Am I a Feminist?

Hi Shannae,

Well, first, I like your blog. I check it out once in a while and find some very cool and interesting stuff on there.
Today, you have hit a nerve and that may or my not be a good thing. I thought, you posted this question to get some input and feedback, so be careful what you wish for....

The word feminist or feminism has such negative connotations these days. I'm not sure why. Maybe we've all be lulled into the false sense of "making it" and feel that when women fight for something, they're seen as too militant, but I can't help but feel that this attitude has come about to silence women and keep us complacent and it is disappointing to hear women refusing the word.

Feminism a complex issue. People come at it from a variety of starting points. For example, one of the women in your video denounced feminism because she'd rather focus on racism. But one who is focusing on racism can't ignore the fact that women's issues and racism are instrinsically linked. One only has to look at history see that. Today, feminism takes an anti-racist stand and includes issues that are also important to the LGBT community, but I won't get into these 2 points here for the sake of brevity.

Shannae, I find your fence-sitting disburbing. I think that's partly because I'm not sure what you mean by some of the things you said. You referred to the 1950s as your inspiration, but women really didn't have it so good in the 1950s. They went from working in factories and making their own money to being forced back into the home. Rape and abuse were widespread and there weren't many people out there willing to help. Women back then didn't have many choices on how to live their lives. Racism was rampant. If you want to cook for your man, by all means, do it, but keep in mind that today you get to choose to do it, whereas women back then had no choice. And you also mentioned abortion, although, you weren't very clear about your position (not that you had to be), but you mention extreme feminism and abortion together. Do you mean that fighting for the right to choose and for women to have control over their own reproduction and bodies is an extreme form of feminism? You don't have to agree on whether or not to get an abortion. No feminist would tell you that. It's all about the freedom to choose and have control over one's body.

Men and women are very different? Perhaps, but differences that we see could be culturally and historically fabricated and based on myths, which is a whole other topic I could get into. Our differences shouldn't be used as reason to denounce feminism.

Here is why I am a feminist... I am a feminist because there are women in the world who have no freedom, who are forced into marriages at young ages, who are not allowed to learn to read, who are forced to have many babies and get no help in taking care of them, who are not allowed to work, who are not allowed to play sports, who are not allowed to vote, who are not allowed to work in government, who don't make as much money as a man for doing the same job, whose gentials are cut off just because she's a girl, who is killed just because she is a girl, who's raped and then charged with adultury....et cetera, et cetera, et cetera....

I can simplify the issue here and state that it is about choice and access to opportunity. If someone told you you couldn't do something just because you're a woman how would that make you feel? If it makes you feel bad, then you're a feminist. Don't be afraid to shout it!!

Jaime

ps... a really interesting book is called "Women's Inhumanity to Women" by Phyllis Chesler. I have it if you'd like to borrow it.

Hi Shannae-I wanted to thank-you for featuring the topic of feminism on your blog; I agree that you certainly hit a nerve in some of us enlightened folk, and I think it was a good thing.

To answer your question on whether or not I consider myself a feminist? No, absolutely not. I don't identify with the term and in no way have any connection to it. Why, might you ask? I feel that times have changed, and traditional paradigms or frameworks once used to describe women's rights no longer apply in the day and age. I would agree with the point you made around being aware of women's issues and women's rights, but that's as far as it goes for me. Yes, I'm aware that women still suffer the ills of injustice on the basis of their gender, but I find it hard to connect on this level because it's not my lived reality.

When it comes to Racial Discrimination on the other hand, I would definitely align myself with an Anti-racism type framework because my experiences are based on the lived reality of having experienced racial discrimination all my life. It's part of my identity and something that I still seem to struggle with on a daily basis-be it at work, when I'm out and about and in society in general. Sure, I may deal with challenges here and there on the basis of being a woman, but they don't compare to what I deal with on the basis of being a person of colour.

Cindy

I have to make sure that I understood what a feminist is. According to dictionary.com a feminist is - a supporter of feminism of or relating to or advocating equal rights for women;

Am I a feminist? Yes I am! I am lucky that I live in a country where women have equal rights (well for the most part, lets not get into equal pay), but I am cognisant that NOT all women around the world have the same rights.

I think that feminists are often associated with "bra burning", not wearing makeup or shaving one's legs, not liking men, and hence some women may want to disassociate themselves. But I think that we need to look at and understand feminism in its truest forms.

As a woman I advocate women having equal rights and equal treatement. I think Shannon put it well that being feminist is in your beliefs and attitudes, and it doesn't mean that you can't wear heels and be girly and like to cook dinner for your man (because you want to). I couldn't agree more.

As a feminist Jaime your comment kind of struck a nerve with me.

It is clear that women in the northern hemisphere need to reshape our understanding of feminism since the fight for equal rights is not as pertinent. With that being said it is understandable that many women are unsure if they are feminists as the term has lost urgency in its raw form plus the media has put such an ugly connotation on it.

People expect feminists to be quick to judge other women, to be mean and snobby. These are all of the things that I found your comment to be.

Feminists are supposed to uplift women, let's never forget that is the KEY goal.

AND REE I'm glad you understood my p.o.v.

p.s. this is a great paragraph:

I think that feminists are often associated with "bra burning", not wearing makeup or shaving one's legs, not liking men, and hence some women may want to disassociate themselves. But I think that we need to look at and understand feminism in its truest forms.

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