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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMichael Moore Tries To Prove Women Are Better Than Men, Gets Brilliantly Shut Down By A Woman
There are plenty of badass women but Academy-Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore thinks there arent any bad ones. No women ever invented an atomic bomb, built a smoke stack, initiated a Holocaust, melted the polar ice caps or organized a school shooting, Moore tweeted. Missing logic in his claims, writer Jessica Ellis wrote an insightful rebuttal to Moore, and her Twitter response quickly went viral.
While attacking the patriarchy, Moore suggested that women are naturally superior to men in living up to universal moral standards. My initial response was actually very personal, Ellis, who considers herself a feminist, told Bored Panda. I had been struggling with anxiety issues and going to therapy, where I realized I thought the fact that I had dark thoughts sometimes made me a bad person. I had also come to realize that part of the reason I felt that way is that women are raised on a doctrine of purity and that Moore (who I respect greatly as a filmmaker) was furthering that concept. When you are taught that all women are naturally sweet and wonderful, you can feel extra-extra crazy if you feel anger or depression or anxiety.
And even though ladies have not held powerful political positions as much as men, Ellis perfectly points out why they struggle with making ethically just decisions, too. Its bad for womens mental health to be held to an unrealistic purity standard. After all, were all human! Scroll down to read her reasoning and let us know your thoughts about it in the comments.
Jessica Ellis has had enough of your patriarchal patronizing bullshit. She's a real heroine for doing this.
JCanete
(5,272 posts)the fact that women don't generally take out schools or churches of people with firearms, explosives, etc.(exceptions do exist), but whether that is tied to gender itself or to socialization and the different expectations men and women have of the world, and are had of them by the world, is probably hard to disentangle, although I would guess, leans heavily on the latter.
IronLionZion
(45,460 posts)just because they are negative things. It's true that there are fewer women who have done bad things. Same with minorities and other demographics. But it is a deeply patriarchal belief that there is some sort of biological reason behind the capability of someone to do things, rather than opportunity and power or other motivations.
Plenty of people would like to reject the mental health demonization since many people are on some kind of treatment and haven't killed anyone. One therapy activity is to avoid suppressing urges and rather talk through it with a trained therapist to understand it. It can be a problem when people pretend they don't have a dark side and everything is just sweet and peachy.
kcr
(15,317 posts)Yes, I get that he was rather hamfisted in making the point he was actually trying to make. But holy crap so was the woman replying to him. I seriously doubt she actually relates to mass murderers. Yeah, so I'm not perfect either and I absolutely agree with her that the whole purity thing is bullshit. But I don't think Moore's point was trying to paint women as pure. Moore's style is hyperbolic so I can see how it reads that way, but his point is about toxic masculine culture. Despite the women she uses as examples, the equivalent doesn't exist for women.
IronLionZion
(45,460 posts)and a person can say things they mean to be positive and not know what's wrong with it. It's happened to me on this board a few times.
the road to patriarchy is paved with good intentions
kcr
(15,317 posts)Wouldn't we all, I guess. No one ever bothers to actually read what you post on the internet. Does anyone anymore?
GWC58
(2,678 posts)Let me rephrase that for clarification. We need more Democratic women in Congress.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)when it mattered? Was there an anti-Clinton meme he didn't find a way to blurt, blab, or share in the media?
Oneironaut
(5,504 posts)in the 21st century. Women are no morally different from men.
lame54
(35,294 posts)Another Weinstein in the making
Response to IronLionZion (Original post)
sl8 This message was self-deleted by its author.
volstork
(5,402 posts)An unfortunately poor quality clip from the 1994 movie; germane portion is from 0:19-1:20.
SCantiGOP
(13,871 posts)With pure logic.
Im sure he appreciates that.
greyl
(22,990 posts)bsiebs
(688 posts)Its not sexist. Its factually (statistically) true. Sure, maybe women would have messed up equally if men didnt basically control everything with few exceptions over our existence on the planet.. but men did .. and as he implies,, fucked it up pretty bad. Thats a fact, nothing else.
KitSileya
(4,035 posts)There isn't something in our genetics that makes us 'good'. What there is, is a patriarchal culture that values toxic masculinity, where women have had to learn lots of things to survive, and where men are taught to shut off parts of themselves, such as empathy and any emotions besides anger, in order to retain power unfairly gotten. We don't need Michael Moore to put women on a pedestal and claim men are just the way they are because they are men. We want men to do better because we know they can do better.
Cha
(297,323 posts)that through.