, finding better ways to serve people, from producing goods, services, and energy to preventing and treating disease.
People in general, but particularly women and children are routinely drugged for behavior judged abnormal. For authorities to make that judgment is dangerous at best, easily a tool for enforcing conformity. Drugging or involuntary treatment should be a last resort reserved for those who are truly unbalanced to the point of threatening others.
The major parties are both committed to an endless war on terror. One talks as if it opposes the occupation of Iraq, but still votes to fund it, finally with some flimsy conditions attached. Such tepid opposition is typical of US politics, quibbling over tactics, slinging mud, making hay of scandals, anything to keep the public diverted so the gravy train of money driven politics keeps rolling while meaningful opposition is kept off the table.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Do you truly expect this will actually go anywhere ever at all? Or is this simply a bid for attention?
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
You are a funny guy. Do you consider protests generally simply a bid for attention?
January 30th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
If it was a bid for attention, why would Aletha keep this site going, after the free soil party got (correct me if I’m wrong) absolutely NO attention in the MSM, or even much if any of the alternative media (excepting F-Files, because Jackie ROCKS!!)?
February 16th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Honestly I am male, I am just reading this because I am interested in the feminist point of view. Though some of this make my head well spin. Sure you might think my opinion of this is flawed. Sure I think you are right in some point of views, men have done some terrible things. But the way you are going on you are making out every male to be terrible people. There are women who have done terrible things to. I won’t say men are better but I believe all men and women equal and I treat all with respect until disrespected. I have not done anything terrible to women that I can think of. I am not going to say I understand women, far from it but I do accept them as my equal. I am no better than anyone else unless they have proven themself that they have stooped lower than me. Not every man is terrible. I will never disrespect a woman and will treat them with outward respect. Which most women do not give me respect because they bunch me in with every male. Sure go revolt, but revolt against the right men, not the ones who you have no reason for you to dislike and will most likely treat you nicely.
One more thing this is coming from a 19 year old teenager who is willing to try to understand and do not find myself superior to anyone, anyways thank you for reading this. I respect your opinion for disliking men. I just hope you will not take it to far as to dislike all men and not be willing to understand the other genders feelings like I am.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I get tired of saying this, but I will say it again. If I mean to say all men, I will say, all men. Otherwise men means men in general, who give women in general plenty of reasons to revolt.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I’ve always thought people who “try to understand” don’t need to broadcast their “understanding,” but that it will show with their actions, non-actions, and general response.
Men have been the creators of the culture we live in today. Historically, this has been the case, whether or not an individual man acts oppressively towards women.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Yes, and generally men who really do try to understand do not jump to conclusions that feminist protests of male behavior are lumping all men in the same boat. This man is so young, I might be inclined to cut him some slack, but that leap is all too common a way men get defensive and evade the point.
June 13th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Men behave the way they believe women want them to behave and vice versa. There are dire social consequences for men who don’t behave according to social expectations – that is to say, *women’s expectations.* Women demand men be competent, witty, indepepdent, fearless enough to approach them, and certain of themselves enough to take on the responsibility of establishing relationships with them. Women demand men who are financially stable, while never experiencing the same pressure from the opposite sex to successfully navigate the rat race. Men do not require any of this from women, nor do they ask that women have advanced college degrees, sure of themselves at all times, confident, strong, and so on. It isn’t surprising that men buckle under the pressure. It’s far easier to fall into the loser trap if you are male than if you are female. Women expect far more of men than vice versa, and the results are plain enough to see. Male suicide is four times that of female suicide. Every study done on college freshmen shows that men are far more likely to report feelings of loneliness and isolation than their female counter parts. The truly hopeless and disturbed among them occasinally shoot up their highschools and colleges. It’s depressing that there are so many people as clueless as you. Why has male suicide tripled since 1970 and female suicide rates have stayed the same? Who cares, right?
June 17th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
And you call me clueless? Oh, the irony. It is amazing that you give women so much credit for male behavior. Are the demands of women to blame for men harassing, battering, raping, murdering women? Based on your point of view, you probably think the answer is yes, those men buckle under the pressure. If it is so much easier for men to fall into the loser trap, why are prostitutes overwhelmingly female? This is a thoroughly male dominated culture, and has been for thousands of years. So how is it that male problems are caused by women?
August 29th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
shut up and fetch me a sandwich whore.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:18 pm
How terribly original. Thank you for helping make my case.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I am somewhat tolerant of on-topic insulting comments, but I have received a number of even less meaningful insults, which will never see the light of day.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:50 am
“Most food contains genetically engineered… ”
do you have a problem with GM?
“Women feel pressured to go on unhealthy diets to lose weight. Some develop an obsession, lose too much, committing unintentional suicide. Most diets can cause health problems, yet these frauds rake in the dough.”
And yet people still buy them.
“Male doctors perform many unwarranted surgeries on reproductive organs of women, especially in the USA.”
Surgeries are voluntary. If your talking about C-sections, and I don’t know what else you would be, then let me just tell you that they are often nessicary to save the life of eather the mother or the child. I wouldn’t be here today without one.
“Women are expected to take care of needy men and children, without fair if any compensation, appreciation, or respect.”
Oh yes such a terrible thing it is to take care of the needy and dependent. Can you imagine the gall of some one asking you to be a decent human being and doing your part for socity?
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Yet another clueless man, I presume, showing off his ignorance, not to mention his inability to spell. Yes, I have a big problem with genetically engineered organisms, at least outside of laboratories. They are a prime example of the corruption of science, with vastly overstated benefits, while the risks are downplayed or ignored.
That women succumb to the diet industry is a testament to the power of social conditioning, not the vanity or foolishness of women.
Some C-sections are medically necessary, but the majority performed in USA are done for convenience, with bad effects on both the mother and child. USA has by far the highest rate of C-sections in the world, and it is not because of any greater medical need. There is also a vast epidemic of unnecessary hysterectomies. Many mastectomies are also unwarranted, especially those done to prevent breast cancer in women deemed at high risk.
I have no issue with taking care of children, but that women are expected to take care of children and men is another story altogether. Men ought to do their fair share of taking care of children and themselves. Caretaking is not necessarily the role of women; that it falls upon women by default is, again, a testament to the power of social conditioning. You probably find the idea that men have an equal responsibility for caretaking galling, because you do not see that as doing your part for society. That men feel free to shirk that responsibility, passing it off as the part decent women should do for society, is just part of the incredible gall endemic to the male sense of entitlement.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Lol, I read about 1/15th of the article at most, but I’m telling you right now you’re delusional. To suggest that men are the source of all the worlds problems is ridiculous, if women were in the leadership positions, they’d never get anything done because they’d either be on maternity leave for 50 years or be so far behind the curve after returning they’d never catch up. Additionally, Kim Campbell.
And what is with all this rhetoric about men forcing women to comply with our demands of appearances and whatnot? If you’re writing this blog, you probably live in a first world country which means that you have the freedom to wear whatever you choose and look as dirty, ugly or skanky as you want, but just don’t come crying to me when no man will have you. As for sexual harassment? How would you define that? Probably being hit on, but as a silly girl you’d never get a man otherwise because it is a “man’s job” to approach a women and oh how bitterly you would bitch if you were never approached.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Yet another clueless man, I presume, who thinks I am delusional, though he has amply demonstrated his foolish presumptions and inability to reason logically. I doubt he cares how silly he sounds, but really, how silly can men get trying to justify their fallacies? There seems to be no limit. Women would never get anything done, huh? As if men have done such a fine job running things!
Even living in California, I do not have the freedom to wear whatever I choose or look dirty; that would mean I would not be able to make a living. His presumption that I might have trouble finding love is pathetic, but typical male chauvinist thinking, that all men must think like him, because he is the paragon of logic and common sense. Sorry, silly man, I found guys who do not fit your mold, and guess what, some guys do not mind at all being approached. His cavalier dismissal of sexual harassment is unfortunately all too common among men; they cannot tell the difference between desired and undesired attention, since to their way of thinking, women should always be flattered when hit upon. A woman has ways of letting a man know when she is open to that kind of attention, and if a man wishes to avoid being accused of sexual harassment, he should learn to read those cues. Guess what, silly man, there is no such thing as a job only suited for men, and aside from reproductive capacities, that goes both ways. Anyway, again I say, thank you for helping me make my case.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
I am a man. I was raised by my mother and older sister. They did not prepare me to be a man. My father wanted me, but because the courts favor women to have the children I lived with her. As soon as I was old enough to decide 13 or so I chose to go live with my father. When I was 19 I joined the military and traveled the world. The things I’ve seen……
I have one thing to say….. American women are not like the women of the world. My buddy….dodging bullets, supporting his wife who’s at home living off of the money he makes. Blood money. The money that put a roof over her head, food in her stomach and the bed that she’s slammin’ the neighbor in. It’s just not enough for her. My other buddy…. sacrifices his military career to deny orders for his families benefit. His wife runs off taking the children to go be with a younger man. He’s left with the credit card bills she ran up, the mortgage and without his children. All that sacrifice……debt and wounds is what he has to show for it. There are so many many more examples. Its just never enough for these bloated spoiled women of america. Their sense of entitlement is massive. Attacking the very men who shed their blood to allow them to bitch that they still want more. And it is more…. so much more… You’re not like those Philippine girls I saw….quite literally packed into the clubs wearing only scraps of cloth…dancing….or really just moving…you should have seen the looks on their faces. You’re also not like farm girls who actually barrade you to take ‘em home for a 40 dollar “boom boom”. And we won’t even talk about the women “over there” in that god forsaken sandbox, …… but seriously when’s it enough? You don’t have enough of this or of that and “it’s not fair”….. attacking men for being …. well men. I opened a door for a women the other day apparently I was being a male chauvinist pig. “Well shit sorry I got the door for ya.” When’s it enough huh? When all the men bow before you? In America they do. In conclusion men and women are equal but some women “are more equal”. By the way, mother nature doesn’t like when the gender roles start to colesc into one a-sexual entity we’re equal but in different ways. The most attractive women I’ve ever met was a woman who knew how to be a woman and she was quite powerful doing it too.
January 29th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Yeah, men have lots of complaints about women. Sometimes those complaints might even be justified, but I think the reverse is so far more often the case. No man has ever bowed before me, so I assume you are employing a figure of speech to make a nonsensical point. What do you, as someone who thinks he knows all about women, think life is like for a wife of a man dedicated to a military career? Especially in these times, when the US military is being cynically used by the powers that be to illegally occupy and attack other nations? You have the gall to cast aspersions on women who get disillusioned with that life?
When is it enough? When women have equal representation and power. This country is far from that, though some countries are worse and others slightly better. You are a male chauvinist pig. You actually believe there is something natural about gender roles. They were invented by men to make women subservient to men. Are you aware of your own sense of entitlement? Are you one of those men’s rights activists? Regardless, I should thank you as well, for helping me make my case.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Ok, let’s break this down point by point. Your first point is that men and women are both guilty at being disloyal. I agree, however you go on to state men are more so, I think that’s a biased observation. I will further state that in the occurrence a wife and husband do divorce the laws of our country are sided for the female. Not only do the women usually get the children and child support, but even if children are not involved they still may make off with alimony. I’ve seen many cases in my life where a man is paying a woman but never the other way around, I’m not saying it’s not possible but extremely unlikely. I’m sure if I got a divorce and asked the judge to make my wife pay me alimony I’de be laughed right out the court house. Now on to your second point. No man has ever bowed to you. I’m sorry to hear that. Has a man ever opened a door for you? Offered to carry something for you? As a young man I was taught to respect women and show them courtesy. If you believe these kinds of actions are not a form of bowing and somehow repressive against women, then I believe you may have been mislead somewhere. Your third point was that you believe I know all about women. I never claimed to know all about women I merely shared my personal observations. I know I’m imperfect and my observations are my own and incomplete as a vision of the world, but I offered them as a reflection of other possibilities. The life as a military wife must be hell. You bring up a valid point. I believe the women who faithfully standby their husbands while worrying for his life, and dealing with his absence are very good women indeed. I never “cast aspersions” on them. You also mentioned some political stuff about occupying countries ect. I actually agree with you on not being the world police, however don’t make the mistake of accusing the military of deciding to do it. It’s purely political. The military is a tool of the United States and does what the people ask of them. They make no decisions except on how best to carry out the missions assigned to them by the president and congress. Which, in theory at least, be reflections of the peoples desires. Now finally on to my favorite point you pose. When is it enough? You stated that when women have equal representation and power. I’m not sure exactly what you mean so forgive me for making assumptions for conversations sake. As for representation…. do you mean politically? I believe there are women in every facet of political power. The executive branch, the cabinet has women. The secretary of state is a woman. The Judicial branch has women supreme court justices. Congress….. the speaker of the house is a woman. There are many women in the House and Senate. So now on to Power…. what kind of power are you talking about? If this has something to do with corporate america let me remind you that there are women CEO’s. There are very rich and powerful women in Hollywood. Oprah is rich and powerful. Or do you mean physically powerful? Well unless you wanna shoot up testosterone I’m sorry nothing I can do about that one. But to be fair there are many physically powerful women I’ve met in my life. If you mean by men getting jobs over women…. there’s laws against that. Equal Opportunity …..ect. There’s laws protecting women in every aspect and allowing them to be represented and powerful. So I don’t know what you’re talking about. Next you went onto gender roles…. I have no idea what you’re getting at with this. It’s true that in the past women have been pushed out of doing “man’s work” but there’s no way you can blame men for that. Men were equally restricted from doing “women’s work”. Society as a whole decided that. I believe it has something to do with physical strength and other factors, and the natural separation of the sexes that occurs even in tribal societies. If you believe that what happens in tribal societies is “evil” and its just the men “controlling women”, remember that those tribal societies is where every human came from and they worked….we didn’t go extinct. Do you just hate being human, because whether or not you like it women are physically different from men. Maybe you want to be a man? Now on to my sense of entitlement. I believe that I deserve what I wrought with my two hands. I would never ask for alimony, child support, or wellfare. Call me proud but I don’t do hand outs or expect others to support me. I believe in carrying your own weight and taking responsibility for mistakes I have made. Can you say the same? As far as am I a men’s rights activist? I didn’t know there was such a thing sounds neat do you have their website? And if you think I’m a male chauvinist pig. I don’t even know what that is, but if that’s just bein’ a man….. well then oink oink baby.
February 6th, 2010 at 12:04 am
So many distortions and misconceptions, it is hard to know where to begin. You do know what a male chauvinist pig is, being a man like you, arrogant, uncomprehending and contemptuous of women, and proud of it. Not all men are like you. Some men actually do respect women, as opposed to being chivalrous, what you call courtesy.
My initial point was not about disloyalty; that appears to be one of your major gripes against women, but my gripes about men go far beyond that, as I elucidated in my post. Men’s rights activists like to claim women are at least as likely to batter men as vice versa. Their organizations are not hard to find. You feign ignorance. I wonder why. They are also fond of complaining about divorce laws, and whine endlessly about how men are so oppressed and emasculated by feminists. The discrepancy in alimony is directly attributable to the discrepancy in opportunities and pay.
Obviously the rank and file of the military do not make the decisions, but one who commits war crimes under orders is still a war criminal, even though the ultimate responsibility lies with those giving the orders. You were not casting aspersions? What would you call it, telling it like it is, perhaps? Your contempt for women drips from every word, but perhaps you would also call that something else, just being a man, perhaps?
Many women are in Congress? Men outnumber women in Congress about five to one. This is many women to you? Are you serious? The proportion of women CEOs, at least in big business, is worse. Virtually all women who attain wealth or power are tokens. They got where they are because they pose no threat to the male power structure, and learned how to fit in, play the game. Laws allow women to be represented and powerful? How generous of men to pass such laws. If men did not control society, such laws would not be necessary. You say, society as a whole decided what kinds of work were appropriate for women and men? What makes you think women had any say in that? It has nothing to do with physical differences. Those determine which sex gives birth and milk, not what kinds of work are appropriate. Your contention that the restrictions on men and women were equivalent is baseless, though from the point of view of the privileged sex I suppose it makes sense. Gender roles were not created for the benefit of women, any more than the roles of master and slave were created for the benefit of slaves. Besides, different tribes have had vastly different gender roles. They are cultural artifacts, nothing natural about them. Do you actually believe this world has worked out well? Perhaps for you, it has, but the world is in such a mess, many species are going extinct, and humans may not be far behind.
I do not hate being human, nor do I wish I were male. I carry my own weight and take responsibility for my actions as much as anyone. This seems difficult for you to believe, but I never wanted to be dependent on a man, or the state. Your insinuations are ignorant and silly, but revealing of just how clueless and arrogant men can be.
February 6th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Do you really believe you are balanced? I mean this sincerely. I was Interested in honest conversation, not bitter senseless attacks. It’s evident that you didn’t even attempt to reflect. I did hear you and I even reflected, I thought of what you said, I even agreed with you on some matters. I genuinely tried to communicate. I don’t believe your goal is the same as mine. My curiosity has turned to sympathy. I truly wish you find happiness some day, as I believe you are unhappy now. Whether it be protesting human rights violations, advocating womens rights, or even becoming a wife and mother, I pray for your success. If you or any woman or man ever came to me in need of help I would offer the shirt off my back, and what money I could spare. I understand you and I see the world so differently. It saddens me that our conversations would insight hostility. I believe our talks were insightful, I took them to heart, and understand that my view is only my own. I did not mean to offend you, though it is apparent I did. My intentions were merely to push you a little and get pushed myself in the quest to understand. May we cross paths again and share in life.
February 7th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Chivalrous to the end. Hemos, I have no idea how you really feel, but you spout off conventional wisdom about things as if you think you know what you are talking about. The world is not as it seems. Read some books by feminists if you really want to understand. Otherwise, you seem to belong with the men’s rights activists. I am unhappy with plenty of things, but my personal life is not something I complain about. There are many reasons for that, but I have no grounds for complaint about that, being one of the lucky few women who found a good male companion, and even a few friends. Your assumptions are silly. If you read this post, you should be able to see that women are overloaded with things that make us unhappy. Some women disguise this or bury it with the happy pills, but sooner or later women will realize men will not clean up their act, so women will have to work together despite all our differences to clean up the mess men have made of this Earth. It is not just the economy that is a disaster; this economic model thrives on disaster, because the fundamental value system is so messed up.