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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Nastiness towards women

jeudi 1 août 2013 à 14:00

Characters on MMORPGs that appear female are subject to repeated nastiness which isn't done to characters that appear male. One woman demonstrated this by trying both ways of presenting her character.

I can't understand what motivates men to be so nasty to women, and I think we should condemn threats of violence. At the same time, I think everyone needs to learn not to bow to verbal hostility from strangers.

This is why I admire Tuesday Cain, the Texas girl who rebuked the right-wing misogynists that called her a "slut" because of her political sign.

By the way, the word "slut" is twisted in the first place. It presumes that there is something immoral about a female's being disposed to have sex. Why should that be immoral for a female, any more than it is immoral for a male? Or any more than it is immoral to be monogamous, or celibate? The word packages two kinds of prejudice, anti-female and anti-sex. No wonder theocratic Christians use it.

If we dispute whether person X is a slut, we endorse the prejudices in the word. We should condemn the word instead. I have never used the word "slut".