Why or why not?
And I’m intentionally not defining ‘feminist’ because, well, it means different things to different people. So, I’m curious what YOU consider yourself.
Poll to follow.
Yup, although more of the slacktivist version. I’ve never gone out and done anything “real.” I’ve just counseled many advice-seekers about feminist principles online, and have espoused feminist arguments when the stars align with my mood (not often anymore, I got tired of fighting that particular never-ending shitpile of ignorance).
I also don’t shave my legs, but am still willing to wear shorts in public. I dunno if that counts, though… it’s really more out of laziness than anything else.
Yeah. I’m not what others might conjure up when they hear that word. Maybe not even what the dictionary would say is a feminist. But I believe in gender equality (yep even drafting women if it came to that) and don’t think that my gender should hold me back or make me any different than anyone else, so I think that makes me a feminist.
Yes, but without some of the more ridiculous trappings associated with that word. I refuse to hate myself just because I was born a man. And I like girly girls.
What do you consider the more ridiculous trappings of feminism?
I am absolutely a feminist and I don’t see why one would believe that being a feminist would require hating one’s manhood or girly girls. The beauty of feminism is its freedom. I choose which boxes I exist in, if any, and respect others in their choices.
That men are despised, and that women need to emulate the most despicable aspects of masculinity.
That it’s not OK for men to be masculine and not OK for women to be feminine.
This was a major thing in the 90s. Thankfully, it seems to have mellowed out a lot since then. But things were pretty extreme for a while.
I can’t tell you how many times people have responded to my self identification as a feminist with something like, “But. . . you’re a girly girl. How can you be a feminist?” Sigh. Anyway, this is just an excuse to post one of my favorite feminist quotes from Naomi Wolf: “For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious–or whatever we please; we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution.”
And tdn, while I’ve certainly seen a very small “anti-man” minority amongst feminists (and I do mean small), I fear that what you’re describing is a huge part of the anti-feminist propaganda machine that’s been churning along quite well since the time of the suffragettes. “They want to wear pants, LIKE MEN!” ads decried. It’s because of that virtually nonexistent in the real world nonsense that many women today say, “I’m not a feminist, but–”
That’s a great quote.
I’m a woman, not a girly-girl, and I voted that I’m not a feminist. I think it’s a dated concept. I’m 51 years old and I can’t say that my gender has ever denied me any opportunities. There have been things in my life that I didn’t do, but I won’t say it’s because of my gender, mostly because of my personal lack of ambition. Even as a child in the '60’s, my parents treated we kids as equal, with my brother as likely to be told to do the dishes and me to help my father reset a toilet.
StG
I refuse to identify as a feminist because it means so many different things to different people, it’s just begging for somebody to assume things about your positions that you don’t intend. I do agree with some feminists the vast majority of the time, but then there are others who are either bonkers or have ideas I find deplorable. They’re all unambiguously feminists, so I just refuse to give myself the label because at this point it barely means anything. Even when you get into specifics like “rape culture”, I will often be a vocal opponent of the term and theory, but in truth there are some definitions of it I totally can get behind, and others that are just hilariously overblown.
And Fred Phelps apparently considers himself a democrat. He no more scares me off of classifying myself as a democrat than Dworkin puts me off of being a feminist. If we all give up on being called feminists because people think feminism=man-hating than all that’s left of feminism is the man hate.
I’m a woman, I’m 32, and I guess I feel post-feminist. Like I live in a world in which gender is 100% not an issue unless you’re dealing with the kind of people you’d rather not deal with anyway.
Having said that, I believe that on the whole men and women tend to think in different ways and be good at different things, but only in a statistical kind of way that means nothing about the individual. But it doesn’t occur to me that any opportunities should be formally different for the two.
I consider myself a feminist because there are topics that society considers ‘female issues’ that I feel super duper strongly about (abortion and slut shaming, for starters). So, even though people will misunderstand me often because of the fuzzy definitions of ‘feminism’, I will just go ahead and risk being misunderstood and accept the label.
That is a great quote by Wolf. Love that.
I’m a guy. I thought everything was worked out, feminist-wise.
I genuinely find it fascinating for folks-- especially women-- who think we live in a post-feminist society (in that feminism isn’t needed anymore). Several times in my carer, I’ve had clients flat out refuse to speak to me and say things like, “Honey, I need to speak to a MAN, ok?” I coach high school debate and my female students regularly get comments back on their ballots that say things like, “You’re so pretty! Why are you so argumentative?” or “It’s not very ladylike to be so argumentative.” Seriously. And yes, I lose those ballots before I give them to the girls. This happens multiple times a year. (And no, the boys’ ballots never say things even remotely in that same ball park about their looks, attitudes, or demeanors).
Granted, we all have our own experiences, so I’m not knocking anybody who has gotten through life without experiencing this stuff, it’s just interesting to me. And of course, as Nzinga, Seated mentions, that isn’t even touching on things like abortion (or even contraception) and slut-shaming.
No, but I do believe in gender equality. I don’t like being called a feminist because I don’t feel included as a man. And before anyone says that’s stupid there are plenty of women who don’t feel included when someone says mankind. I wouldn’t be offended if someone called me a feminist I’d just never use the word to describe myself.
See, I don’t have that problem because I’ve never thought of feminism being about bringing women ahead of me but bringing them forward to my level.
Edit: The idea of being pro-woman necessarily entailing being anti-man is as silly to me as saying “I like muffins” and being asked, “Why do you hate cupcakes so?”
I’m of the “I don’t call myself a feminist but I believe in equal rights for women” persuasion.
Some of it is that. But much of it is because the feminists themselves let the anti-male faction take control of the message for a long time. And personally I really doubt that it’s a “small minority”; and back around the 90s when feminism was loudest in this country as far as I can tell it was the majority by far. Certainly if there was a silent majority, it was very silent; even being pro-sex was wildly radical among feminists, much less regarding men as human. Feminism for quite some time in this country was about hatred; especially of men, but of women too in many ways. I recall an international feminist convention at the time where the Russian delegation collectively stormed out calling the American feminists “Stalinists”, which was a fair comparison.
I think expecting to be treated like anybody else shouldn’t be an “-ism” but basic human rights.