Long May You Roar

After a long hiatus, it appears that the Ms. Magazine discussion boards are gone for good. At least that's what the notice currently on the site makes it sound like.

I have mixed feelings about that. My endorsement of the boards was always lukewarm to begin with. I learned a lot by lurking there, and it is important to be aware of the unique problems women still face 30 years after the Second Wave. No other site that I am aware of did as good a job of raising awareness of that as the Ms. boards did. But the prevailing attitude there was intolerant at best and downright vicious at worst. It presented the worst case of groupthink I have ever seen: not only were dissenting viewpoints never considered, but people (women and men alike) who raised them were treated with contempt and their views usually not addressed substantially or at all. That is why I was a lurker, by the way. I agreed with probably 90% or more of what was said there, but my dissenting views on the other 10% (not to mention my gender and the fact that I refuse to apologize for it) would have made me persona non grata in that particular community.

The boards also tended to bear out the worst of stereotypes about feminism. The right loves to paint feminists as bitter, paranoid man-haters who are just taking out their personal issues on men who have done no wrong and the women who love them. The overwhelming majority of self-described feminists I have known are miles from that stereotype (in fact, only one of them fit it - and I dated her for a year and a half anyway!), but some of the more vocal regulars on the boards fit that ugly and unfair image to a T. My two favorite quotes from those folks illustrate all this better than I could: "I don't see how men can add anything to a college experience except date rape and domination in class," and "I oppose men taking women's studies classes because they might do really well and make their female classmates feel inadequate."

I am all for a social movement allowing for radicals as well as moderates in its ranks, but stuff like that does no good and a lot of harm for its credibility. (My ex disagreed vociferously with me on that point, which is one reason why she is my EX. And she never did explain why perpetuating your own stereotypes is helpful in any way, beyond telling me I had no right to an opinion on the matter.) So I think while the Ms. boards were probably the best feminist site on the web, I also think they'd reached the point where the harm from the image they projected was outweighing the good from their very informative nature.

I'm sure there's a better site still out there, one which allows for a pleasant exchange of ideas while staying true to the goals of feminism. I'll be sure to replace that link over there once I find it.