Feminism.
My girlfriend Sarah considers herself a feminist. ...she also finds herself in a lot of arguments with other people who use the term. I asked her to explain her definition to me in an email exchange we were having, and once I read it...well. I was damn impressed, and wanted to share it. Copied and pasted direct from the source, kids.
There are waves of feminism - literally. First wave, second wave, third wave. If you ask a million different people, you're liable to get a million different definitions of what feminism is. I'm going to tell you mine, but I'll tell you first what I don't think it is. Feminism is not gender-exclusive. it is not about male-bashing. Nor is it about ignoring the faults and flaws of females. It is not designed to bring harm to others. Feminism does not stem from hate. For feminism to stem from hate would undo what I believe the core of feminism is; what feminism seeks to subvert stems from hate. You do not have to be a woman to be a feminist any more than you must be a whale to be a marine biologist.
...people pick on lots of different things in the name of feminism. And most people correlate feminism with protecting and defending, or demanding, the equal rights and treatment of women. To a degree that's true. To be feminine is to be Other. To be feminine is, often, to be suppressed/oppressed/repressed. But this is not a condition exclusive to women. The same structures that oppress females - structures of patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and heterosexism - seek to suppress others: people who are queer, people of color. These same structures are at work in the genocides of Darfur, in cultures that allow bride-burning and female circumcision, in cultures that condone violence against transpeople. To be feminist is to represent women, but in representing women it is also to represent the Other. Feminism has a responsibility to that. If you are going to undermine these power structures that oppress women, you are going to have to undermine the whole damn thing that's been repressing the African American gay guy, the Native American transman, the Iraqi girl-child. It worries me that some feminists have I think lost sight of that, that feminism has a responsibility and an involvement in these other issues that cannot be untangled. If you just try to undermine the system that's oppressing women, it's like snatching a weed out of the ground's surface; the problem goes away for a while, but the undercurrent of roots is still there, and another weed'll pop up eventually. You have to dig the whole fucker out of the ground.
Feminism isn't about glorifying women at the expense of everything else. To me feminism should be about identifying the power structures that cause this oppression wherever they are, and then fighting them however you can in whatever ways you can. And to a smaller degree, for me - as a woman - feminism is about glorying in who you are. As a female, I revel in what I am and what I have and how fucking empowered I can be, that I am something mysterious and eternal and beautiful, part of a living sisterhood. Anyone who identifies as female can get behind that, and I think even those who don't identify as female can damn well appreciate what it is to love oneself for one's unique strengths, abilities, and beauties.
The people who have transformed feminism into male-bashing, into an endless series of arguments about who should enter a building first, about how liberating the women needs to come before liberating the queers, have missed out on the depth and breadth and beauty that feminism as a whole can have. They run the risk of losing the power of the movement - because what feminism is, I think, in its purest form, is sheer empowerment and a path to change.
...I can read something like that, and then look at this tiny powerhouse of a woman curled up under my covers breathing deeply while she sleeps, with one hand resting on my pillow, and think fucking hell, what an amazing creature.
I am starting to understand what it is to be blessed.
There are waves of feminism - literally. First wave, second wave, third wave. If you ask a million different people, you're liable to get a million different definitions of what feminism is. I'm going to tell you mine, but I'll tell you first what I don't think it is. Feminism is not gender-exclusive. it is not about male-bashing. Nor is it about ignoring the faults and flaws of females. It is not designed to bring harm to others. Feminism does not stem from hate. For feminism to stem from hate would undo what I believe the core of feminism is; what feminism seeks to subvert stems from hate. You do not have to be a woman to be a feminist any more than you must be a whale to be a marine biologist.
...people pick on lots of different things in the name of feminism. And most people correlate feminism with protecting and defending, or demanding, the equal rights and treatment of women. To a degree that's true. To be feminine is to be Other. To be feminine is, often, to be suppressed/oppressed/repressed. But this is not a condition exclusive to women. The same structures that oppress females - structures of patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and heterosexism - seek to suppress others: people who are queer, people of color. These same structures are at work in the genocides of Darfur, in cultures that allow bride-burning and female circumcision, in cultures that condone violence against transpeople. To be feminist is to represent women, but in representing women it is also to represent the Other. Feminism has a responsibility to that. If you are going to undermine these power structures that oppress women, you are going to have to undermine the whole damn thing that's been repressing the African American gay guy, the Native American transman, the Iraqi girl-child. It worries me that some feminists have I think lost sight of that, that feminism has a responsibility and an involvement in these other issues that cannot be untangled. If you just try to undermine the system that's oppressing women, it's like snatching a weed out of the ground's surface; the problem goes away for a while, but the undercurrent of roots is still there, and another weed'll pop up eventually. You have to dig the whole fucker out of the ground.
Feminism isn't about glorifying women at the expense of everything else. To me feminism should be about identifying the power structures that cause this oppression wherever they are, and then fighting them however you can in whatever ways you can. And to a smaller degree, for me - as a woman - feminism is about glorying in who you are. As a female, I revel in what I am and what I have and how fucking empowered I can be, that I am something mysterious and eternal and beautiful, part of a living sisterhood. Anyone who identifies as female can get behind that, and I think even those who don't identify as female can damn well appreciate what it is to love oneself for one's unique strengths, abilities, and beauties.
The people who have transformed feminism into male-bashing, into an endless series of arguments about who should enter a building first, about how liberating the women needs to come before liberating the queers, have missed out on the depth and breadth and beauty that feminism as a whole can have. They run the risk of losing the power of the movement - because what feminism is, I think, in its purest form, is sheer empowerment and a path to change.
...I can read something like that, and then look at this tiny powerhouse of a woman curled up under my covers breathing deeply while she sleeps, with one hand resting on my pillow, and think fucking hell, what an amazing creature.
I am starting to understand what it is to be blessed.