I blame the patriarchal media that glorifies polygamy in Big Love and breeding as a way of life, and bad girls and make me a super porn model.

So, the last time I checked, medical “knowledge” placed the “natural” male/female sex ratio at 1.05 males for every female. This statistic supposedly excludes infanticide and the preferential abortion of females in misogynist countries (like China, India, the entire Middle East, and, hell, the Earth). And research on most other mammals places their male/female sex ratio at around 1:1.

So why do the Duggars have a 2.8:1 sex ratio?

Worse, for the first 7 kids, the sex ratio was near 1:1, but for the last 7 kids, the ratio is 6:1. This seems statistically unlikely.

And since abortion is illegal in these circles, she’s either using a coat hanger, or smothering the little girls after dear old daddy told her they had enough help around the house.

If you look at the younger boys, there might be more than a year between their ages, yet I doubt the fucker let Michelle rest for a year between births. They’re aborting the girls after they are born.

In other words, this is the Christian version of Saudi Arabia. Oh fuck.

Ah, the passive construction. Now, who exactly is it that’s doing all of this viewing of Michelle Duggar’s vagina as a clown car? It damn sure isn’t feminists, despite your having agreed with the sentiment (“I mean, look at those outfits” or whatever it was you said) and self-identified as one.

As for the man “treating” her vagina “like a clown car*,” again, why is it that her genitals are objectified and derided if he’s the one who deserves our ire? Instead, he’s the only entity in the picture not directly dehumanized, objectified, or humiliated by the tagline. His wife and his children are degraded, while he is allowed to retain his full personhood in what amounts to an indirect slight against him, by way, of course, as it so often is for patriarchs, of a direct attack on his property.

At best, this poster is a big fat “your mama,” only in this case it’s “your wife.” I thought it had been decided long ago that using a person’s mother to belittle him (and it’s always him) is misogynist. I can’t imagine why it’s better when it’s his wife.

Crystal, if you like the poster, you like the poster. If you agree with the premise of it, you agree with it. I’m not trying to change your mind. I’m also at no obligation to pretend as if your appreciation for it (or anyone else’s) is feminist, though.

*I’m having a hard time understanding how this metaphor extends to the man in any way at all because clown cars don’t come about their occupants sexually.

Brightbluelizard, feminists do have a responsibility to examine their own choices. More accurately, we have a responsibility to examine our own actions, rather than choices, because, as women, our choices are limited and it’s due to the limitations of our choices that we are feminists. Our limited choices are the reason that feminism is needed and exists, for that matter. That women’s choices are limited is also one of the reasons that it’s not feminist to make fun of or talk smack about other women. I can’t tell you what Mrs Duggar’s choices were before but I can guaran-fucking-tee you that they were far fewer than Mr Duggar’s choices and that Mr Duggar has further limited her choices since then.

Feminists do have a responsibility to examine our own actions. “Our own” are important words in that statement. There’s a whole world of men and women out there who are more than glad to make fun of the actions of Mrs Duggar and all other women. Belittling and saying nasty things about women is part of the patriarchal culture, it’s what we, especially women, have been brought up to do. So, making fun of Mrs Duggar and other women is not blaming the patriarchy, it’s helping perpetuate it.

On the other hand, examing our own actions to determine why we do the things we do and if doing them helps perpetuate the oppression of women or helps to further promote the equal treatment of women is important.

Crystal, I finished with you days ago when I realized you don’t want to learn feminism nor become feminist, that you’d prefer to bend feminism so that it fits you and your actions. Arguing further with you under the guise of useful debate would just waste more of my time on you. I’d rather not.

” I thought the poster’s critique was straight-forward: It says a vagina is not a clown car.

Yes, but that hers is when it’s not supposed to be.”

I agree, but I would say that it saying that hers is being treated/viewed as one when it’s not.

Yes, but that hers is when it’s not supposed to be.

I didn’t see what was so misogynistic about it; in fact I read the phrase “vagina: it’s not a clown car” as directed to that husband and the strange patriarchy he comes from.

Well, that’s certainly a generous reading. One would think that if they’d wanted to direct the poster’s ridicule at the man, they could have written: “Jim Bob: Fucking His Way and Ours to Hell on Earth since 1980 (or whenever).”

The only real way to stop oppression is to insist that the oppressed stand up for themselves & be educated about the consequences of their actions.

No. The only real way to stop oppression is to insist that our oppressors stop oppressing us.

Keep in mind, some of the fiercest opponents of feminism have been other women. Based on some posts I’ve seen & some of the media out there, they still are.

I don’t have to belittle non-feminist women in order to address their opposition to feminism.

As for the whole “we can’t blame the victim it’s her choice” thing: I agree that there are times when you simply offer comfort & support, but on the other hand…

I read somewhere else that feminists have a responsibility to examine their own choices -why they are making them & whether or not they contribute to oppression, or whether they collude in their own oppression. If we are serious about feminist values, this thing that “victims” are left off the hook, are allowed not to seriously examine their choices & their futures cannot be allowed to continue. The only real way to stop oppression is to insist that the oppressed stand up for themselves & be educated about the consequences of their actions.

Keep in mind, some of the fiercest opponents of feminism have been other women. Based on some posts I’ve seen & some of the media out there, they still are.

That picture doesn’t “obviously” say anything at all about those people’s patriarchal culture. It says that woman’s vagina is a clown car, instead of what? A two-seater? A fucksleeve?

It is an ad hominem attack against that woman and her children that you find justified for all the reasons you’ve laid out here (basically amounting to: she chose to marry that man). I disagree.

I’d have found a direct (non-misogynist) attack against her husband and his church perfectly acceptable. That isn’t what this is. It’s a direct attack against her, and because of the very very indirect and covert insinuations against that man, you find it justifiable. Plenty of people do. It’s not feminist, though.

And it’s not patriarchy blaming.

And, yeah, CoolAunt, she doesn’t need to wade in any deeper. There isn’t any point at which we, the feminist few, can sit on our haunches and have our misogyny forgiven, just because we call ourselves feminist. If we aren’t constantly making ourselves purposefully distinct from the masses, we don’t get a pass just because we’ve self-identified as feminists. Feminism remains an ideology of “show,” not “tell.”