Groups of people who refuse to accept the obvious, #2

#2: Feminists.

First, a little exercise in semantics. The suffix -ism, when applied to a concept, implies that this concept is being exalted, to the detriment of other, similar, concepts.

Thus, "racism" technically does not refer to denigrating certain races, but rather to advocating other races (the net result is, of course, the same). Witness communism, socialism, post-modernism... You get the idea.

The same principle applies to feminism -- it is advocating the supremacy of females, at the expense of males. Now, I've got a certain friend who would have you believe that I'm talking poop... That the literal meaning of the suffix "-ism" is to be discarded for what the public generally understand the phrase "feminism" to mean.

That argument might carry water (and I mean might), if the fervent feminists themselves weren't so insistent upon violating this principle. To illustrate with an example -- last night I was in the Humanities and Social Sciences building of my local university. A flyer on a noticeboard was advocating a "Womyn's Film Night". The flyer began by stating that only (approximately) six of the top two-hundred-and-fifty-grossing films of all time had been directed by women.

They intended, in their charmingly ineffectual way, to remedy this situation by hosting a film night where the fare was going to be exclusively films directed by women.

What? Sorry? Equality, you say? Nothing of the sort! This is just as bad as any (perceived) injustice delivered upon women. The aim of a film night should be to show meritorious films -- not films simply directed by women (or men, for that matter).

Of course, I am not expecting most people to believe me on this. "We've got scores to settle!" they shall cry, thrusting extended index fingers with chipped fingernails into the air. "You bastard men have had it good for so long, and now we're going to redress the balance."

A few points, darlings:

(1) If that's truly what you believe, whatever your motivation, then the literal definition of "feminism" holds -- you are promoting females at the expense of males. Fine, if that's what you want to do, but drop any pretence of equality.

(2) This is a very flimsy way of going about things. Allow me to demonstrate with example, using the technique of reductio ad absurdum:

(1) Many Jewish people were killed by the Nazis.

(2) The Jewish people have a right to exact revenge.

(3) It is proper that Jewish people kill Germans.

Preposterous, you say? Statement (3) couldn't possibly follow on from (1) and (2)? Well, yes, that's kind of the point. Same deal with the "womyn" and their film night.

Just pointing a few things out, that's all.