Sometimes it’s useful to remember just what the early second wave feminists were reacting against. Here, from a comic circa 1970 (judging from the clothing) is a sort of double-whammy of misogyny: hide your smarts, girls, or you’ll end up a wizened old maid at the ripe old age of … twenty?
The MRAs today who prattle on about how declining marriage rates mean that men are wising-up to the evils of feminism need to remind themselves that delaying marriage is a good thing for both men and women (the earlier the marriage, the greater the likelihood of divorce; the later the marriage, the more time for men and women to get decent education, start a career, mature a bit, etc etc). In the fifties, obviously, the pressure for women (and to a lesser degree, men) to marry very young was immense. This comic suggests that these pressures didn’t vanish with the coming of the sixties counterculture or even with the first stirrings of second wave feminism.
Comic from Comically Vintage.
And also @ithilana – i’m amandajane with no 5 over at fandomwank.
Because balls.
Well, that was the best summation of MRA philosophy I have ever heard.
*agrees with zombie*
Feminism in 2011 has a totally different meaning than feminism had in 1970. Is “technology freedom” part of what feminism is all about these days? Perhaps we need to redefine the word feminism, because there is a whole lot of slavery these days – it has to do with our obedience to technology. And women are VERY wrapped up in the technology world.
Anyone have the foggiest idea what this means? Feminists use the Internet?
@Ithiliana: May I please steal “dickbiscuitry?” That’s the funniest term I’ve heard in a while.
hellkell: Please do! I learned it off the internets and loved it, along with “fartsack”! (It can also be just straight dickbistuic).
(Some people have been coining insults that are not ableist which is where I got both of them).
Amandajane: Hahaha, everybody knows fw obviously.
The vagina dentata has been around as a concept for a while–but I liked how the FW crew changed it to hive vagina…I forget after which wank. They all sort of….blur after a while.
Oh c’mon now, David, when were women ever expected to dumb themselves down so as not to scare off prospective suitors and end up bitter old spinsters? That must be a [chortle] feminist revisionist comic that you’ve dug up!!
This topic makes me think of a line from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own:
“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.”
As I sometimes like to say, you dumb yourself down for the guys, you get the dumb guys.
Beth: We are spending some time in LA, and that meant an extra day, vs. them flying to SF.
Kewl Pecunium…sorry I will miss you but then again, i am even less logical in person if that is possible.