What’s a feminist? Recently this has become the subject of much confusion, debate and importance in our society. I hear this debate all the time. What constitutes a feminist? Do you have to be a man-hating militant to be a feminist? Does simply the belief that as a woman you should be in control of your own life and your own future and as such have equal opportunity as men make you a feminist?
If that’s the case, why has feminism become a dirty word? Much of what we know of what feminism is and what shapes our opinions on it comes from the media, so let’s look at what some currently relevant cultural icons have to say about the topic.
Strictly speaking, feminism is defined as “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” Doesn’t sound too scary does it? I think most women would be offended today if someone told them they couldn’t do something, just because they were a woman. I mean, this is the 21st century, we’re supposed to be past that right? Why then has “feminist” become such a loaded, controversial and largely misunderstood term?
Unfortunately the stereotype of a feminist is a misleading one, often depicting a radical and angry female misandrist walking around naked and taking irrational offense to anything a man might say to them. As a result, many women find themselves prefacing statements about their desire for equality with the phrase “I’m not a feminist, but…” just like Katy Perry did when accepting Billboard’s Woman of the Year award last year.
While some public figures have (perhaps unwittingly) maintained this stereotype through comments such as this one, many others have utilized their celebrity as a tool to combat this misconception. For example, in a recent interview with The Observer, Louise Brealey, a British actress, was quoted saying “Seriously, though, I’d like every man who doesn’t call himself a feminist to explain to the women in his life why he doesn’t believe in equality for women.”
On the other side of things are people like Carla Bruni who claimed in an interview for Vogue in September that “We don’t need feminism in my generation…I’m not at all a feminist…I love family life” insinuating that to be a feminist you cannot love family life, an insinuation that I don’t buy into.
Check out the photo gallery to see what some other contemporary icons have said regarding feminism!
[via Flavorwire]
What’s your stance, Lovelies? Is feminism still an important aspect of our society? What do you think about celebrities speaking out about it?
Photo Source, Photo Source, Photo Source, Photo Source, Photo Source, Photo Source
guest
The way I see it is that feminists are all about female superiority and oppressing men. I’m all for equal rights, but this misandry BS has got to go. Seriously.
The way I see it, in the modern, developed world, women are the PRIVILEGED gender. Laws in a lot of developed countries say each employer has to have a minimum percentage of employees that are female, making it to where less-qualified female candidates are more likely to get hired than more-qualified male candidates. Women almost always win child custody battles, even when she’s in the wrong. Women pay half the auto insurance premium that men do in the US. Female offenders almost always get lighter sentences than male offenders, and are all but immune from sentences such as capital punishment and corporal punishment. Only men are eligible for conscription in countries where conscription is practiced. Further, the whole “gender pay gap” is a load of crap when you dig deeper and realize the true cause.
I highly suggest the book The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys by David Benatar. As mentioned, I’m all for equality, I’m not for special treatment.
sunflower / 264 posts
I think part of the problem is that there have been many different movements, even different sects of feminism, all with different sets of emphases. I would consider myself of the same mindset as some feminists from the late 19th century to around the 70s. I think we should have equal pay (depending on position and experience, of course), and equal political rights (the right to vote, the right to higher education, the right to own property/live independently). But many very passionate feminists went beyond that. They thought that marriage was a pervasive plot to keep women out of the workplace, they thought that women shouldn’t be expected to be mothers of their own children in any traditional sense, they thought that any traditional role of a woman was bad and shouldn’t be engaged in at all. These beliefs weren’t based on fact, so much as emotional, reactionary extremism. At least in my view.
I know there are many feminists who don’t hold those extreme beliefs–but there were also many who did, and still do. That is where, I think, the negative slant on the word comes from.
Also, what @secretbeerreporter@xanga said–they sometimes come off as hating and not caring for men at all. Not all, but some.
daffodil / 1615 posts
I agree with @Jenny_Wren@xanga . There have been many different feminist movements and there are still different sects of feminism, each with their own idea of what feminism is. I’m all for a variety of perspectives, but I do feel that people have associated the word “feminism” with the more extreme stereotypical bra-burning, man-hating feminists, and I think that association needs to change.
There are plenty of feminists who think that wearing makeup and having a family is perfectly fine, and then there are others who believe that women should not engage in stereotypical gender roles and wear pink and all that. There’s nothing wrong with what they believe in. We might not agree with those beliefs but it doesn’t make them wrong.
guest
I think the problem with feminism is the word is an umbrella term for many different things. Unfortunately the most vocal people that call themselves feminist are people that use the terms sexism and misogyny flippantly to describe any and everything “negative” that men do. Personal experience, nothing like walking into a meeting for the National Organization of Women to be greeted by a bunch of women saying what amounted to it was sexual harassment when gross men said good morning to them. Then you have the others, the misandrist who think that men are the root of everything evil and excuse the behavior of women as a reaction to men. Personal experience, I knew this woman who could not wrap her mind around the idea that her thinking that I should look, act, think the way she did, and that her objectification of my sexuality (she thought she could get me to switch teams) was just as misogynistic as any man having the same thoughts. Yes, there is an in between but it isn’t nearly as vocal or entertainingly media friendly as histrionics and man hating.
“Feminist” can’t agree on what the issues are which is another post entirely. However, the biggest issue plaguing feminism is the fact that the vocal feminist can point out the faults of men without accepting the fact that women have flaws as well.
guest
Well, since men have been the superior, oppressive gender since the dawn of humanity, it’s only fair if women get to run the show for the next few million years until we even up the score. Then we can talk about equality.
guest
@Syaoransbear@xanga - Why stop there? Let’s let black people own white slaves while we’re at it. It was after all the whites who discriminated against the blacks in that regard. Better yet, let’s ban straight marriage while only recognizing gay marriage too!
Hey, I’m just following the natural conclusions of your line of thinking.
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - Funny, your arguments sound strangely like the arguments anti-gay folks make for why gays shouldn’t have basic protections like not being discriminated against when it comes to hiring and buying a home. They claim them as “special rights” when actually banning discrimination against someone based on their sexual orientation would protect straight people just as much as it does gay/lesbian/bisexual people since you know…heterosexuality is also a sexual orientation. But some people seem to forget that.
guest
@ninetailedevee@xanga - Well, to be clear: I’m against protected classes of any sort. I feel businesses and individuals should be allowed to openly discriminate against anyone for whatever reason: sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, political affiliation, young, old, married, single, eye color, hair color, whatever. The notion of protected classes goes directly against the concept of capitalism.
Now, is discriminating against these classes of people bad business practice? Probably so, but in a capitalistic system, you become the victim of your bad business practice and it will hurt you and maybe even cost you your business, but it is your right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, as far as I’m concerned.
Now, in the court of law, obviously offenders should be treated equally, and in the case of legal partnerships (i.e. marriages) there should be equal protections afforded to gay and straight couples. But that’s government/law, not individual entities.
Alas, you missed the point. Not only is it illegal to discriminate based on sex, employers have to have at the bare minimum a certain percentage of female employees or they face government sanctions. Yes, that means if someone quits and all of a sudden they don’t have enough female employees to meet this quota, they must hire a female and the male applicants get screwed. That’s “Affirmative Action” for you and it’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard of in my life.
guest
I hope you all know that misandry isn’t an actual thing……………men just have it soooo hard in today’s society……
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - you do realize men have been getting special treatment the whole time before women started pushing for their rights? oh but you’re not for special treatment okay
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - Oh my, you thought I was serious. I was making a joke that clearly went zipping over your head.
guest
Being a feminist has nothing to do with suppressing men and having over powering females. Being a feminist means that if you’re barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen every day, you’re there by your own damn choice, not by societies standards. Being a feminist means you have the choice to wear makeup or not, shave your pits or not, cut your hair short or not. Choices, people. Freedom of choice. Equal rights. Not more rights. We need feminism because you can’t say “vagina” in the white house but a man walking down the street can say “I want that pussy” to me. We need feminism because men still don’t take NO for an answer. We need feminism because women are still treated lesser than, or like property. Women are still expected to sit down and shut up. We need feminism because men legitimately think its ok to ask for a sandwich after sex. We need feminism because we are still dominated by men. We need feminism because we don’t get respect. Its not about being fucking better, its the crazy man-hating extremist that give men a bad name.
whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com
Do your fucking research on what feminism really is and take a look at the damn world around you before you blindly decide we don’t need feminism.l
guest
I actually remember when I was 16 and I first learnt about feminism I would go around school declaring myself a feminist and I think in a sense I still am.
Of course there are many types of feminists, but for me it means the choice not to have to be the way that society has decided women have to be like for the past so-and-so years.For instance, I totally dislike it when, at a wedding, people insinuate to me and to my boyfriend that we should want to get married. Or the infamous ‘when you have children, you will understand’ like it’s a fact that I will?In this sense I am a feminist, it’s just as stereotypical to asume that certain races have certain traits just as much as it is to asume that all women want to get married and pop out babies.
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - You know what I’d like? Equally rights, not equal laws. Learn the difference.
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - Oh yeah, I totally agree! Right now men make:
80% of all US Senators
82% of all US representatives
90% of all US state governors
94% of all world leaders.
95.8% of all Fortune 500 CEOs
100% of all US presidents, past and present.
Yeah, freakin’ women, stealing all the jobs from men!!! I mean, men make 49.8% of the US population but only 90% of them hold governorships????? Sacrilege! It should 99% plus Sarah Palin ’cause she’s kinda hot.
(snark!)
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - don’t forget the book ‘save the males’ by Kathleen Parker, that book discussed the coined term “misandry’ as well. Although it’s a bad slur which I don’t care for.
You should know better, you’re added onto my site and my stie is titled ‘feminist’.and I out right call myself one. I have and equal half males working for me and none of them see me as having a superiority complex over males or seeing it as a female hierarchy or me trying to oppress males
guest
@phoebester@xanga - Here’s a quote that I find true: “There is no good or evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” I think this holds true in those figures you’re spouting off. Men are the power seekers. We are more aggressive, more combative, etc.. I can promise you if women would grow spines, more of them would run for office than do (the only reason there are more male than female politicians is far more men announce their candidacy), go after the really big jobs, etc. they’d get them. You all are keeping yourselves down by not striving for that power. Don’t blame us.
@colorMEpurple2@xanga - No, I’m not for special treatment. Quite frankly, if a business wants to refuse service to me because I’m male, not hire me because I’m male, whatever, I think that’s perfectly alright. It is her business and it is her right to refuse to serve me or hire me. As I said, it’s terrible business practice, but it would be her right as a business owner, I think.
@Ellelarien@xanga - I said I’m all for equal rights. Why does that need to be legislated? If there were no “protected classes” I could just as easily get discriminated against for being male as you could for being female. That’s equality in the true capitalistic way.
guest
Feminists simply believe that women should have all the same rights, opportunities, and legal protections of men. If someone considers equality “oppression” maybe they should spend more time studying the gender gap and rape culture.
guest
I hate (almost universally) all of those women I’ve met who are self-proclaimed feminists. Which, I’ve had it pointed out to me, is a bit funny seeing that I am a woman engineer thus am in the perfect place to advocate feminism.
The irony is that I did not choose engineering to prove a point, make a statement about women power, or show men in my field that I am as strong a sex as they are– I chose engineering because it matched my personality, was appropriately challenging enough, and I like it. As I understand the definition of feminism, the fact that I always saw myself as equals to my peers and colleges who happened to be male, makes me a feminist…
But I still hate self-proclaimed feminists.
I think I have a problem with people who say the fault is the system. And I hate it more when those who say they want to be treated equally, actually mean they want to be treated better because of the way they are born.
At least in my area, I think that the most poorly treated minority is the white male. I feel bad for their challenges in this hyper ‘class and race conscious’ trend.
tulip / 17 posts
@phoebester@xanga - Nobody is keeping you from becoming any one of those. So all those percentages (if they’re even accurate) that you so diligently listed, are pointless. But nice try though.
tulip / 17 posts
When I read this, this video came to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsghfxYq7DU
Best line: Any job you can do in your pajamas, IS NOT A DIFFICULT JOB!
guest
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - Aaaaaah….. the “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” argument.
If women held the majority of powerful positions in the world, the whine would be: “See?? SEE??? Affirmative Action is keeping men down! Women don’t deserve those jobs! JUSTICE FOR MEN NOW!!!” (*sulk* *stomp off* *open can of beer in front of “Fox News”*)
If women held the minority of powerful positions in the world, the smug retort would be: “Well, y’all are just spineless, eager-to-please, evolutionarily-disadvantaged, egg sacks who are genetically destined to be below us men.” (*smirk,* *hitch up pants* *open can of beer in front of “Fox News”*)
Look dude (I’m guessing you’re a dude), either you’re a down-trodden victim of Affirmative Action or a Tom Wolfe-style Master of the Universe. Can’t be both. Sorry.
guest
“walking around naked”…well, as I am for all humans being treated equally and with respect and believe that the idea of having to dress in a certain way does more harm than good, I think walking around naked or partially naked in the name of protest is not a crazy idea.
While it is legal to show everything but one’s vagina or penis in many countries, people who dress more revealingly than most others, are often subject of mockery and false judgement. That especially applies to women (“sluts”), and other than that it applies to everyone who is ugly (especillly obese). I think the best way to fight this is totally taking away the idea that (partial) nudity equals sexual intention …that there is something naughty about our bodies just being bodies. Which doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate clothes.
I wouldn’t do it (undress publicly) but I appreciate when others fight for more tolerance.
I think the only definite mistake feminists can make is accusing and blaming men in general for women’s problems- as if they all wanted them and other women didn’t contribute to them. (The same can be said about those who fight for mens rights and assume a feminist conspiracy behind everything.) Even though I’d hope that these days it’s not so popular anymore. It’s always society in general if you ask me.
That said, all in all, I pretty much agree with this text. It’s similiar to being vegan/vegetarian in one way… there are a few vegetarians who yell “murderer” at everyone who eats meat, so I am often forced to explain I am not one of
those
vegetarians *sigh*.
guest
@phoebester@xanga - The point being is that nothing or nobody is stopping you from being a business CEO, a politician, or any other of a number of other traditionally male-dominated fields. NOBODY AT ALL. Who am I to try to stop you? That said, if I’m way more qualified than you for a job we’re both applying for, and you get the job because of Affirmative Action, that is in no way fair to me. Affirmative Action is nothing more than legislation-based discrimination against men and white people (I say legislation-based because that’s different from individual/businessowner discrimination which is perfectly fine as far as I’m concerned, see clarification below). There is no other way around that.
Also, it’s obvious to me that you have the reading skills of a third-grader, because I said I support equal rights for both genders, but that I don’t think there should be any legal protections for any subgroup of human beings. I don’t believe in protected classes at all. If you want to open a business that caters only to/serves only/hires only white, single, lesbian, atheist, childfree, non-smoking, politically liberal females with brown hair and blue eyes by all means I think that should be your right. Is that terrible business practice? Of course, because I described maybe one-tenth of one percent of the world population that fit all those criteria, but I would still support your right to open and run such a business. There’s no need for laws against discrimination in the workplace, employers who discriminate will soon be out of business due to nobody patronizing that business because of their discriminatory practices. That’s just Capitalism 101 for you.
Oh, I forgot, you liberal types love Socialism, so of course you would be against that. By all means, carry on with your government regulation of businesses and businessowners, then.
guest
When I was 16 my sociology teacher started a lesson by asking who was a feminist and I was the only student (in a male and female class) to raise my hand. That’s why we fucking need feminism.
And it needs to be made clear that men can be and should be feminists too
guest
@greasy_heart@xanga - the biggest feminists I have ever met have been male. One was a professor and the other is a gay male activist. I’ve always thought that was interesting.
Oh and I would have raised my hand, too. Good for you!
guest
@dontcry_gethigh@xanga - wow…that tumblr site. thanks for sharing
guest
It really frustrates that so many people think feminism is about hating or being superior to men. It’s not. Women who want superiority over men are not feminists. Feminists believe in EQUALITY.
Generally, based on my experience, modern-day feminists want:
-equal pay for equal work
-equal status in society
-non misogynistic representation in the media
-freedom to express their sexuality
-freedom to express their perspectives
-freedom to pursue any career goal, whether or not it is deemed masculine
-recognition that they have equal potential
-recognition that they are more than just wives and mothers, don’t have to be wives and mothers at all, but should be valued in their roles as wives and mothers if they choose those roles
-the right to choose
-the right to receive healthcare
And liberal feminism is not just concerned with women as a whole. It is concerned with the lives of all types of women….poor women, single mothers, married women, lesbians, transgendered women, minority women, etc.
Feminism today is aboutsocial justice.
.
It has nothing to do with hating men.