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

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.

Then there's the march of social progression in which the members of various 'isms recognized that their individual group battles shared the same characteristics, goals and purpose: equality with default norm (white men). The battle for an egalitarian society conflicts with our hierarchical nature, but it's the same battle for everyone, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, color, creed, age, ability, sexuality, etc. Of course, everyone must choose their own battle in regard to their mental resources - you can't do everything. Personally, I have a hard time picking just one to support, when they are all the same thing. I like to keep my feminism in context as a minor component of the search for social equality.

Re: Feminism

[madthinker12357]

Great post. Very thoughtful.

Re: Feminism

[kkglinka]

Thanks.