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Lacey's avatar

Female figures have been the avatars of ideas for a very long time. "Lady justice" is a female personification of law, and existed even when the field was exclusively men. In no way does she indicate that women should be running the judicial system.

I think Amelia is a creature like that. A muse. She doesn't indicate that women should be taking a stand and doing what she does in the memes... she's just doing what female personifications have done for centuries - represent an idea while looking pretty (probably, at least partially, to help make the idea naturally more attractive, though I think there's a lot more to the whole female allegory thing that I don't understand.)

She's also deliciously ironic, because the leftists designed and wrote her. A character created by the right wingers doesn't have any of the power that Amelia does, because she was theirs and they accidentally created a sweetheart for their enemies. That kind of symbol has power, and that's why the memes are flowing like wine.

The flesh and blood women acting as the face of resistance and revolution is wrong - I agree with you completely there. But when it comes to symbolic images that take female form, I think that is something else entirely.

Steven S. Neff's avatar

Thought provoking. As someone who has not been shy about discussing the need for men to be out in front of women and protecting them, I largely agree, although I think there are far more men than President Trump attempting to lead on these issues. And he isn’t even really a conservative.

Couple of random thoughts:

When men attempt to lead on these issues, they are widely discounted, decried as preservers of the “patriarchy,” and thus ignored. We live in a time when people think you have nothing relevant to say to an issue unless you belong to the group being most affected. It’s why, for example, pro-life men like me are dismissed because we “don’t have a uterus and thus cannot speak to such matters.” It makes it far more difficult for conservative men to get the attention and traction necessary to be heard.

I think this may be why conservatives have pivoted to women to be the face of the “counter-resistance,” if you will. Not saying it’s right; but it is a strategy. And it does make logical sense in the modern context. Of course, it adopts a false paradigm itself — that we are all members of a group that is either oppressor or oppressed and only the oppressed have authority to speak to their situation.

But men — to your point — must be willing to repeatedly charge into the arena anyway. I see many that do (but they get very little widespread attention).

Women in combat? Absolutely not. And that includes flying planes.

Abortion? Murder. Doesn’t matter who you are.

Males in female sports? No way. We are built very differently and it’s dangerous for women/girls.

Women as ass kicking gladiators in movies/TV? Huh uh. 🙄 It feeds dangerous delusions.

Men in women’s spaces? Nope. There are countless predators out there seeking to harm women, and even the innocent ones are encroaching in a way that makes women feel emotionally and physically unsafe.

Modern Feminism? Destructive philosophy that must be destroyed.

Pornography, human trafficking, physical abuse of women? Put a stop to it. All of it.

Once more, into the breach!

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