Nut up (If you'll pardon the pun)

[perpetual_motion]

Comics Alliance, a great comics blog, ended their "Girl Week" (in celebration of women in comics as well as the release of Marvel's limited series "Girl Comics," with all female writers/artists) by having a post that is entirely composed of female comic book characters kicking dudes in the junk.

It's GREAT. Seriously, I laughed when I realized the whole post was nothing but nut-shots. It's tongue-in-cheek but still shows that women can kick serious ass.

There are people calling this anti-feminist.

WHAT.

Last I checked, being able to defend myself against an attacker is pretty fucking feminist. And if that means kicking a guy in the nuts, I don't fucking care. Because I will still WIN. And GET AWAY. Seriously, if it comes down to knocking a guy's junk into his teeth or said guy putting hands on me? I'm going to KICK HIS NUTS INTO HIS TEETH.

Is this really a question? Is there actually a reasonable person out there who argues that sac-tapping some guy is MEAN if said guy is trying to HARM ME?

If you say that you think it's mean, you are NOT reasonable.

Also, someone else in the comments mentioned how feminists don't like to be called "girls." Newsflash, person: I am a GIRL. Really. Not only do I have all the parts, but I also self-identify as FEMALE. And females are GIRLS. Are there people who try to use it as a derogatory term? Totally. Yes. No question. But you know what? Some people just use that term to mean FEMALE. In the same way that I use the term "boy" to refer to my guy friends (the boys) or in the same way that Garth Ennis uses it to refer to his superhero-killing team, "The Boys." (Which, incidentally, has a female member.)

If you call me a girl, and you're saying it friendly, I've got no beef with you. I am, in fact, a girl. I am also a woman, a lady, a dame, a broad, a female, and a boob shirt vagina pants (the last one is only allowed if you know me REALLY well). So, if you call me any of those, and you say it friendly, or funny, or nice, we'll be cool.

If you say it with meanness and try to put hands on me? I will kick you in the balls so hard you'll come off the floor (ala Elsa Bloodstone in that first image from the link). And you know why I'll kick you in the balls? Because I'm smart enough to know it'll fucking stop you in your tracks. Because I'm smart enough to be educated about how to stop an attacker. Because I'm a girl who uses my brain and knows that hitting the weak spot is the BEST WAY TO FIGHT.

Because I'm a damned feminist.

Incidentally, if you are a woman, and you call me "girl" in a derogatory tone and try to put hands on me, I will ALSO kick you in the junk. Because it'll stop you cold as well.

In short: Words and actions only have the power we put behind them. If you think it's anti-feminist to show a woman protecting herself from a male attacker by kicking him in the junk, you're putting way more power into that action than you realize and depowering women at the same time by dictating that there's a "nice" way and a "mean" way to keep a guy from attacking her. Same goes for seeing every use of the word "girl" as derogatory. This is how "cunt" got removed from "nice language," people; other people telling us how we should define the meaning of words.

Comments

[fearciuil.livejournal.com]

YES. THIS.

The nut shots made me laugh out loud, too; also, reminded me of this. If you don't follow Pibgorn, Dru (the dame) is a succubus; the guy is a demon with whom she'd been in a battle royale. If you do follow Pbigorn ... well, the same. ;-)

ETA: Hopefully, that fixed the code.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

The code is fixed, and that is fabulous. Love it.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

And now it makes sense!

Dear Feminist Dictators:

I am a feminist.
I refer to myself as "girl" rather often.
I would happily kick anyone -- man OR woman -- in the junk if s/he tried to hurt me. Any confrontation you can walk away from is one you've won.

I mean, what the fuck kind of visual shorthand would they rather see? Mostly, there's no real representation of feminism; feminists are everywhere, just being. I will happily take a representation of a woman defending herself over, say, fridging or all-T-and-A designs.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

Agreed to the highest level. Are there plenty of picture of female characters kicking ass? Sure! But to say you should see face kicks as opposed to crotch kicks because face kicks are "nicer" are PART OF THE PROBLEM.

feminists are everywhere, just being.

THIS.

[lyss-monaghan.livejournal.com]

Soooooo I completely agree with most of what you're saying and I totally understand where you're coming from.

Be warned, I think I'm typing a Philosophy essay here, it seems haha.

Also, I finally saw the Jersey Shore ep (lol guilty pleasure night last night) where the small lound girl, Snooki, got punched in the face at a bar by a guy taking their shots, so I'm so angry at people telling us that women are weak post-episode discussion forums.

With that said, your quote
Last I checked, being able to defend myself against an attacker is pretty fucking feminist
had me thinking.

If you think about it, if the (potential) victim is being (potentially) attacked by a (more or less) male assaulter (is that a word?! lol), it's more often than not applauded to kick him in the nuts if you're a girl. As evidence by your journal entry and your link of comic superheroines.

However.

In general, I hope people keep in mind that it's not only women but also men/boys who get (potentially) assaulted. Now this is a sticky situation: if it's a male (sexually) assaulting a woman, and she defends herself, and even succeeds, good on her and hopefully she's not scarred. Same thing with the (potential MALE) victim.

BUT. If the assault suspect is a woman- still, female self defense is (partially) encouraged but in North American society we'd normally call this a bitch brawl/cat fight. If a woman goes after a man (hey, it can happen) and he defends himself, physically, it's a hard one to prove because reports-wise, it seems to be a rare police report. Because it can all be typically turned onto the man.

Therefore the point that I'm trying to come across is that it may not be just Feminist when it comes to self defense, just plain self defense from potential sexual assault.

Just something I thought of. Pls no hatin on my random thoughts :D:D:D:D

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

BUT. If the assault suspect is a woman- still, female self defense is (partially) encouraged but in North American society we'd normally call this a bitch brawl/cat fight. If a woman goes after a man (hey, it can happen) and he defends himself, physically, it's a hard one to prove because reports-wise, it seems to be a rare police report. Because it can all be typically turned onto the man.

This is a fantastic point because it's completely dead-on to the truth of it. Lots of people don't see women as attackers and don't see a fight between two women as anything serious because it's OMG HAWT. There's definitely a bullshit standard there that needs it's own kick in the junk.

I didn't cover that angle in the post because I was working directly from the "women defending themselves with a crotch-kick is anti-feminist," so I was working from that particular thought and building on it. Self-defense, no matter who you are or whom is attacking you, is absolutely vital. I can't imagine what it must be like for men who are in abusive relationships where women are attacking them get any help at all, because it's seen as an imaginary thing when it's very much NOT.

No hating on random thoughts. I love random thoughts!