Leave it to a "femme genderqueer" (whatever the hell that means) to take offense at a tradition that is now wholly meaningless.

According the The Local-Sweden, Alexander Alvina Chamberland, co-founder of the group Midsommarfitta (erm...that would be "Midsummer C*nt" in English), is trying to change the way Swedes celebrate the traditional Midsummer festival. Instead of dancing around a maypole, he wants people to dance around a vagina...Yes, that's right, a vagina. He sees the traditional maypole as a sexist phallic symbol. He also sees the tradition of girls picking flowers to place under their pillow in hopes of dreaming about their future man as "heteronormative and patriarchal." So, instead of dancing around a male symbol he wants people to dance around a female one...

Ugh...where to start, where to start...

First of all, as I mentioned at the beginning, the Midsummer festivities no longer hold the same meaning they once did, so to get all bent out of shape over dancing around a meaningless pole and having a bit of fun is just stupid.

Second, instead of elevating the male these yahoos want to elevate the female. Soooo, instead of forcing oppression by one group, you'd like to force oppression by another group. Yeah, okay, that makes sense...NOT. Look, any time you try to venerate one gender over the other you are, by turns, doing to the one group what you don't want to be done to the other. How is that really helping? I heartily disagree with feminism just as I heartily disagree with chauvinism; male is not better than female and female is not better than male; and by trying to venerate one over the other, that's what you are saying - that one is necessarily better than the other. Isn't that mentality what has caused so many problems in the past (or in certain areas of the world still causing problems)? We're all equal, get it?

Third, (this kind of goes back to what I said in point one) if the tradition is not to your taste then you have every right to celebrate it as you wish, and you can let people know that's how you're going to do it, that's fine, whatever; however, don't try to force your way on others by belittling or harassing them for doing it the way they want to. And yes, that's what I feel this guy is doing. It's all in the delivery.

And finally, he goes on to complain about how people often accuse feminists of having no sense of humor, "and then when we do, people complain that we're ridiculous." When all you seem to do is be on the offensive then yeah, you seem a bit humorless. But is this his way of saying that the Midsummerfitta is all a big joke? (Well, yeah, it is a joke...) That we shouldn't take it so seriously? Then why all the feminist rhetoric? Since we're speaking in sweeping generalizations here...feminists often accuse others of being anti-female if we don't readily support the feminist agenda, and that's just silly. Just because I don't support the feminist agenda doesn't mean I'm anti-female, I AM female for Pete's sake! So of course I'm not anti-female! What I am is anti-feminist/anti-chauvinist. I will not support any agenda that places one gender over the other, period, end of story.

Do I have a problem with this guy and his friends dancing around a vagina? No, I just think it's kind of stupid. But then, I think dancing around a pole is kind of stupid too. Do I have a problem with this guy and his friends trying to convince everyone and their dog to do it? Yes, I do. If you want to put up your little facebook page and "get the word out," fine, whatever, but don't go spewing your feminist claptrap in the news media in order to get your message across.