Debates we've had with feminists

**LeighSabio** · 16th-June-2011

So, I thought there should be a thread where we can talk about the discussions and debates we get into with feminists on other sites or in real life.

I was recently in a debate about the concept of male privilege. The person I was arguing with said that men had privilege by virtue of being treated as default and women as a variation/other. I agreed that men were treated as default, but disagreed that such was inherently privileging, arguing that there are plenty of deviations from the norm that are treated better than the norm is treated, and that being treated as "special" or "exceptional" is equally privileging. The fem then pointed out to me that most leads on TV are male, and I pointed out that male characters that weren't leads were more likely to be villains or considered worthless than female characters who weren't leads, which are typically considered worthy of interest just for being female.

**contraeverything** · 16th-June-2011

A recent short Twitter debate: "Why They Are Called Femtards."

And a longer in-person debate: "Empowering Women!"

**Zuberi** · 16th-June-2011

Gee, where do I start?
Many of the debates I've had with feminists don't last long and often ended with pig, thug, misogynist, macho man and any other word found in the feminist thesaurus. Most of the those debates were a complete waste of time an brought light to an old quote. "You can't fix stupid."

**Percy** · 16th-June-2011

The 'default' position is an interesting concept.

It cuts both ways of course.

All dangerous and dirty jobs seem to default to men.

I am hard pressed to find an exception that proves the rule, although very occasionally the press bursts into life with an article about a woman brick-layer or on-trawler fish gutter, and she is hailed as heroic or smashing glass ceilings/breaking into a 'Male Dominated' (hiss, boo) role. She becomes for a moment as lauded as a homosexual in gold-lame shorts prancing in the Mardi Gras.