No, "ql" Must Be Misremembering "Alternative Facts" - Hate Mail

I am not surprised to hear that all of her years at Eschaton has made "ql" as loose with the truth as the other rump regulars, I've come to think spending a lot of time on Duncan's blog makes even formely honest people prone to lying.

I HAVE NEVER SAID THAT I WAS A FEMINIST IN MY LIFE.  

I did write about the reason I wouldn't say anything like that going on eleven years ago, back when I used the pseudonym "olvlzl", as a man writing for Echidne of the Snakes.  It was one of the first things I posted as a regular blogger, there.   Echidne could have told you that. 

Friday, September 01, 2006

Unentitled

The beginning of September, the season of rag weed pollen, and pencil shavings.  The beginning of school.  Guest blogging weekends is a departure that comes at the same time as an involuntary cutback in my regular blogging activity.  I am grateful to Echidne for this chance to keep my hand in.

In the spirit of new beginnings it might be good to spend a post on perusing the position of a man posting on a blog devoted to feminism.  I had thought of writing an apologia of male feminism, which I hope exists, and to present my credentials.  But, no.  How presumptuous.  A man define feminism and claim it for himself? How... typical.

Being a leftist my first instinct when dealing with this kind of dilemma is to ask women to define what it would be for a man to be a feminist.  Or if a man can’t be one to at least tell how he can avoid being a total jerk about it.  But women will certainly have different ideas on both questions.  I’d be stuck with choosing among them or, maybe worse, ignoring all of them.  Just as presumptuous, it’s hardly a solution to the problem.

But then another idea came.  Why define it?  Maybe no problem will come up.  If it doesn’t why be the cause of unnecessary friction.  I’ve seen arguments over definitions turn into death matches on some blogs.  Maybe with enough determination to be fair and with common courtesy the problem won’t exist.  Is trying to not be a jerk enough?

So, let me know if a problem does come up, please.
Posted by olvlzl at 9/01/2006 08:55:00 PM

Note:  in the time since then I've stopped calling myself a "leftist" and, recently, even a "liberal" because of the ambiguity and expectations that come with those labels.  I have not, in the mean time, adopted the one "ql" apparently claims I did.  Or at least that her fellow jerks in Duncan's rump community say she claimed.   I don't know if it's related to how Kevin Drum was led to say something uncharacteristically irrational a couple of weeks back.

If "ql" or any of the other rump regulars at Eschaton can find a place where I claimed to be a feminist with a link to it, I'll post it.  I'm pretty confident I never changed my mind on that point.