January 28, 2009

Wednesday's Comment Call-out: One step forward...

This may not work well as a regular because reading comments makes me so angry sometimes and the rest of the time it's just exhausting. So this is going to be very general.

I was just reading a bunch of comments on Sarah Palin following an article about how she is/is not a feminist. They are all so scathing. I don't disagree with most of them, but at some point I was just done with all the name-calling. "She's a witch," "she's a crazy conservative," "she's a liar," and so on and so on. She's also a woman who is not immune to having her feelings hurt. Among many I know, I would not be popular for defending her but I guess I'm doing it anyways.

And that's because it's tiresome to listen to Group A criticize Group B for trying to impose their views on the world, when isn't Group A doing the same thing but with different views? I'm not saying people shouldn't express their beliefs, but I always wonder if we're doing it wrong. Especially when you're reading blogs and comments, people are so nasty. I suppose because it's easy to be mean and condescending and self-righteous when you aren't looking your prey in the face. I think feminism is about questioning, not judging. And evangelizing, be it for a religion or any other cause, is most effective when done with humility.

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