Confessions Of A Former Misogynist (re-blogged)

I ran into a post entitled Confessions Of A Former Misogynist via The Crommunist today, and thought that it was important enough to pass along.

While reading the post, I saw some similarities to my own transformation, not from misogyny to being a feminist per se (I did recognize some of what he said in my own past, before I had a more solid understanding of feminism), but from being generally emotionally reactive and defensive  to forcing myself to be more open, transparent, and self-reflective.

I highly urge everyone to read and share the post.

Ben concludes with this important paragraph:

This process took decades with me, though. Debunking a feminist conspiracy in your head is a little bit like deprogramming yourself from a religion. It takes years of self-reflection and asking some really uncomfortable questions about yourself, but you do come out of it a better person. [my emphasis]

I think this is important because with the recent splits in the atheist/skeptic community, pointing out that this transformation is so similar to leaving a religion, many atheists who are ‘skeptical’ of the recent attention to (‘radical”) feminism may start to understand that just as many of them took years to leave religion, they may still need years to leave the misogynistic and patriarchal worldview they still live in.

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via Confessions Of A Former Misogynist.