I have a large soft spot in my heart for Jezebel, which calls itself a website for women but has such a marvelously "fuck you" attitude that I forgive it for its pinkish-red text. And they've done it once again.
Lately, the hashtag #mencallmethings has been trending on Twitter since November 8th as a way for women to talk back to the sexism they encounter every day by tweeting the ways people use gender as an insult. Sady Doyle, a feminist blogger at Tiger Beatdown, started the hashtag, and has an amazing round-up of the results she's seen so far here, breaking them down into seven themes, including the idea that women are weaker, that if you're a feminist you're also a Nazi, anarchist, Stalinist, [insert radical political position here], and that all women are "stupid little girl[s]." The tweets are actually pretty entertaining and thought-provoking, and you can look at a list here.
Jezebel's staff took the results of this hashtag and wrote an article called "Misogynist Insults Would Make Awesome Band Names," complete with great descriptions of the bands. I absolutely love it. While it's important to open up the world of the genders and share our experiences so we understand what other people are going through, I think the best way to take all the insults we hear through the day and just laugh them off. There is a time and a place for education. It's important to try and help people understand that certain phrases and words are hurtful, hateful, and unacceptable, but when people make off-the-cuff insults (like most of the ones cited in #mencallmethings), the best thing to do is laugh, and deny them control over our emotions.
Misogynists like to think they run the world. The one thing women (and men) can always have control over is how they react — or don't. We shouldn't let misogynists hurt us, because they can't. That power is more important than anything the patriarchy can hold over anyone who dares to stand up to them.
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