A Square is a Rectangle but the Reverse Not Always

[kkglinka]

I totally understand the confusion that can occur when one uses "feminism" (equal civil rights to a default social norm, for a specific group that is not the default) to mean "civil rights" (for everyone). Semantics and linguistic shifts are like that. To call oneself a feminist when one believes in larger scale equal rights, ascribes to a

Comments

[kae]

It gets even more interesting when you consider that the mainstream, "common sense" definition of feminism would more accurately be called radical feminism. Hence, women who say "I believe that women are equal and should have the same rights as men, but I'm not a feminist."

I have seen that argument in the past, though. It's pretty typical of ecofeminism, which claims that all forms of exploitation and oppression are linked, including the abuse of environmental resources.

Re: Feminism

[kkglinka]

It's exactly what I am taking into account. Having studied enough linguistics to know that words are ultimately defined by social use, not the dictionary, it matters. If I say feminist and a person hears: histrionic, sexist who believes every single little thing boils down to subconscious sexism, has a massive inferiority complex, believes women are inherently better than men, that reverse-sexism is justifiable, oh, and hates men, then I'm not a feminist. It's not fair but that's how language works. An individual or group generally can't make words mean what they want, outside of local jargon

Re: Feminism

[madthinker12357]

Great post. Very thoughtful.

Re: Feminism

[kkglinka]

Thanks.