I am on mailing lists for a number of feminist organisation, and the “mainstream” groups tend, for example, to send out a lot more stuff on reproductive rights than, say, access to sanitary products for women in Zimbabwe. Or FGM. Or women on welfare in the US. Or very much about any issue that concerns non-Western women or non-middle-class women more than it does Western middle class women.

So I’m not basing my observation on the media, I’m basing it on my experience of mainstream feminist groups’ own mailings and activities.

Bluestockings and Mnemosyne: I appreciate the carricature, but I don’t see how much original comment provoked your responses, I’m afraid. I’m not supporting the conservative strawfeminist argument, but I do think that there is a valid point to be made about the bias of mainstream feminism in wealthy Western countries.

–IP

They’re certainly a lot better at it than those poor kids that get suckered into thinking a chastity pledge is the only sex-ed they need.

I believe the phrase is “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” - preying mantis

You know, I read that “abstinence of evidence” – which I think is pretty also apt for today’s media .

Answer: Because then they can’t blame feminists when they make it even worse!

We don’t here nearly as many mentions of women in Afghanistan in the mainstream Western media as we do of, say abortion rights in Western countries.

So “mentions in the media” is what makes activism, not actual actions?

I see you’ve been consulting with the Iraqi government, which has decided that if no one takes pictures of the bombing, the bombing never happened.

I believe the phrase is “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

IP, you have decided that only the subjects that the media pays attention to are the subjects that US feminists advocate on exclusively. This just ain’t so.

What the media pays attention to is not the fault of any feminist organization since last time I checked no feminist organization owned a news organization.

A lot of “mainstream” feminist organisations campaign primarily on issues that affect straight white middle-class non-disabled citizens of [insert name of wealthy Western country here]. We don’t here nearly as many mentions of women in Afghanistan in the mainstream Western media as we do of, say abortion rights in Western countries.

So yes, by all means call conservatives on their hypocrisy. But it’s a bit hard to see American feminists as champions of women in Afghanistan. Because what most American feminists do for women in Afghanistan is basically zero compared for what most American feminists do for, say, middle-class Americans.

–IP