I can't stand radfem

So I was reading a blog called I Blame the Patriarchy because I'm a psychological masochist. If you're unfamiliar with this particular blog, it's basically written and frequented by the types of people who believe that no man exists who doesn't wish to oppress women. The kind of people that rational feminists have to distance themselves from at the start of every conversation like environmentalists have to distance themselves from Sheryl Crow. It's a perfect blog if you're a fucking succubus.

And it reminded me of a movie I saw (read: was forced to watch) called Killing us Softly. I believe there are three versions, one from the seventies, one from the eighties, and one from the nineties. I watched the 1987 version.

This movie, while nowhere near as aneurysm-inducing as I Blame the Patriarchy, was still slightly on the annoying side. It's about women in advertising and how they're objectified and whatnot. Women in the media, you know. Now, the implication being that the stigma associated with being a fat woman has no parallel in the male universe.

Which is simply not true. Studies show that a woman who lists herself as overweight on sites like match.com have roughly the same chance of getting a response as a man who lists his height as shorter than average. (Freakonomics Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, chapter 2, page 82 hardbound version).

As a matter of fact, I'd say that being a short man would be harder:
1) It's far easier to fix being fat than being short. Yes, you might have some sort of condition to make you fat. That's very unfortunate, but the fact is that for many people, fat is possible to get rid of. I went vegetarian and lost 10 pounds.

Most importantly, fat women always have people to stick up for them. No movie has EVER been made about how short men have been reduced to subhuman levels, and yet there were at least three made for fat women. There has NEVER been an industry for minus-height male modeling. There has NEVER been a Dove ad for short men. NO ONE has ever made slogans like "short is beautiful"! Men sometimes say "I like a woman with meat on her bones". No such term exists for short men. I have heard ONE person throughout the entire history of my existence stick up for short men, and I've heard way more people stick up for bigger women.

I will give you two lesser-known examples of mocked short men: Dennis Kucinich and Frank Iero.

Dennis Kucinich is a very liberal Democratic candidate for President and Frank Iero is the shortest member of My Chemical Romance, the one who neither resembles Carrot Top nor wears makeup to make him look like he has AIDS.

Dennis Kucinich was mocked by both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (for the record, Stewart and Colbert are 5'6" and 5'11", respectively) as being short. He's a frequent target of this, actually. Jon Stewart, however, couldn't remark on Kucinich without making a comment about his own height.

One of my friends has a crush on Frank Iero (who's pretty hot without the ridiculous emo makeup, I must say), and my other friend (who, herself, is 5'1") said, and I quote, "he's like a mini version of a real man". But, of course, she's a girl so she gets to say that shit. Women complain about fat men who say "no fat chicks", and yet I hear that other shit all the damn time.

Am I saying it doesn't suck for fat women? No. It totally sucks to be a fat woman in today's society. But, seriously, stop acting like you're alone.

As for I Blame the Patriarchy, it's so goddamn stupid that one post might require its very own dissections. Let's put it this way: She believes that the public school system should be abolished and every child should be homeschooled. (She said it here). Ah, yes, homeschooling. Which is what they did in the wonderful, egalitarian, utopian 19th century. Do you realize how hard it would be to make sure that everyone got a quality education? Yeah, people aren't getting a quality education now, but homeschooling can turn into something intellectually stimulating, or it could turn into parents being too lazy to teach their child how to read.

God-damn.