For Women's Space

Post: An Open Letter from Me, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, to Pro-Porn, Pro-Prostitution, Misogynist, Male-Centered, Anti-Feminist Persons

Commenter: Debi

Heart, I really don't think anybody is trying to silence you. And I don't think anyone honestly expects that you will stop "vocally and outspokenly oppose pornography, prostitution, sex trafficking, the enslavement of women, male dominance, white male heterosupremacy, and all brutality towards women throughout the world." I for one wouldn't want you to stop doing that.

But the problem arises when, for example, you speak about another blogger, or cite something they have said, without giving the context by way of a link, or just an explanation of where the person is coming from (or even who the person is). This misrepresents people, and naturally, gets their backs up. If you want to call out Renegade Evolution, to take your latest example, then you are free to do so, but in the interests of transparency and honesty, it would be best to link to what she said specifically that you are calling her out on, so that people can go there and read it, and form their own opinions.

Of course, it's your blog and you can do what you like with it, but I'm just saying that it seems to me whenever a thread here becomes a "trainwreck" it is not because of "trolls" coming along and attempting to derail it or whatever, but because of your disrespect to (certain) other women in the first place. Coming from a feminist, the dimissal of any woman's voice, or lived reality, is very hard to take. You consistently allow comments from Satsuma, for example, who will not listen to other women, but insists that they have been raped when they say they have not, or that they were abused as children when they say they were not. Satsuma doing that is dismissing completely other women's voices - yet she is allowed to do that in this "Women's Space". However, if one of those women Satsuma says has been raped comes here to say that she is wrong, she is not allowed to do so.

As I said, it's your blog and your choice, but the problem arises from this "Women's Space" listening avidly to some women, whilst others are silenced. And, of course they can go back to their own blog and say what they have to say there, but I think many would much prefer and open discussion at the site of the original "calling out", as that is surely the best way to have a discussion.