How to Answer 3rd Wave Feminist Arguments
Since I launched 4th Wave Feminism nearly a year and a half ago, I’ve had hundreds of debates with 3rd Wavers. This includes the likes of AronRa, (yes, THE AronRa), Gender Studies Professors, and entire communities that end up having to delete my comments and / or ban me from the discussion because they’ve got no other way to respond.
Throughout these debates, I’ve found that the links I’m about to provide here have held up time and time again, are unassailable, and often times are so effective that they shut down the discussion almost immediately. 3rd Wavers have little else than name-calling to reply back with. Fair warning – if you start using these, make SURE you save the thread, because you will almost certainly find your comments deleted.
So if you’re wanting to reply to any of the topics that follow, just copy-paste these links into the discussion, and watch the 3rd Wavers go bat-shit. I’m not afraid of them coming here and trying to answer the source, so the comments on this site are always open, and criticism is never moderated. You can go through the comments that we have so far, and you’ll see where a few of them have tried – and failed miserably.
Copy-paste these links if you see these topics being discussed:
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https://4thwavers.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/why-are-rape-kits-getting-backlogged/ – Explains a few simple reasons why rape kits are backlogged, as detailed in a 2011 report from the Justice Department.
https://4thwavers.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/answering-amandla-stenberg-dont-cash-crop-on-my-cornrows-2/ – A response to a popular youtube video on Cultural Appropriation.
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Responses to Capitalism / Class Structure
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https://4thwavers.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/a-response-to-everyday-feminisms-7-reasons-why-class-is-a-feminist-issue/ – While this topic is not as common, it may still come up in a debate on occasion. Explains why capitalism is not an inherently evil system, and why class structure is not automatically a bad thing (I’m a socialist, by the way, so don’t bother going there).
Let me know in the comments if you find these useful, and also tell me what topics you would like to see responses to. These posts usually require a few days of research at least, and usually a day of carefully constructing them so they’re “counter-argument” proof. Because they take so much time, from here on, I’d like some feedback from the community on what you would like to see on this site.
Some ideas I’ve had recently:
— The Academy Awards does not “lack diversity”.
— Fat Shaming is bad, but being fit is not “unrealistic”.
— How to tell the difference between social narratives and social science.
Any takers on these? Or do you have any ideas of your own?
Let me know!
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Great post, Athena. Thanks again for all your work on this.
Dan
Hey, I really love what you’ve got going on here….what’s your thoughts on ‘women’s health care’, i.e. Abortion? Most rabid feminists I have encountered consider it a Sacrament.
The answer to this argument is rather simple… but I don’t have a post on it yet. I suppose I should slip this topic into a future post somewhere.
Basically the 3rd Waver position is built upon a strawman. Their narrative insists that it’s about “controlling women’s bodies”, when in fact, *no one* on the pro-life side of the argument has ever said “Our intention is to control women’s bodies”. Their stated intention is to protect the life of the fetus.
The typical response you’ll get here is to how the pro-life side has no concern once the child is born (they want to defund social aid programs, etc), and how many of them are religiously indoctrinated. This is a red herring, as it’s besides the point. The point here is that they aren’t engaged in some sort of patriarchal conspiracy to “control women’s bodies”.
As such, the efforts of the pro-life crowd is to limit and restrict abortions. 3rd Wavers will actually agree to this, if you just point it out to them. Simply ask one if they think it’s okay to abort a baby 5 minutes before birth. They’ll usually say no. Then ask if it’s okay to abort a child 1 hour before birth. Again the answer is no. Try 1 day before birth – at this point they’ll start twisting and turning the discussion because they see where it’s going. You can tell them “looks like you’ve got a lot of restrictions for when a woman *CAN’T* have an abortion!” – which is precisely the point of pro-lifers. They just disagree on where that exact line should be drawn.
Now aside from this, there have been some underhanded tactics from republicans to make it harder for a woman to have access to an abortion, and this is a legit women’s issue (and it’s not an equality issue). For example, republicans lobbied for an unreasonable standard of care for abortion clinics, which caused many in the state of Texas to be shut down, meaning a woman would have to travel hundreds of miles to reach the nearest one. Tactics like this can, and should, be countered with opposing legislation and raising awareness, though we probably won’t see that, as we can’t even hear these points over the noise continually made by uneducated and conspiracy-driven 3rd Wavers.
You rock my world! Thanks for adding ammo to the side of logic and reason. And you did it without even touching on the fact that suppressing free speech is the only defense 3rd wavers can come up with- they are trying to weaponize censorship, and failing terribly thank goodness.
With thanks from “Feminism:What is it” on google+ https://plus.google.com/communities/101210510523447493914
for permission to use this information in our Action Centers
If you want to push back against 3rd wave feminist ideology come and join us at the above link.
^ Definitely get involved! Join us at that link! 😀