Reddit mentions of I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

>1) Feminists constantly put out the idea of a 'rape culture', yet they ignore male victims of rape.

Funny, seeing as a huge indicator of rape culture is how male rape victims are ignored and marginalized by society at large. This has been part of feminist discussion pertaining to rape culture for a while, but continues to be conveniently ignored by male opposition.

>And affirmative consent is a major recent 'success' for feminism despite the fact that it would be almost impossible to prove consent was given. Plus, I don't hear a lot of feminists arguing against withdrawing consent after the fact.

Frankly, I think affirmative consent can be a wise precaution when engaging in sexual activity with someone you don't know very well, and you aren't very in tune with their habits, disposition and predispositions, likes and dislikes and how they display this via body language, etc. And even if you do know them, checking in once in a while is always a respectful and can never hurt.

As for withdrawing consent after the fact...I just really don't think this is as huge of an issue as dudes on Reddit make it out to be. Consent is something that is given or retracted in the moment. It doesn't travel through time like that.

>2)Events that focus on men are constantly being shut-down for the fear of 'misogyny', and yet those actions that silence those who focus on men are not declared as being against what feminism stands for.

Plenty of events that focus on men are extensions of beliefs or spheres which perpetuate misogyny and misinformation. You haven't given any specific examples, but feel free.

>3) Pointlessly gendered items (razors, toys, pencils) are said to be sexist, yet 'mansplaining', 'manspreading', 'manterrupting', and other like words are perfectly acceptable and not at all simply a way to shut down conversation and vilify men for being men.

"Mansplaining" and "manterrupting" have a rich and sordid history in the US. Rebecca Solnit, a historian and an activist, wrote an entire book on the subject. The term is new, the thing it describes is not.

>4) Dissent always seems to eventually be met with famous buzzwords like 'rape apologist', 'victim blamer', 'misogynist', 'toxic masculinity', and, again, these words absolutely aren't used to silence anyone who disagrees.

Sometimes these accusations are perfectly apt.

>5) The 'negative' portrayal and under-representation of women in movies, politics, sports, and music are major feminist issues while there's never any acknowledgment to the negative way men can be portrayed. A handsome, tall, fit, not too muscular, charming, confident, funny, smart, open, sexually appealing leading man in every movie isn't a problem at all.

No, it isn't. It's the frequency, coupled with the blatant objectification and sexualization of women's bodies, which make it a pressing feminist issue. Just as a single example; there's no real equivalent of a "dad bod" craze in terms of women's body types.

>6) Society is blamed for personal issues such as 'body-shaming', 'slut-shaming', 'fat-shaming', not encouraging women enough, and not providing women with enough idols to look up to.

...That's because this happens all the time. Slut shaming is real, fat-shaming is real, and body shaming is real. Doesn't take too much effort to look into these issues.

>Also, the idea that a woman can only idolize other women is pretty sexist, yet never challenged.

No one believes that girls can only idolize women, the pushback comes from the fact that there are representation issues in just about every facet of our culture (speaking from a US perspective). If there are relatively few women role models in any given career path, for example, then girls can internalize the idea that women aren't wanted or just aren't good at X thing, which becomes discouraging very early on in development.

>if a woman's uncomfortable with a scantily clad, thin woman in a bikini on a billboard, that that issue might be her own and not society secretly 'shaming' her into feeling bad.

Okay, but how many billboards have very thin, scantily clad women on them, and how many billboards have average or above average weight women in bikinis on them? Ever wonder why that is? Ever wonder why a person who is overweight might be distressed by the constant bombardment of often attainably thin body types, considering the immediate cultural association of "not thin" with "bad" (and not only "bad", but morally corrupt, stupid, and lazy?

>7) Men are disproportionately put in prison, victims of violence, punished more harshly when it comes to sentencing, and homeless to name a few, and those things are easily explained away by feminism.

Yes, feminism does have explanations to all of these things. Generally speaking, it can be boiled down to a mixture of classism, racism, and the implications of sexism and misogyny. Sexism against women affects men as well.

>Yet the idea of a 'pay gap' can only be the result of sexism and nothing more.

I've provided you with links on this subject in your prior thread. The wage gap issue is complicated, but a large part of it comes down to gendered socialization and expectations.

>8) Women are treated like children by feminists by saying that without encouragement, a woman won't want to work in a STEM field.

This isn't treating women like children (this line of thinking reeks of concern trolling), it's treating people like what they are: the product of their surroundings and socialization, filtered through individual character traits and a genetic code. Everyone needs encouragement, but encouragement can look like a lot of things. Sometimes, the encouragement manifests as the prevailing unquestioning assumption that you're "built" for it, that you're brain is just "geared towards it naturally", sometimes this encouragement needs to be more literal.

>The possibility of hearing a sexist remark is enough to excuse a woman for not even trying to enter the field that she wants.

A sexist remark? Where there's one, there's many. Women have spoken out a lot about gendered opposition and sometimes blatant sexism in STEM fields.
The study "Professional Role Confidence and Gendered Persistence in Engineering" follows 288 randomly selected students who began their engineering degrees in 2003 at four universities, following their progress at 2007. The universities included: MIT, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and Smith College. The findings of this study are consistent with other empirical research, finding that men are more likely to persist in engineering than women.

However, women are twice as likely to switch to a different STEM major than men. Interestingly, amongst the small proportion of men who switch out of engineering, they're more likely to go into a non-STEM major. This suggests that women's interest and proficiency in STEM is not the reason why they leave engineering, while this may be true for the men who leave engineering courses.

From the study:

>Professional Socialisation
The study argues that becoming a successful professional requires more than just technical skills. It also depends on professional socialisation. That is, how we learn both the practical and unspoken (tacit) expectations of what's required of us in our fields. We also need to be able to identify with the values and norms of our profession. This includes adopting the types of mannerisms, demeanour, and self-presentation (including dress) that's expected. The researchers write:

>"If a profession’s norms of interaction are highly masculine or perhaps even antifeminine... it may be more difficult for women to gain this type of confidence....

>Present findings show that early professional role confidence predicts persistence measured three years later. If women develop less confidence about their abilities to be successful professionals and express more ambiguity about their fit or comfort within the discipline, then women will remain in engineering at lower rates than men."

>Engineering still relies on, and rewards, stereotypes of masculine behaviour. Women not only have to navigate this culture, but they have the additional burden of "proving to others that, despite gendered expectations, they are skilled engineers."

And here's some anecdotal icing on that cake, just for funsies.

EDIT: Gold? Well, shucks. Thanks, stranger!