Comments and insults are still coming in about my disagreement with requireshate. It’s become apparent that I should clarify a few things.
I have not equated the suffering that anime otaku go through with the suffering that women or gays go through. I did bring them up in discussion, and perhaps I was not clear enough about that (though I tried, on twitter, to explicitly note that bringing them up was not a matter of equating them.) I apologize for any confusion or distress that might have caused.
I really wish this train wreck of misinterpretation had not occurred. I was only trying to get a clarification about her feminist reading of Claymore when this thing blew up. I was certainly not trying to make anything about me.
I do feel that “weaboo” (“fucking weaboo” as used repeatedly by requireshate) is a dismissive insult towards anime otaku and should not be used. If “nobody gives a shit about weeaboos other than weeaboos,” as she asserted, then to my mind, that is all the more reason to treat them with compassion.
I am not agreeing with anyone who personally insulted requireshate about this, nor have I personally insulted her or directed any offensive language towards her. I specifically took pains to note in the comments here that I did not agree with insults towards her. She has not shown similar restraint, but then, that’s what started this. I RTed everyone who responded to the ongoing twitter discussion, just as she did, but retweet does not imply agreement.
My ideal of respecting people and their right to self-determination means that I generally believe otherkin, furries, and other self-identifying groups ought to be taken at face value. When I said I bristled over requireshate’s callous dismissal of them she mocked me for it, but I was not joking. It is the only ethically consistent approach that I have found. I in no way assert they have endured anything like what the LGBT community or others have faced (and I bring up this example specifically because it is one they often bring up) but they do repeatedly self-identify as nonhuman despite it being adverse for them to do so. I don’t think any group should have to go through suffering, bashing, etc. just for their identity to be accepted, and this is the logical consequence of that. I also don’t feel it’s productive to draw a line and say “this group is legitimate; that group is not.” Acceptance of others as they are is the whole point of this.
I noted previously on this site that I only claim to be a classical feminist. Given the number of second-wave feminists now expressing their disbelief that I would call myself feminist, this is a distinction that probably bears repeating. I have argued, as many feminists have, that gender roles are socially constructed, in accordance with the sociological understanding of gender.
Finally, though it only makes sense to me that feminism include men at some point in the process (because its goal is to affect society, and men are roughly half of society) I have never said someone is a “bad feminist” or anything like that for disagreeing with this. My opinion on the best mode of progress remains my opinion.
