This is why I just tell feminist flat out to shut the fuck up and then walk away when they start quoting the dictionary when I ask them what they thing feminism is.
So this is where supporting each other ends? Weak, Rage, weak.
Bad form, I know, replying to your own post, but seeing I mixed your post and Al's, I feel I have to point out my error.
I now realise no support was intended on your part.
Correct.
Not that I am against being supportive, but just as I wouldn't support someone's decision to steal my wallet, I won't support ideologues doing one thing and calling it another.
Its called lying, you see.
They lie when they quote the dictionary?
I'm afraid so. Nobody thinks that defines the ideology any more. Not really, anyway. They may even lie to themselves and rationalize their closely held belief, but they are still lying.
So I'm lying now?
feminism
/ˈfɛmɪnɪz(ə)m/
noun
noun: feminism
the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
synonyms: the women's movement, the feminist movement, women's liberation, female emancipation, women's rights; More
Yes of course. That tired old tactic of quoting a written statement in order to justify the actions of unthinking ideologue. Its much the same with Christians and their idiotic habit of quoting bible verses. Often, they don't even understand what the verse was meant to mean.
Actually, the above is just quoting an online dictionary to make a point. Hardly the same as quoting a Bible verse, IMHO. Can you tell the difference?
That is exactly what religious zealots do though. They quote their favorite tomes in order to "make a point", often without having a full understanding of what the book says.
Agreed and you won't have an argument from me re religious nutjobs. But on the other hand, bibles and such seldom deal with definitions. Dictionaries do. Quite a difference there.
I'm not trying to be condescending here, that's just what I observe people doing. And often. I used to constantly do it myself. There's nothing wrong with quoting the material of a professional to support a claim you've made, O-man. There is a problem though, when a person does so and expects it to be the end all.
An argument about feminism does not necessarily equal an argument about the definition of feminism as listed in a dictionary. Not sure what you're trying to say here.
Some empathy and common sense is required, no? Say we were talking about a proven phenomenon, like a like that never reaches zero. One could illustrate the asymptote, right? They could even make a couple of little charts before drawing the line, showing several test points and the algebra required to get them.
Not following you at all. To a casual observer, you might come of as reasonable but knowing we were actually discussing how one lies by quoting a dictionary, I need to ask you a simple question:
WTF are you on about?
Now lets switch over to feminism, and the definition of it in the dictionary. Here is the quote:
feminism
/ˈfɛmɪnɪz(ə)m/
noun
noun: feminism
the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
synonyms: the women's movement, the feminist movement, women's liberation, female emancipation, women's rights; More
On the ground of the equality of the sexes, it says. Hmm. Women's liberation, it says. Interesting.
This chatty style of yours, producing words without anything new, does anyone actually buy it, mate?
Now lets go ahead and look at the actions of feminism say, over the last fifteen years. Can you name one thing the establishment of feminism has done to this end, that does not involve bashing men and their identity? I don't believe the dictionary definition includes pulling males down, but empowering women. If the dictionary definition of feminism actually defines it, then finding me an example of this should be a walk in the park, sir.
I'll wait.
See, you could simply have asked this directly instead of, um, I don't know what you were trying to achieve up there.
So yes, sure. Here are a few:
How about the fight for the rights of women in Saudi Arabia? This is both a human rights and a feminism issue, and one that is very nearly impossible to fight in situ. There have been a few advances in the last fifteen years, some of which are attributable to feminism. Your government, for example, does very little since they so love the Saudi oil and the money, so it falls to other initiatives to help women there.
There are numerous other such examples all over the globe.
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has done a lot of work to help women in higher education, from providing funds to legal support and more. They keep doing this and their services are exclusively for women.
There are similar ongoing movements to help women overcome what's sometimes known as the glass ceiling, that is, the problems women face when climbing the corporate ladder. Although I'm sure you'll argue that every woman who advances on the ladder does so at the expense of a man.
There is something called the WISE Campaign in the UK that helps women pursue careers in science and engineering, in fields that were once considered impossible for women to even participate in, much less advance in. Consider the number of female Nobel laureates since the inception of the prize; still, more than a hundred years after the fact, very few women are even in a position to be considered.
The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) includes what you might label as a feminist initiative within the office for human rights, monitoring gender equality in laws and policies, and encouraging women participation in elections.
The list goes on.