sigelphoenix

Thoughts are coalescing in my head, and I figure it's better to spit them all out now than let them nag at me when I'm trying to do homework ...

Back when I first started following feminist, I remember thinking that I wished it was more debate-friendly, or that I could find a community for debating aspects of feminism. (anti_feminism was, unfortunately, the only thing I found, and I've peeked in on it from time to time to see if it would disprove my view of it as a crock of bullshit. It hasn't.) Sure, there's disagreement on feminist, but often sharply dissenting views will spark hostile reactions, so debate gets stifled. I wanted a place where the atmosphere was more conducive to "civilized debate," like abortiondebate, which I've been following for years. Besides some ground rules about no personal attacks and the like, everything is pretty much free game. Vehemently pro-choice and vehemently pro-life people engage in open conversation with (theoretically) a basic level of respect.

I've seen recently how this whole "we can debate and just be nice to each other" view is a bit naive. I mean, feminism and abortion are two issues which can stir up a huge amount of passion -- and, resultantly, massive flamewars. Maybe you can't have "civilized debate." But if you do try to put up some rules and have polite conversation, well ... is it really worth it?

( In which I argue about how to argue )

Oh, and for feminist debate, there's now discussfeminism -- it's relatively new, but it looks promising.