I have discovered in recent years that most women (and men) these days don't like to call themselves feminists. This doesn't make much sense to me, especially when someone tells me they do believe in gender equality, equal pay for equal work, marriages as partnerships, and the many other ideas that feminism supports. What's the problem with the word?
I have a couple of ideas. First of all, we all know the feminist or "Femi-Nazi" stereotype: bra-burning, man-hating, military-boot-wearing, loud-mouthed butch feminist. No one wants to be thought of that way. I get it. But I think (hope) most of us also know that feminists aren't actually like that.
Also, a girl in a class of mine suggested that the word itself was the problem. Racists are people who think their race is better than others. Sexists think that their sex is better than others. So don't feminists think that women are better than men? We don't; of course not. Feminism is a movement that involves men and women, because honestly, equal treatment of women will improve the lives of women and men.
Maybe it's because the feminist movement is less visible these days. This could be changing, though, with the recent SlutWalks and all the publicity they've gotten, along with Occupy Wall Street and other politically active campaigning. (I would certainly call Mississippi's successful No on 26 campaign a feminist one, though everyone involved might not agree.) But, still, we have ideas of 1970s feminism as loud, in-your-face and everywhere (whether or not this is accurate; I wasn't around so I don't know). So maybe women today don't identify as feminist because they don't see themselves as involved in a larger movement. I know that it took me a couple of university classes, a large amount of reading and a whole lot of online searching to find the feminist community alive and well.
So, you tell me: Why do you or do you not identify as a feminist? What do you see as the defining characteristics of a feminist? And is it important, if you want to support equality of all people, that you identify as a feminist? Why or why not?
I absolutely and proudly identify as feminist. I see the defining characteristics of a present-day feminist as: 1) an awareness of the existence of male, white, upper/middle class, and heteronormative privilege in the world around us; 2) an awareness of the media and entertainment's role in promoting the privileged as the "norm"; 3) an awareness that discrimination and disenfranchisement based on race, class, gender and orientation often intersect, and that we really live in a Venn Diagram of privilege and marginalization; 3) a concept of gender as a social construct more than an innate state of being; 4) the will to abandon whatever privileges I might have and the self-limiting constructs I have been rewarded for embracing; and 5) the willingness to work toward change, even though the privileged often fight hardest for that which is not rightfully theirs.
ReplyDeleteI would say that I had a fairly slow "feminist awakening," beginning toward the end of my high school career, but not really taking full form until around the end of college. It took me a long time and a lot of active searching to develop the awareness and the vocabulary with which to discuss many issues, from the relationship of privilege to violence, to systemic inequality and discrimination. For a long time I wouldn't identify as a feminist because of the negative reaction it often provoked, and because I hadn't developed the tools I needed to respond to people. I also had not quite stopped wanting to be rewarded for being a "nice sweet girl," and had not yet begun to recognize how white and hetero privilege had contributed to my success.
I do think that people who support equality of all people should identify as feminist, for several reasons. For one, if you're going to support equality, you should be brave enough to voluntarily wear an unpopular label. For another, if you support equality, then you understand where sex and gender intersect with other demographic descriptors often associated with systemic injustice. Feminism should not be the only "equality and justice" descriptor in anyone's identity, but it should be among them. Finally, because women and girls are so consistently discriminated against, violently and systemically, in every part of the world, then it only makes sense for someone with an interest in justice and equality to see how critical it is to make women's equality a core focus.
Great comment by FJ and some equally good posts on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm too old to write the university thesis these days so, I'm mostly a feminist (cos we all fall off the edge somewhere) because society is conditioned to think men are superior. Simple really.