So, to clarify, I think you missed the point I believe Paula was trying to make.Originally Posted by Alexa CD
I can assure you that neither she, nor I, nor Sue, nor a lot of other women here are walking around angry every day.
I won't speak for them, but what I am is frustrated. I'm frustrated by a number of things. I am frustrated about being marginalized, sometimes purposefully and sometimes unconsciously, by a group of people who at the same time insist that we are the same. I am frustrated by a group of men who claim some deeper insight into femininity and womanhood, yet balk at any suggestion by actual women that some of the things they're saying may be disrespectful or inappropriate in ways they aren't aware of. I am especially frustrated recently by men who like to play dress up as women posting things about how men are being "sidelined" in society now (aka male-rights activist BS).
Particular to your post, I also find it frustrating when people assume somebody should be able to deal with a class of problem, when they themselves have never really been confronted by that problem. It's like somebody who's never suffered depression telling a depressed person to "just cheer up and be happy". As Paula said, we deal with this marginalization every day, on one level or another (sometimes small, sometimes big). We get quite enough of it out there. For somebody who spends their life in the closet to tell us that we should "just ignore it" is, well, rather frustrating.
That is the point you missed.
Nobody is saying you don't have problems. We're saying that the ways in which you (and many others here) attempt to devalue our problems, often devaluing our identities in the process, is disrespectful.
