alt friday 5

[serene]

From the altfriday5:

1. What is your personal idea of what "a feminist" or "feminism" is?

A feminist believes that women are equal to men and should receive the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as men. (But because the word has a weird history and political spin, I would also say that a person can match my definition of "feminist" and not identify as one.)

2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

Yes. Because I believe that women are equal to men and should receive the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as men.

3. Do you believe that men can be feminists? Why or why not?

I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, since feminism is an idea (or set of ideas), of *course*, why *couldn't* a man be a feminist. On the other hand, I am suspicious of men who call themselves feminists, because there's so much else going on around that word that people have some (what I'd call) strange ideas about what it means, and I've found that some men call themselves feminists without a real idea of the value of women or the meaning of what I call feminism. On the third hand, I've met women with the same strange ideas. I will say that the men I respect most around issues of gender politics call themselves "pro-feminist", because they see the difficulty and the potential for co-opting in being a male feminist.

4. What, in your personal view, are the good things that feminism has inspired in the world, if any?

I don't have enough pixels to list them, but if you're a woman and have a job, or your own bank account, your own property, or the right to choose when to have a baby or not, thank a feminist.

5. What, in your personal view, are the bad things that feminism has inspired in the world, if any?

I think every "ism" has the potential for division, feminism not excepted.



The Questioner says: Don't forget your links!

Comments

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

Re: question #3 - you really nailed it! I have the same two minds on it. (Does that mean that four great minds are thinking alike?) Maybe a man can be a feminist in the same way that a white person can be anti-racist. But I think the two terms have very different histories, where feminism is generally thought of as belonging to women, but anti-racism belongs to everyone. I don't think that difference is innate to the words, but it seems to have fallen out that way in our culture.

I like the idea of men calling themselves "pro-feminist" - it underscores the idea that they consider themselves allies to women. That term doesn't mask the realith that there are some differences between men and women in the struggle for women's rights.

I've seen situations where men get angry about not being invited into women-only space, and whine that because they're feminists, they should be included. Which is so self-contradictory as to be mind-boggling, at least in my definition of feminist, which includes the understanding of why women as an oppressed group need to be just with each other.

The Questioner says: Don't forget your links!

I don't understand this reference - is there something I'm supposed to do here? :)