I'm no feminist, but...

Okay, I've gotten about halfway through reading all the posts from last night, and I HAVE to jump in here in my own defense.

I was NOT saying I'm "not a feminist" because I, personally, associate anything negative at all with being a feminist. That's not how I feel and that's not the direction I was going in. Maybe I did have in my head a negative connotation that I was trying to circumvent--that feminists (like any other political "radical") can and will find issue where an average person would see none. I'm not saying I believe that--I'm saying other people do (and you cannot argue with that).

The point I was trying to make was that ANY PERSON (without labeling what type of person s/he is or what political beliefs s/he does or does not subscribe to) should be taken aback by that commercial.

I did not want to frame my argument under the banner of any "cause," (which is inadvertantly exactly what I did) but rather wanted to demonstrate that that commercial is objectively a universal offense.

I don't call myself a feminist, a punk, a liberal, a straight, a democrat, or any other label. I don't see the world in black-and-white, are or aren't. The only label I'm *actually* comfortable with is nerd. :)

Feminist is not a dirty word. But neither is non-feminist.

Posted at 10:03am Apr 17, 2007 EDT

What was that quote from the Breakfast Club? something about we are all the freak, the jock, the brain, the princess and the delinquent???

Posted at 10:05am Apr 17, 2007 EDT

CubistLiterature says:
Just the gender-based viewpoint is what I'm talking about.
I suppose I thinking of myself as something beyond feminism.

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I'm glad someone could finally say what I couldn't find the words to say.

For me, I don't want to move toward the advancement of women. I want to move toward the advancement of ALL PEOPLE. The feminist movement will help this, as will so many other movements, but it is not the only answer.

Posted at 10:10am Apr 17, 2007 EDT

Feminism by defination is the advocacy of equal rights for men and women. Most women and a whole lot of men are feminists.

In the reacent years there has been an upsurgance in fundermentailist feminism - the people that put posters of full term still births on billboards and inncorrectly lable them the horrors of miscarriage. People that spit in the faces of men that hold the door for them. People that are so highly strung in the throngs of misandry that they fail to demonstrat common human curesty to other humans. These people are male and female aslo.

Just like baptists generally have no desire to be associated with fundermentalist baptist groups like Rev Phelps, feminists have no desire to be associated with the people I described above.

Although the people described above claim the word feminist, they are not. They do not wish for equal rights. Or if they do, there actions do not support demonstrating their desire for this cause.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is stand up and show the world what is right and true when a misconception about a beliefe has been layed down.

I Am A Feminist.

Posted at 10:11am Apr 17, 2007 EDT

I think labeling feminism as some kind of political movement invalidates it. The fundamental principles may have been used in political movements at important times, but I don't believe that's all it is.

And honestly, I really don't think we need dozens of books and college lectures academically pondering the meaning of feminism. sure, it's an interesting read, but what does it really accomplish to clinically apply labels from a intellectually detached position: do-me feminism, post-modern feminism, traditional feminism, militant feminism. That's just dissecting the idea of basic human rights to factions that can be easily argued against and dismissed.

The variances in how people define feminism aren't due to some academic soci-political classifications. They exist because people themselves vary. Yeah, individuals are different and have different views. Crazy, I know. ;) As a result, how they apply feminism in their life varies.

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"Feminist is not a dirty word. But neither is non-feminist."

I respect what you're saying about having a problem with the vocabulary. My struggle there is that I just honestly don't understand how any woman could not be a feminist. (I won't say "non-feminist" because I think that creates an us/them, "anti" vibe that isn't beneficial.) I truly can't understand how a woman or girl can wake up in the morning and say "I embrace sexism. I want others to limit me based on my genitalia. I want my goals, abilities, views, expression and appearance to be restricted and diminished based on my gender. If I'm abused it's because I deserved it. YAY! let's get the day started".

It's just completely beyond my comprehension how someone cannot embrace the broad idea of self-respect and personal freedom just because it's called feminism.

Posted at 2:57pm Apr 17, 2007 EDT

laundry commercials are bunk. the whole lot.

there's one that plays around here, with a mother and she's washing her son's sport jersey and the background is playing this smooth r'n'b type song and it goes "baby boy is now a maaaaaaaan".
it's the worst. it seriously cracks my shit up, trying to be all super emotional.

Posted at 3:16pm Apr 17, 2007 EDT

Beta-- I was saying that the media promotes the perspective that feminism lacks legitimacy through constantly questioning or expressing surprise at its strength as a movement. And not because it is not a powerful and threatening force, but precisely because of that. It's like when the media downplays racism and then polls find a majority of whites think the racism is a thing of the past. And so women and men alike are afraid to identify themselves as feminists even while most of them would support its most basic aims.

Personally, I think focusing on semantics does all of us a disservice. Maybe we cannot all agree on the specifics of what feminism means but most of us can understand the fundamentals-- equality is a pretty simple concept. Semantic arguments muddy the water while claiming to seek clarity-- in the end it only serves to help divide and conquer. Feminism is the name that the movement was given at the start. Trying to redefine it now, I think, only adds to this notion that it is not a legitimate movement.

Posted at 10:28pm Apr 17, 2007 EDT

I'm a feminist, and I'm mad crazy about my boyfriend. I can't do laundry, though, and I don't shave my legs. I'm also 17 fucking years old, why the hell should I shave my damn legs? Like ANYONE'S going to notice (no one has, I usually have to point it out.)

However, hate to tell ya, but you sound like a feminist. And it's not a bad thing. My boyfriend's a feminist, but he uses the word "Egalitarian" instead. Guess what? THEY MEAN THE SAME THING. Feminism just means wanting women to have the same opportunities as men - nobody gets shafted, nobody's ahead of anyone else. Pushing feminism into the "Bad" word section is just giving into the world's misogynistic bs which is attempting to keep women at each other's throats and prevent them from making actual GAINS for themselves.

One ad I hate: that stupd hair dye add in which a blonde and a brunette each talk about why their hair color is better, and then two (unrealistically thin and simulatenously voluptuous) cartoon girls catfight and aim blowdryers at each other like guns. Um. Last time I checked, judging your fellow woman based on her haircolor was a bitchy, catty, silly thing to do, that intelligent and accomplished women had absolutely no need for. Women chauvenists? Great ... yet another obstacle for women who want EVERYONE to be happy.

Posted at 12:57am Apr 18, 2007 EDT