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by JulianMorrison 4729 days ago
Far from it.

What's empowering is feminism. Fighting the slow fight to crush and erase this male centered culture.

A man, standing up for her? If he chose that particular patronizing way, she'd be well justified in worrying he too was trying it on - the "hero saves princess, gets the girl" narrative. Out of the frying pan…

And yeah, it's patronizing, because it reckons she chose her choices from weakness or timidity rather than a well calibrated judgment of her chances in this sexist society.
1 comments
foobarbazqux 4729 days ago
I think my post must have been poorly worded. I meant to give her agency by encouraging her to stand up to him, instead of for him to do it (which is what happened).

If you disagree, okay, but what better actions could he have taken in this situation?

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JulianMorrison 4729 days ago
No, I understood exactly that. You can't "give her agency". "Encouraging her to stand up to him" is exactly the wrong thing to do, she's chosen her choices as an adult who knows the score, and doing that is implying she just lacks the gumption and if only a dude was backing her up… No, it's not that easy. You may be the best intentioned dude in the world but you are ONE dude, and no, she is not going to suddenly start acting like a woman in a non sexist society at the risk of her own life, just because of one dude nominally taking her side.
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foobarbazqux 4729 days ago
Ok, but I'm still genuinely curious if you have an answer to my previous question.
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JulianMorrison 4729 days ago
Oh, apologies, my eyes skipped over it.

Well, he did an effective thing. It's unfortunate he had to rely on homophobia to get the point across. That has been described as "the fear that another man will treat you like you treat women" and it's clear that's what stopped creepy guy here in his tracks. He sure didn't like it when the non-consensual boot was on the other foot!

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foobarbazqux 4729 days ago
Yeah, I also thought that was weird. I don't know any gay guys that would step in like that.

I found a much more in-depth discussion of the article on meta-filter, maybe it's interesting to you.

http://www.metafilter.com/129974/Changing-the-Creepy-Guy-Nar...

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