Would you date a feminist?

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If the believe I'm part of the "patriarchy," probably not.

Most feminists, though, are not as strident as these women.

I've heard the term patriarchy mentioned a lot of times but I have hard time understanding what it means. Does it just refer to the collective culture of men or does it refer to some hypothetical organization of men that meets in secret to come up with strategies to actively oppress women? Is the patriarchy similar to the Illuminati?

It refers to the notion that men have dominated Western society since its outset...

That Western society is a patriarchy, and that men (and women) adhere to it in all ways, even if one does not adhere to it consciously.

To some, if one adheres to a Feminist ideology, one believe that the "patriarchy" is behind the oppression of women, and that in order for this oppression to disappear, the "patriarchy" must disappear as well.

There is at least some justification for believing that Western society, up till recently, was primarily of a patriarchal nature.

If she brings her ideology my way and blames me for patriarchy there is no chance in hell and if if shes a radfem she can hit the road! I was born a male a cis gendered heterosexual male and if she brings me to blame me for being me and ecourages me to be ashamed of existing the way I am she can hit the road as well, to hell with that, I am me my gender is male, I am white and I am strait, get over it! I am just trying to live my life and do normal things, I am not oppressing anyone so dont waste your time blaming me for other males problems.

sounds like you are defensive and somewhat unaware of your privilege. i'm a feminist married to a feminist. i don't blame him for anything, but i appreciate very much his willingness to see my struggles and his support for change like equal pay for equal work.

I don't see myself as privileged. On my job, most of the executives are women. Most lawyers and judges are women.

They earned their way there. I didn't.

Historically, men were privileged. Through hard work, women have made many gains. In some areas, men are still privileged. I, personally, am not, and get upset if I am referred to as privileged because I'm male.

Are you aware of his privilege? Do you know his life story? Do you know if he grew up rich or poor?

Which privilege are you referring too? Do you believe all men are privileged? Including rich men, poor men, garbage men, disabled men, congressmen, airmen, firemen, unemployed men, are all these men privileged over all women?

How do you know whether or not he's aware of his privileges? Can you read his mind? Can you infer it from his post? Even though it wasn't actually about whether or not he's privileged?

Are you aware of your privilege? If you weren't you'd never know because how can you know about something you're not aware of. Do you have the ultimate privilege of not being aware of your privilege? If you did you'd never know it.

So since he has that privilege bestowed universally on all men, does that mean what he has to say doesn't matter? Because regardless of if he's rich or poor he's privileged so his opinion doesn't count? Does his opinion matter so little that it doesn't even warrant a proper counter argument? Is it better to use an argument that doesn't actually address the thing it's arguing against at all.

I understand, thinking of an argument that actually has something to do with the thing you're arguing against is very hard work. It's an ingenious labour saving device you have there.

You can just dismiss all male arguments with "you're unaware of your privilege" and that way you don't even have to formulate a real counter argument. It's so easy. This is the best debating technique since the strawman argument

It's the same where I work, most of the executives and managerial staff are women, including our CEO, Meg Whitman and our previous CEO, Carly Fiorina.

It's like that for a lot of companies. The richest person in Australia is a woman - Gina Rinehart. Australia's head of state is a woman - Elizabeth II.

I don't mind have most of the managers being women since I think women are well suited for that role. They have better social skills, and they're better at multitasking and rapid task switching (needed to manage many workers) whereas men are better at concentrating on a single task for a long period of time.

But I find it so confusing at work when I get emails saying they want to get women into management positions when the majority of the managerial staff already consists of women

Yes Australia has been heavily affected by third-wave feminism and I don't see many ways women here are disadvantaged at all.

It's Indigenous Australians, Muslims and immigrants that are far more likely to be scapegoats for this nations problems.

We have plenty of influential women in the house of representatives and parliament, and have had one female Prime Minister (who used supposed misogyny as an excuse that people hate her in a VERY controversial speech).

However, our government is still filled with stuffy, right-winged conservative men with very traditionalist values, including Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Joe Hockey, etc.

THAT is what I'd define as 'the patriarchy', the fact most nations have governments filled with 50+ white conservative men, very few women, very few minority groups, etc.

But, of course, I'm not an ultra-liberal who believes 'affirmative action' should mean we should put black, asian, gay people and women in the government just for the sake of having 'diversity', and simply believe in equal opportunity, and if mostly white 50+ men are interested in politics, than so be it, but do allow others to join in if they want to as well.

But it's not like women don't have equal opportunity here.

Why don't these Aussie women check their privilege before even thinking of becoming Feminist's? They as a woman have near-equal treatment to the Australian man, better treatment than the average Australian immigrant, and in fact many racist Australian women may be the very same people dealing this racism towards Indigenous or immigrants.

Lol, so did Gillard try to say she was being oppressed while she was being the Prime Minister? Did she try to say Labor had it in for her while they were letting her be the head of Labor?

I know some women may get judged solely for being women but we can't use that as a reason to say no women can be disliked for her character. Remember that Martin Luther King said we should judge people by their character, not that we should never judge people at all. With 11,000,000 women in the country it's statistically improbable that none of them are dislikable.

Remember that while Gillard was Prime Minister our Governor General was also a woman. That meant the four most powerful position in the country were held by women at the same time, richest person, Prime Minister, Governor General and head of state. At present half of those positions are still held by women. How can they still say women are powerless in society when Gina Rinehart has a lot of power?

True not all women are as wealthy as her but I think the number one reason people have more or less power or more or less money is wealth. Instead of saying women are oppressed it would be more accurate to say poor people are oppressed. True that some people are self-made millionaires but Gina Rinehart inherited a fortune.

What bothers me most is the middle class, not that they have more money than me but that they think all people get an equal start in life. They act like middle class kids and poor kids will do equally well in school and have equal chances of getting into university and getting professional jobs. They act like it's not harder for poor kids.I actually support affirmative action. While I think it would be a misuse to use affirmative action on middle class women there are some groups who do worse in school and therefore have less chance of getting a good job. Affirmative action could be used to help ethnic minorities and other disenfranchised groups (except Asians because they're statistically more successful than other people, they certainly earned it, I continue to be awed by their tireless work ethic and their stoic willpower).

For example, I know an old Italian man who came here when he was 6 not knowing a word of English. He did badly at school through no fault of his own because he didn't know the language. I did badly at school due to ignorant teachers who didn't know how to deal with AS and later ignorant councilors who didn't know how to treat depression. Partly because of this I didn't get into university. That's why I was given an affirmative action job for aspies. So now I have the same type of job that's normally given to people who have been to university (note that even before the program, a university degree wasn't a requirement but it counted in your favour).

Because they're so privileged they don't notice they're privileged. The ultimate luxury is not knowing other people are worse off than you.

Here it comes, the privilege card.

How in God's green earth, am I privileged for being autistic, having various personality disorders, being a grandson to a holocaust survivor and a Polish veteran (my dad's side), Scottish / Irish decent on my mom's side, having a family that has a history of heart disease and being on so much medication?

I'd love to hear how I am so privileged. This is the kind of thing that makes people NOT want to get into relationships when they bring this crap to the table.

I hope Cathylynn doesn't feel attacked.

She's a nice woman.

And she sticks up for men.

And I like her.

It's just that saying that men are privileged because they are men is really not right.

Yes certainly. I must be attracted to that type, as most of the GF's I had were to some extent. But then, I consider myself a feminist to a degree.

he made no arguments, so there's nothing to answer. and yes, all males have privilege, as do all white people in america. i am white and i haven't regularly been followed in department stores as a potential thief.

This discussion is a bit like discussing if a woman would date a man.
There are men that rape yes. Most men don´t though. And the risk of meeting one is small.

So would I date men? Hell yes!
Am I a feminist! Hell yesx2

I'm white, and I've been followed in stores by "lost-prevention" sorts of people.

And I don't look disheveled.

I believe I've been fortunate in my life in some ways.

But I don't believe I've privileged.

Let me emphasize: I'm not denying there is discrimination against minorities in many aspects of life. It stares you in the face.