This “stuff” he was asking about was articles like the ones I write for Role/Reboot and the ones I read on sites like Jezebel, XOJane, Salon, Slate, and The Hairpin. This “stuff” calls attention to discrimination and prejudice, to misogyny and hypocrisy.
If women feel like victims after reading “this stuff,” it’s not the article to blame, it’s the need for such an article in the first place. I don’t feel victimized by articles about street harassment; I feel victimized by actual street harassment. The article is the spotlight on the problem, not the problem.
You have three choices: You can pretend it’s all in my head (see: gaslighting), you can pretend what I document is true but not a problem (what even…), or you agree that what I document is true and a problem. We can disagree about how to solve it, but if you can’t even open your eyes to it in the first place, we’re never going to get very far.
More on this idea of “victim-creation” and whiny feminism at Role/Reboot this week:
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