Hello, Dworkin the second. (I've only read one of her essays - I Want a Twenty-Four Hour-Truce During Which There Is No Rape - but I am, um, wildly in love. Anything in particular you'd recommend?)

Subtle sexism sickens me, too. I hate that, barely inches into the fight for equality, people stand back with their hands in the air, saying 'you've got the vote! What more do you want? Stop complaining!' I hate that women everywhere see fit to begin stories about their own subjugation with 'I'm not a feminist, but'. I hate that certain members of minority groups cocoon themselves into forgetting the atrocities of exclusion they have experienced and refuse to identify with other minorities around them, instead creating a foul mimickry of the very type of prejudice we are trying to escape.

I also agree that there is no clear solution, and won't patronise you by assuring you I'll "deal with it". I guess the best we can do is keep standing our ground. I can assure you that, as a person, I am painfully aware of this sort of thing and tend to issue vicious corrections to people without a second's thought in whatever context I am in, so maybe hopefully this will have a positive impact on the society. She said, idealistically. Ugh. But then I suppose that's all we can be when reality isn't good enough yet :oP

Also, I'm sorry it took me so long to see this and get back to you.

-- Edited by miserablizm at 14:57, 2008-03-18