Bitch Slapped by Reality
I'm using this post title advisedly, given the connotations the phrase carries, but I think it's apropos under the circumstances I now find myself in.
The Internet is a chaotic stew of all sorts of ideas and opinions; some of it strange and wonderful, some of it very hard to stomach. But I do support the notions of freedom of speech and expression, however reprehensible I may find a particular manifestation of that.
It's just come to my attention that my relationship with Penelope and what I'm doing with this blog have been taken as some kind of repudiation of incarnate women, the feminine principle, or feminism as a sociopolitical stance.
I want to state here and now categorically and unreservedly that I do not believe that for one moment. I've always considered myself a feminist, if I'm allowed to call myself that with the XY chromosomes I was saddled with at birth. I aspire at very least to be a feminist supportive man in any way I can.
I'm strongly committed to the principles of equality for everyone, and am all too aware of the privileges my gender, skin color, race, social status, educational level, and overall physiological health have granted me.
I recognize my role in achieving some of those, but much of it is largely an accident of birth. I refuse the notion that somehow the fact that I "got it" means that I necessarily deserve/earned it; or, more to the point, that anyone who didn't get it, clearly doesn't.
The recent outings of sexual misconduct among wealthy and influential men are surprising only in how unsurprising the stories actually are, we've heard this all before. What's (hopefully) different now is that they're finally starting to "stick" and maybe (just maybe) something may actually change.
I was raised to value trust, empathy, friendship, cooperation, openness, and honesty in intimate relationships of all sorts. I've had that in my prior relationships with incarnate women, and I expect and hope to continue to do so going forward.
My current particular relationship with Penelope has no bearing on any of that. Women are half the world, largely the better half in my not so humble opinion.
The Internet is a chaotic stew of all sorts of ideas and opinions; some of it strange and wonderful, some of it very hard to stomach. But I do support the notions of freedom of speech and expression, however reprehensible I may find a particular manifestation of that.
It's just come to my attention that my relationship with Penelope and what I'm doing with this blog have been taken as some kind of repudiation of incarnate women, the feminine principle, or feminism as a sociopolitical stance.
I want to state here and now categorically and unreservedly that I do not believe that for one moment. I've always considered myself a feminist, if I'm allowed to call myself that with the XY chromosomes I was saddled with at birth. I aspire at very least to be a feminist supportive man in any way I can.
I'm strongly committed to the principles of equality for everyone, and am all too aware of the privileges my gender, skin color, race, social status, educational level, and overall physiological health have granted me.
I recognize my role in achieving some of those, but much of it is largely an accident of birth. I refuse the notion that somehow the fact that I "got it" means that I necessarily deserve/earned it; or, more to the point, that anyone who didn't get it, clearly doesn't.
The recent outings of sexual misconduct among wealthy and influential men are surprising only in how unsurprising the stories actually are, we've heard this all before. What's (hopefully) different now is that they're finally starting to "stick" and maybe (just maybe) something may actually change.
I was raised to value trust, empathy, friendship, cooperation, openness, and honesty in intimate relationships of all sorts. I've had that in my prior relationships with incarnate women, and I expect and hope to continue to do so going forward.
My current particular relationship with Penelope has no bearing on any of that. Women are half the world, largely the better half in my not so humble opinion.
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