St00pid Feminists

As some of you may well know, I am extremely uneasy about calling myself a feminist. In my experience a lot of them are, sadly, complete twats. I've just read a 'feminist' article about Roller Derby, basically saying it's anti-feminist because the women wear short skirts. To be fair to the writer, it's not quite that simplistic, but she does go on to compare it to cheerleading, and... wait for it... mud wrestling. Gah! For the sake of even handedness I'll give you the link, but it's just one of a stream of articles on a similar line & my answer to all of them would be pretty much the same. And here it is :)


Derby girls are not pandering to the patriarchy by wearing short skirts. It's your erroneous view that is the problem - in implying we might be degrading ourselves it is actually YOU who are pandering to the male pov! Bodies are created naked. Sexiness, perversion, degradation are all in the eye of the beholder. Is a little girl sexy because she walks around naked? If someone, male or otherwise, were to imply she was then people would immediately take the (quite correct) stance that that person was a pervert, yet somehow because we have fully developed women's bodies that men desire, it is our fault if men view us as sex objects. That's the most anti-feminist thing I've ever heard!

Some radical feminists make the mistake of looking at women through their simplistic & stereotypical view of men's eyes. Feminism is about recognising that men are perfectly sane & rational human beings. They are in control of themselves & they are not idiots. Give them some credit! Just because we chose to dress in outlandish & revealing costumes does not mean they can't see past that - don't treat them like morons!

As someone very adroitly said above (in the original article)- ever heard of wrestling! Yep that's right - men in skimpy outfits throwing each other about. A large dose of theatricality & showing off - not a 'serious' sport in conventional outfits, but is the crowd full of women drooling over them? No! They are recognised as the sportsmen & entertainers that they are. By suggesting Derby is anti-feminist you are simply widening the perceived gap between men & women's sport, & doing us a disservice.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that men cannot tell the difference. Don't lower yourself to the level of a hysterical woman, seeing patriarchy lurking in every corner. And don't demean the efforts of empowered women who chose to get up & do something they want to without apologising to anyone, by sitting on the internet abusing them for wearing a short skirt while they do it.

Original article