gcretcher

How do you talk to the men you love about feminism? How does it affect you when someone you care about can’t identify with your perspective on gender-based oppression? The Feminism 101 blog is a great resource for online debate, but when you are sitting face to face with a father or boyfriend who cares about you deeply but cannot understand your feminist perspective, a more personal approach is required.
My parents were in DC this past weekend to visit and see the cherry blossoms. We had a lovely time, but as is customary, ended more than one evening in intense post-dinner wine and beer-fueled debate. My dad and I have a great relationship, but we are both strong-willed and argumentative people. He is incredibility supportive of me and has always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. I had touched on feminist issues in our frequent arguments from time to time, but on Sunday night what started as an off-hand comment from me about feminist critiques of Judd Apatow’s movies and his problematic female characters devolved into an all-out battle about the effects of patriarchal oppression and how people concerned about women’s rights should conduct themselves.
I brought up the stark difference in character development that many feminists see between Apatow’s male and female characters, and the myriad issues in the plot of his film “Knocked Up” that are problematic from a feminist perspective, in particular the reproductive and ...