This kind of intellectual empowerment can become indistinguishable from victim-blaming in certain situations, if not presented with care.

Back when she started them, perhaps, but it still seems odd to me for HER to perpetuate the separate and unequal methodology that had worked so hard against her....different times....and I'm weird.

Today, as the article mentioned, there's not really good reason besides "girl power-female empowerment", which I find as distasteful as the idea of male only "boy power" races, which don't exist as far as I see outside of Iran.
Conversely, if little girls might need girl only racing to feel comfortable, why can't little boys feel the same and so get boy only races? Being ridiculed by girls for being a slow or odd runner hurts boys the same as the reverse hurts girls, no?
Most marathon finishers are women, they've proven they can and will run with men anywhere, but still today often men can't run with them.

Why does no one ever seem to want the pendulum of inequality to stop in the middle?

Your video, Late Show: Trump speaks at womens empowerment conference, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

@ChaosEngine

So yeah, there's a lot of common ground. Of course there is: values can overlap ideologies; something that, let's say, 'the kind of feminism I dislike' refuses to allow. Everything that says women should be treated reasonably is feminism, which gives us the credibility to declare that anyone who opposes any aspect of feminist doctrine hates women.

I think the concept you're talking about is a part of the makeup of any rational person's mind, and indeed advocacy on its behalf is still necessary. I don't think the particular movement that grew around that advocacy in the latter half of the 20th century is still useful, and I say that it was flawed from the first, even as those flaws were mitigated in the short term by what it accomplished.

It's important to maintain that distinction, and I would strongly prefer that this basic concept wasn't referred to as 'feminism'. Dictionaries describe usage rather than determining reality, and in this case as in so many others I think the majority have got it horribly wrong.

edit: Something of an academic and unnecessary addendum, but I've heard Hitchens say that a few times and I always winced when he did. It's a little trite. The kind of cure he's talking about, birth control, could just as easily be effected by forcibly sterilising women after their first or second child. What he might have said, somewhat less snappily, was, "The empowerment of women, an excellent goal in itself, also handily has the effect of countering explosive population growth and adding more skilled workers to the economy."

That said, I will concede that feminism is both a concept and a movement in support of that concept.

And we still desperately need both, and not just for women.
Even Hitchens said:

"We already know the cure to poverty...it's quite simply, the empowerment of women."

It's a difficult thing to really justify or demonize because sex is a head game, a dance but also a match of submissiveness versus dominance; it can become violent and abusive through the ebb and flow of permission and denial. One moment I'm smacking her ass during sex, after a year of smacking her ass, she needs to be spanked before sex even begins, and now 10 years later there's whips and clamps and shackles. It all started with a mildly amusing smack to the ass that over time became a mutual fetish.

All of that extreme abuse porn is a matter of course, just like the secret fetish in a relationship starts with something innocent then leads to something semi-professional. This is the end result of a fetish that started with Deep Throat in the '70s opening the world to oral sex. Now it's facial abuse. She doesn't need a deep throat, now she just needs to undergo a hazing.

Will regulation change an industry piloted entirely by desire and sex starved user demand? Or would the culture simply evolve around the regulations?

Japan blurs out genitals, so what happens? The culture evolves around the restrictions and now we have a thriving bukkake subgenre. You want cum in eyes? Niche. Cum in hair? Niche. Cum on teeth? For real though, the focus is on teeth. We don't even need genitals now! Just pick a spot on the body and then ejaculate in mass! What a phenomenon.

Niches form and when they trend, that's when you end up with a popular site like facial abuse.

But hazing porn exists in the reverse and is also quite popular. Pegging? Come on, where's my face sitting fans? Hey now, there's also a lesbian variety of big assed Brazilian women who abuse skinny blond girls. I don't know what they're saying, but clearly it means something along the lines of dig that white caucausian nose further up my brown latin pussy. One woman is empowered, the other not so much, but she likes it, so... empowered? But who watches it? Men? Surely not women. Well, I know several women who watch the shit out of lesbian domination porn.

I had the absolute pleasure to sit with some really open lesbians and watch lesbian domination porn where the women wrestle each other, and the winner gets to fuck the loser in humiliating and abusive ways. I mean... the topic of empowerment is tough here. If you do porn just own it. Damn. Come on, it's just sex. People just like giving each other a hard time and they're always worrying about the next generation, even though they know humans are all dirty, filthy, sex craved fiends.

I think the most abusive porn I've watched (was sort of forced to watch) was a man having his penis hit with a hammer by a very mean woman. He liked having his penis hit with a hammer for some odd reason.

This is where you and she missed the point...as you said, some people have labeled Sarkeesian -"The new face of female empowerment IN THE GAMING WORLD" (I don't think she calls herself that)....This complaint was not in the gaming world, but in real life. If Sarkeesian was a public anti-rape advocate and ignored this case, there might be reason to be upset about it, but she is not, so there's no reason whatsoever to get outraged that she didn't drop her life and the (somewhat related) issues she cares about to take up your cause, no matter how righteous your cause/issue may be.

For the "uninitiated" (those not in the know) like yourself, the reason she ended up disabling the comments on her videos is she was getting serious violent rape and death threats multiple times daily, not just because "she was called out on her bullshit". Claiming she did it to stick her fingers in her ears and scream "lalalalala" is clearly just a shitbag red herring tactic to cover up a bullshit premise.

So, I must assume you have given Cytherea moral and financial support then, or do you not care about the empowerment of women and equality of genders? How much of your time and money have you donated to her cause? None?!? Why, then you must be a self centered, uncaring, misogynistic, pro-rape, victim blamer who's work in any other field/area must be nothing more than self serving BS...right? That's your position on Sarkeesian, and what's good for the goose is good for the gander....so....

One: Faux. For the love of god, faux. FAUX. Please. I'm begging you. Please. If nothing else, this.

Secondly: Why are you pretending that Sarkeesian is the 'face of female empowerment' in anything, and why does that put special demands on her and, I guess, on her twitter account? To some, Sarkeesian is the face of feminism in gaming, to others it would be, I dunno, Leigh Alexander, or Zoe Quinn, or [fill in feminist gamer names here because I don't care about feminist gamers or gaming in general]. I am entirely convinced that Sarkeesian deplores the fact that Cytherea - that anyone - was raped, regardless of profession. There is absolutely no reason for you, or anyone else, to demand that she respond in any way, in this specific case. I would guess that there are plenty of other people who are equally opposed to rape - you, for example - who still haven't done shit to support this specific victim, or the one before her or the one after her. That fact doesn't undermine your general anti-rape stance.

Your ridiculous outrage doesn't answer the question: Anita Sarkeesian is, and is known for being, a feminist critic of video games, gaming culture, and the depiction of women in games. Since when is it part of her job description to respond to every call for support she gets over twitter? She can choose to do so, as a human being, but neither you nor I have any reason to demand that she does so. Last I checked, this horrendous crime was an actual rape and not a 'trope' in gaming media. It's kind of outside of her area of professional expertise.

Also: Faux.

Exactly.

This is Mercedes Carrera's point.

She is outraged because Sarkeesian - the new face of female empowerment in the gaming world - was completely non-responsive when Carrera reached out to her.

Full Stop.

@Babymech completely missed this point.

Then went on a red-herring tangent, dragging the thread down with him.

As for my jabs at Anita..

The reason you've barely heard about Sarkeesian is because - until recently - she was just another starving artist youtube personality.

When I first stumbled across her Feminist Frequency videos, I too was duped by her ostensibly critical analysis of female tropes in pop culture media.

So for the uninitiated - Stephen Colbert, Mercedes Carrera, yourself - Sarkeesian seems like:

"Wow, the next generation of Women's Rights Advocates is fierce."

But just like any other ego-tripping prestige hound, the flaws in her arguments began to bubble up.

Other youtubers - commenters & personalities alike - started calling her on her bullshit.

In response, she disabled the comments on all of her videos.

That was just the start of a series of shitbag tactics to cover up her bullshit.

So yeah, unless you're familiar with Sarkeesian's brand of - lalala, I can't hear you cause I'm too busy empowering my wallet with bullshit lectures about first world problems - kabuki theatre..

You could be forgiven for thinking that she's actually promoting a level-headed positive message.

When in reality..

She generates stylized drama for the purpose of furthering her own narrative & career.

Can't let all those Women's Studies courses go to waste, can she.

Anywho..

The point is.
Cytherea deserves the support of anyone that truly cares about the empowerment of women & equality of genders.

Gonna have to completely disagree. The stupid argument is that victims are just useless turds that have no ability for self empowerment. Also, if we applied "the victim role" to every situation, which it most definitely should be if you favor it, we kind of seem stupid ourselves. Down here in Florida you don't cross the street just because the little man is white and says its okay. You get run the fuck over if you try that shit. No, see, stupid people drive so I teach my children to look both ways; even as adults, despite the fact that this falls in to your idea of blaming the victim. Also, I will teach them not to drink around frat parties or to do it alone. Not because I blame them if they get raped at college. Precisely the opposite. Empower them with facts.

A newspaper op did just that. Hey, they warned, be safe please. And they were blasted...so parents are blaming when they teach the same? We should teach that it's okay for people to be stupid just to spite assholes? That it is on teenage boys not to send naked pics of their girlfriends rather than saying, "Hey kid, don't send naked pics to your boyfriends..."

Please don't say any of that was apples to oranges...because it all applies. Please think rationally. Nobody is saying the victim is to blame--we are simply saying don't walk in a minefield to protest the war.

Unfortunately, though I could be wrong, I'm pretty certain a significant number of Anonymous members are also involved in that (pathetic, spiteful, cry-for-attention) that was that feminist-gaming-fiasco idiocracy. Anonymous has done great things, and horrible things, and sadly, by their nature, they've nothing to direct them but the panic of the crowd. (I do think they're a great force for good most of the time, however).

I do disagree with this continuing theme of the "Hatred for women". Exploitation doesn't mean hatred. What's so often (mis)labeled as hatred or misogyny is simply the expression of power of one group over another. I don't think hate factors into it for the majority of participants. It's the same as school-yard bullies; they don't pick on kids because they literally hate them, they're just getting off on power and feeling good about making others feel less. No one really hated Ghyslain Raza (the "Starwars kid"), they just wanted to make someone else feel like shit so they could feel less pathetic about their own lives.

But I'm not trying to argue against her point. I think what she did is truly the best way to shove it in the face of those who've wronged her in the most intimate and public way. I'm sure she'll feel the pain of this violation for the majority of her life, as most people would in that situation, but the bravery of being proactively engaged against those who exploited her should give her, and any other woman who has experienced something similar, empowerment today.

I can't promise not to argue, that's a completely unreasonable request. That's like saying "You'll stay there while I talk AT you, and you will nod and eat it even if you disagree".

What I promise is that I will listen your points and consider, and think about them.

And by the way, the message of the video is not bad, is just the way they chose to approach it.
I actually watched a commercial on facebook today that says a lot more about women empowerment than this video you sifted. At least I like it a lot better and makes a whole lot more sense to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3cyRRAfX0

Zack Schnyder and Goyer are worse than Michael Bay.
At least Bay didn't make Superman into a violent murderer.

It's kind of a metaphor for what APAC wants America to be.
A killer dog kept on a tight leash

(and Sucker Punch is about empowerment ??!! AH hahahaha)

Climate change-The hot-topic for a new age of ineffectuals...something for the insects to rally-around and discuss which produces nay but fodder for the same passive-aggressive types who are being seduced by their desire to trade practical action (whatever that could be) for polemic intercourse with themselves and others like them on the internet....

....people who are passionate to a fault and use forums like this to espouse their anger and frustration with tomes of keystrokes AT and not WITH others they deem unworthy, those ignorant and simpering few with opinions or observations dissimilar to theirs (and lower than 130 I.Q.'s....*cough), who know they are helpless to act to stop the high-speed train of planet-fucking (wage-slave-required and dutifully induced through the programming by adepts of semantic mind-fucking).This delusional empowerment, with all the invisible superpowers of new 'information' gives them the license and ability to do absolutely nothing to correct or marginally disrupt the pace of the so-labeled change while becomming better dicks in doing-so.

This fan-driven subject of climate change they use not only to deride those with any dissenting opinion and doubt regarding the mechanics and unfolding of what our big, blue marble is handing the creatures onnit, but also and most evidently obvious, to bolster their own superiority and self-satisfaction in their ability to process the distraction of disinformation/information/datum-ad-nauseum, and then condense it into how clever they can be in being complete assholes without breaking rules of accepted decorum so they can hear themselves bark, howl, and foment.

Smug, helpless, and irritatingly predictable in their helplessness to do anything more effectual than to add more used motor oil to the bonfire of their own vanity.

I would ask these irritating bugs what ARE you prepared to do to alter the course of the 'changes' in the 'terminal climate' described above? Recycle and drive a hybrid? Sacrifice anything but another trip to a polling-station? Oh I know, sit at your computer keyboard and grow more incensed while going-on with your business of spouting and shouting from a mountain of trash that you add-to daily by converting oxygen to more life-giving C02 and buying shit you don't need with paper you are forced to trade for 'bads and disservices??'

Thought so.

Fuck global warming in it's ass and let the planet shake and quiver with change as humans and/or their own slave-like actions continue to feed the earth-furnace. The bigger fish to fry and serve head-on have you by the short and curlies and we're all bio-fuel for future generations

@VoodooV

My friend you are looking through rose color glasses. You and many more at this site.

From you left leaning perspective everything that a conservative says is looked at from is racist point of view.

And that is just wrong. But I can't make a fools take off their glasses.

From your point of view.
The 1% are racist because they are 1%
Whites are racist because they are white.
Men are sexist because they are men.
Capitalist are evil because they make money.
Republicans are evil because they believe is self empowerment.
GOD does not exist
Muslims are nice people.




Take off you glasses and look again.