[a sign reads FEMINIST CONFERENCE next to a closed door, a blue character shrugs and says…]
I don’t care
[next to the same door, the sign now says RESTRICTED FEMINIST CONFERENCE WOMEN ONLY, there are now four blue characters desperately banging on the door, one is reduced to tears on the floor, they are shouting]
DISCRIMINATION
SO UNFAIR!!!
LET US IINN!!
MISANDRY
Hey, look at the comment section, it’s the people the people from the comic.
Had to double check that isn’t the women’s community where we’ve all accidentally posted.
You know, this is quite common for both genders. A major part of earlier feminist demands was “We want to get in on all the male spaces”. You know, having the right to go to football games, military, and so on.
It’s currently quite a big political topic in my country that feminists are demanding that some traditional men-only shooting clubs should open up to women. A ton of women demanding that the clubs are opened for women aren’t even interested in actually joining these shooting clubs (and in fact often wouldn’t even be allowed to join because they are regional clubs and they are from a different region), but that doesn’t matter.
What they protest for is not that they can actually join, but that they’d be allowed to join in theory.
It’s also a quite big thing over here that women started to go into men’s restrooms during events and such when there’s a queue on the women’s restroom.
So why would anyone be surprised that the same thing happens the other way round too?
There are always some idiots who’s identity hinges on making sure others can’t have safe spaces.
Big difference between being allowed to piss and shoot and being allowed into a women’s club to talk about women-specific issues.
No. It really doesn’t matter. A safe space is a safe space. You think the guys at the shooting clubs do nothing but shoot? They talk there about men-specific issues.
There are plenty of non-gender restricted shooting clubs in my country and there are womens toilets in my country too. It’s not about women not being allowed to piss or shoot. It’s about these specific women not being ok with the fact that safe spaces for men exist.
Same as the guys in the OP. They don’t protest because they specifically need to be in this meeting because they want to discuss women-specific issues. They are just not ok with safe spaces for women existing.
In both directions it’s a power thing. People like that (no matter the gender) get off on taking things away from others. The point is not to be able to be in that place, but to take away safe spaces from someone else. And that’s an asshole move for asshole reasons no matter if the person doing that is a man or a woman.
So what about you? Are you ok with male safe spaces existing? If not, tell me, what reason for that do you have that is not an asshole reason?
I totally understand what is being said here. But the reality is that more than just penis havers can be bigots and more than just vagina havers need a safe space. Painting people with a wide brush is always going to upset some of the people being painted, especially those who don’t feel they should be included in said group. Reality is rarely inclusive of only two options.
For real.
This is literally what happens in Lemmy’s women-only sub. Posters are still complaining about it in comments below.
Ugh… I fear for the future of my sex. Sometimes, I want to slap some basic respect into other guys. Nothing fancy or philosophical, just “don’t be a dick, leave other human beings in peace” kind of common sense. Yet it feels like a losing battle.
Here’s my take on it:
I think we do deserve a private community of only women where women can have a safe place to talk about whatever they want without men. The problem is that this is not a private community, lemmy and piefed are fundamentally public spaces, not private, it is impossible and unreasonable to have a private community.
Perhaps in the future we’ll gain the ability to make real private communities where users must be approved to view posts, but that’s not today.
The mods of the community have the idea that it’s everyone else’s problem, that tens of thousands of people should go out of their way to remedy the issue by blocking the community just so a couple hundred (thousand?) people can have no responsibility for it.
I participated in the community at the beginning of its existence (despite my username, I am not a guy), and have long since left and blocked it because I really hated how the mods treated others. Maybe it’s changed over the last 6 months or whatever, but they’ve left a permanent impression on me.
The problem is that this is not a private community, lemmy and piefed are fundamentally public spaces, not private, it is impossible and unreasonable to have a private community.
As of 1.6 Piefed does support ‘private’ (non-federating) communities that only people with certain assigned roles can invite others to: https://codeberg.org/rimu/pyfedi/releases/tag/v1.6.0
The mods of the community have the idea that it’s everyone else’s problem, that tens of thousands of people should go out of their way to remedy the issue by blocking the community just so a couple hundred (thousand?) people can have no responsibility for it.
I think it’s kind of wild to expect a community to be open to everyone or not exist at all on the fediverse, along with the idea that this is a huge burden on anyone except the mods of that community who have to clean up the comment section.
From personal experience posting my content on multiple platforms, Lemmy’s userbase is by far the most fragile one regarding sexism.
Yes, even worse than Reddit, where this very comic had its comment section locked by the rcomics mods due to the hundreds of pissed off dudes crying in the comments. At least they get downvoted on Reddit. Lemmy really is dudebro land, and needs to fix that if it wants to grow further (which I would like as a Lemmy enjoyer).
I’ve said this a few times already, and it usually makes Lemmy users uncomfortable, so I’ll keep repeating it as often as necessary.
It’s the ultimate consequence of going all in on recruiting people from reddit, which I have been trying to tell people for years. You’re not making the fediverse better, you’re making it more reddity. There’s no point in leaving reddit while bringing the worst of the culture.
Please do. Uncomfortable is good.
What I hate most about the women-only community is that there are so many interesting topics that I want to chime in, or that I forget to check which community it is before accidentally commenting against the rules, but I don’t wanna block the community because it’s still very interesting to read.
I’d become a woman but that just seems like too much work
tbf that sub’s rules are a joke.
1 Women only
3 Don’t hate on groups, hatefilled talk about groups is not allowed. Ever.
But the sub does a hell of a lot of man bashing behind the ridiculous fig leaf of ‘not all men’.
I block it.
Tell me you haven’t looked at a community without telling me you haven’t seen it.
The top post of this week is about chocolate.
The top post of this month is called “real men cry” and it’s about how men should be allowed to be emotionally vulnerable.
Funny enough, the top post of the last three months is a screenshot of:
“I see so many men saying feminism is bad. Please tell me which of my rights I don’t deserve as a woman. I’m curious.”
Well, I haven’t looked at it for a while.
I’ve been there since it started.
Tell me, are the evil man-hating feminists in the room right now?
I blocked the sub, don’t worry.
I’m not surprised by the comments who reject the idea in total. But the I am surprised by the comments that try and fail to think charitably about this. They end up both sides-ing it.
Edit: I figure I ought to do a little you’re cute explain to the possibly very curious and good faith commentator.
- Women often mask or change the demeanor when men are present. This will restrict what they share and how they share it.
- Men often dominate the discourse both in time and style. This is related to number one.
- Women who have been traumatized by men will be on guard with men present. They will never be able to tell if you are safe or not in a public discourse situation.
- Men and women in the modern American context have different ways of relating to each other. When these conferences happen they sometimes are investigating new theories and new tactics. Male input can undermined free sharing.
Based
This is gonna be good.
Saudi arabia : feminism conferance : no women in attendance.
I wish this was responding to the actual concern. But this made-up one is cool too.
What do you think is the “actual” concern?
There’s actually mens that are feminist. Why would they be excluded from the conference?
Also, conferences are a great way to recruit new participants so that’s also stupid
Edit: forgot about woman safe spaces…
Why would they be excluded from the conference?
To create a safe space for women.
Seems a bit sexist
All non-women that could attend that conference safely respect their choice and don’t want to. Thus the sign is valid.
The fact this doesn’t hold when “feminism” is gender-reversed comes from patriarchy. Treating men better than our patriarchical society treats them without treating women worse is a feminist position.
And indeed, feminist men-only groups are just as respected by feminists as feminist women-only groups.
The exclusion is still solely based on sex. I’m not even saying that’s wrong in all situations
Women choosing who they want to spend their time with is sexist?
Is that based on solely the sex of the person?
I am not shocked that we’re still having this “discussion” in 2026
It’s like the discussion about if you can be racist toward white people. It’s endless drama
It’s not. You’re boring and stupid. Go read a book.
You’re saying it’s not endless drama while participating in the drama
Oh yeah fair enough. I was more focused on OP’s bad argument that I forgot about this. My bad
The point was that most men aren’t interested in being there unless they’re told they’re excluded.
Feminism welcomes all. But some times there need to be safe spaces for women, and women’s groups are there for that. So the comic is just a joke, not a provocation.
There are local men’s groups around where I live, they’re safe spaces for men who want to talk about relationships , fatherhood, anger issues or how to be more confident in their masculinity etc. Women are (usually) excluded. Many of these men are feminists, I would guess.
You are correct, there are men who are feminists, but this comic isn’t about them. Men who are feminists would not say “I don’t care” at an open women’s conference, they would join in and allow women to have their space at the closed conference. Both the open and closed conferences have valid reasons for existing. Not all conferences are about recruitment.
This comic points out the hypocrisy of men who say they don’t care about feminism until they are excluded from women’s spaces, then they complain about not being allowed into any space they want. Sometimes women like to have our own spaces to speak about our feelings and experiences with other women and that’s ok.
I think men should have their own spaces like that too. A place for men to talk about their feelings and positive aspects of masculinity without it devolving into the toxic masculinity we see from a lot of influencers who focus on dominating women and body dysmorphia. A place where men can build positive friendships and community, a place to support other men.
Both men and women do it.
That is true.
that’s because people, in general, are scumbags.
No! People are dictated predominantly by situational factors, common scumbagginess is a trait that minimally dictates behaviour in most situations. Of course you’d know about the fundamental attribution error, if you weren’t such a scumbag.
I never claimed I wasn’t a scumbag, scumbag.
I’m all for everyone having spaces for who and what they identify with.
Becky spilled the beans, they always keep the best snacks for the women only meetings. Equal desserts for all days! Fruit tarts for all!
Unironically, that’s one of the biggest upsides of being invited to non-mixed decoloniality events (for academic reasons), they tend to bring the best food and love to share it 😀
The Muisca (Andean/Colombian natives) are a culture worth researching if you want to get so well fed that you can’t walk back home
I’ve heard that Colombians generally under-season and over-meat, but they’re terrifically friendly. Does that describe your experiences?
