Other Tales

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It’s a common scenario: you’re reading an interesting article about feminism online, and then you scroll down to read the comments. There are usually some very insightful comments. But they are overshadowed by the amount of vitriolic and smart-arse responses. You know which type I find to be one of the most frustrating? It’s this one, masked as an “innocent” question: “but show me your proof”? Someone feigning innocence will deny that rape culture, or sexism, or misogyny, or gender inequalities exist today, and ask for “objective” proof. Or they will sometimes direct you to their own statistics of more “important” problems, as if the array of data on other social problems is somehow supposed to indicate that sexism has been done away with. As Lisa Simpson would say, that’s specious reasoning: one problem does not cancel out another.

To me, this question of “show me your proof” is basically a way of saying: “your opinions and experiences don’t count unless you show me ample documentation of something that is widely known to exist”. It’s like asking for proof that the earth is round. Saying that sexism and rape culture don’t exist without such said “proof” is like suggesting that racism is a myth, homophobia is not a problem and abuse isn’t “real” without statistical data.

The point is, my opinions and experiences as a woman should count for something.

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read the rest here: On Feminism: show me your “proof”.