From the inimitable ginmar

[moonborn]

Because sometimes stupid shit that people toss about in LJ communities pisses me off.

...I'm not a feminist, but....

Fine. Gimme your birth control, your vote, and your independance. Free ride stops now.

Comments

[honeysuckle_raw]

It's really depressing that "feminist" is considered a bad thing to be these days. It's even more depressing when it's women who consider it bad because god forbid the all-important straight men think they might be a hairy ugly dyke!

IMO, the people who are "afraid" of being stereotyped and reject the "label" are just as bad as the moralists who invented the hyperbole of the raging, baby-killing, man-hating feminist in order to negate feminism's message. I think it's always better to have a discussion about the ideas than it is to out-right say you are not for women having equal rights (which is, technically, what saying "I'm not a feminist" is).

[honeysuckle_raw]

I'm not saying man-hating feminists don't exist. But their existence is hugely exaggerrated, and pointing to them as reasons you don't want to be linked to feminism is cowardly, imo (and it also demeans those hairy butch lesbians, whether or not that's your intention, whose opinions and lifestyles are just as valid as the "pretty" feminists

[honeysuckle_raw]

I guess I just don't understand the big fear here, or what exactly you're afraid of being "labeled" as. Feminists can be fat, skinny, tall, short, gay, straight, male, female, black, white, brown. The ONLY ideology feminism prescribes is support of women's equality. I don't even understand why you think it's a "label" to begin with, because the only people who ever tried to characterize feminism were people trying to hurt it.

Popular culture has obviously succeeded in pitting women against feminists, which is great for patriarchy. If we can't even agree on terminology, what could we possibly accomplish? I don't know what should be done about that, but I don't think the solution is to be afraid of the word "feminist" and all the stereotypes designed to make us afraid of it.