Ah, spring. What a wonderful time of the year. Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, terrified college students are graduating, and dudes on the internet are pondering that age-old philosophical question: “But whyyyyy can’t I tell that random girl on the street that she looks hot?” It seems that men are finally starting to realize …
Category Archive: social justice
May 01 2013
Does Sexist Humor Matter? A Review of the Research
[Content note: sexual assault] When people call out sexist humor, they’re often informed that “it’s just a joke.” While some seem to believe that humor inhabits a special dimension of the universe in which things don’t “really mean” anything, psychologists tend to disagree. There are many, many reasons sexist humor matters. It hurts people, first …
Apr 22 2013
Shit People Say to People Who Care About Shit
Or, an incomplete list of responses I get when I talk about the things I care about. “Yeah, well, what did you expect?” That’s an easy one to answer. I expect better. “So what, are you surprised?” I’m not surprised. I’m angry. Those are not the same emotion. Often people seem to think that just …
Apr 03 2013
Busting Myths About Feminism With SCIENCE!
Well, Monday’s April Fool’s joke left such a bad taste in my mouth that I was compelled to hurry up and write this post, which I’ve wanted to write for a while. Feminist activists are invariably compelled to respond to silly, derailing claims about feminists’ supposed appearance, personalities, sex lives, attitudes towards men. You know …
Apr 03 2013
My Oppression Is Not Your Thought Experiment
[Content note: sexual assault] There seems to be no shortage of people just itching for the opportunity to turn real, tragic human suffering into intriguing little thought experiments for their own amusement or political gain. This time we’ve got a college professor attempting to make some sort of bizarre claim about drilling for oil using …
Apr 01 2013
The Pressing Issue of Sham Gay Marriages
This, sadly, is not an April Fools’ joke. (Gotcha with that last one, though, right??) Sue Everhart, chairwoman of the Georgia Republican Party, on same-sex marriage: You may be as straight as an arrow, and you may have a friend that is as straight as an arrow. Say you had a great job with the …
Apr 01 2013
Where Feminism Fails: The Ongoing Need for Men’s Rights Activism
So, this might be kind of awkward given my past writing and activism, but it’s time for me to come clean: I’ve decided to become a Men’s Rights Activist. I’ve realized that feminism’s biggest failure–much more important, in fact, than its historical disregard for women of color, poor women, and trans* people–is that it does …
Mar 31 2013
How To Get People To Care When It’s Not Personal: On Rob Portman
I’m going to talk about Rob Portman now even though that bit of news is pretty old at this point. (Hey, if you want to read about stuff in a timely manner, go read the NYT or something.) Brief summary: Portman is a Republican senator from Ohio (yay Ohio!) who used to oppose same-sex marriage but changed …
Mar 26 2013
I’m Going To Rant About Those Little Equal Sign Facebook Profile Pics Now
I get it. The cute little red equal signs all over Facebook today are an easy target. It’s not Real Activism. It doesn’t actually help anyone. Get off your ass and Actually Do Something for the cause. Right? Yes, nobody should fool themselves that changing their profile picture will convince the Supreme Court to disregard …
Mar 25 2013
Not All Beliefs Deserve Respect
“I’m not trying to be ‘that douche’ but it kind of pisses me off that people here accept other’s beliefs only if they’re liberal. What if I tried to post advertising all over about why ‘I’m not an ally’ or why I think abortion is about the most disgusting crime someone can commit? I hate …
About the Author
Brute Reason Tumblr
- "But what if our lives could have meaning even if we cannot, or will not, think of ourselves as..."“But what if our lives could have meaning even if we cannot, or will not, think of ourselves as beautiful? What if I look in the mirror and see ugliness, and imperfection, and asymmetry, and I choose to value and love myself anyway, because I’m a valuable human being worth a whole lot more than my externality? This is not to say that those of us who do feel […]
- "I want my feminism to be a feminism of daydreaming. I want my feminism to believe in the..."“I want my feminism to be a feminism of daydreaming. I want my feminism to believe in the transformative power of imagining the impossible. I want my feminism to stop chasing this faux equality that puts us on the race to be better managers of exclusion and, instead, gives us the possibility of re-thinking a future where we no longer have underclasses within […]
- "When it comes to media pushing perfect people, if you’re not skeptical, you’re doing it..."“When it comes to media pushing perfect people, if you’re not skeptical, you’re doing it wrong. The only right way to do it is with deep, trigger-happy skepticism. It’s advertising — which means it’s supposed to make you want something. That alone makes it squirrelly as fuck. If you don’t train your brain to see that first and foremost, and to move cautiousl […]
- "It’s when you’re kickin’ it with your boys and you don’t speak up (or maybe even join in) when the..."“It’s when you’re kickin’ it with your boys and you don’t speak up (or maybe even join in) when the one dude is being called a “bitch” or a “pussy” because he didn’t hit on the girl you saw. It’s knowing street harassment is wrong but also knowing that you let your eyes linger way longer than was comfortable for her when she walked by you in those yoga pants […]
- "What may seem like ‘productive discussion’ or ‘lively debate’ feels like an attack on your identity..."“What may seem like ‘productive discussion’ or ‘lively debate’ feels like an attack on your identity and validity as a human being when it comes from a person in a position of power who is telling you how to react to something that upset you. When a disabled woman, for example, expresses anger about something that is going on in the news and nondisabled peop […]
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Two things to keep in mind:
1. I am bad at answering lengthy emails. Sorry!
2. I may ask you for permission to blog about our correspondence. However, if you are harassing/abusive/trollish, then I no longer have to ask you for permission. Proceed with caution!
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