Important to WHO exactly?

corneliagrey replied to your post: thisfishflies: marielikestodraw: sycophantastic:…

I think it’s this kind of exaggerated reactions that lead people to eyeroll every time the word ‘feminist’ comes up, because it makes it look ridiculous. Let’s focus on important issues…

This was a response to the post I just reblogged and though it wasn’t directed toward me, I feel compelled to address it.

This policing the “importance” of something that someone else is concerned about? This is silencing. This is derailing. This is also a bullying tactic.

If an issue isn’t important to you, then don’t comment on it. But when you denigrate someone else’s involvement in an issue this way, you are not operating in good faith, nor are you adding anything of positive merit to the conversation.

And frankly, is being objectified and insulted while cosplaying as serious as other issues? On it’s own, in a vacuum, no. But it’s not behavior that exists on its own. It’s not a separate thing that doesn’t stem from larger societal issues. It’s quite obviously a part of the continuum of sexual harassment, not far removed from street harassment, which serves to reduce the ability of women to engage in and enjoy free, full lives.

If you don’t understand how that’s important, I’m not sure what to tell you. To be able to engage in activities without being mistreated, to do what we want, in the manner that we want, without having to constantly deflect and dodge unwanted provocative comments, skeevy come ons, having our motives sexualized and defined for us by strangers, and the endless barrage of objectifying diminishment masquerading as compliments from people who don’t can’t even recognize our humanity?

That’s important.

And changing our (kyriarchal, essentializing, violent, rape) culture to develop and enforce that freedom for women is the core of feminism.

That’s what we’re here for, to address injustices against us when we encounter them, to never handwave the oppression another woman encounters as “not important” because it doesn’t personally affect us, or because we don’t recognize its scope (e.g. broadcast to an audience of more than 2 million Twitter followers) or can’t take the time to understand where it fits into the bigger picture.

This is feminism. What other purpose could it possibly have?