So What DOES a Feminist Look Like?
It's late and I'm tired so I'll have to keep this short.
I read an article in the National Post today about the current shape of feminism. The picture with the article shows an average looking, non-descript, nothing odd about her, woman wearing a t-shirt that says, "This is what a feminist looks like". Cool, I thought, we're shaking the stigma of feminists looking like weird, awkward, women in comfortable shoes. The article (which is reporting on an academic paper being presented at a conference in Saskatoon this week) states, '''Its message to burgeoning feminists? "It's not about not shaving your legs, staging protests, man-hating, becoming a lesbian, or boycotting anything and everything 'feminine.'" The author of the report states that the models being used in the campaign for the shirts, "excludes the 'man-hating, hairy, angry queer,' one of the most 'political and passionate demographics of the feminist community,' the 'devout feminist' she insists has been discarded as a negative stereotype.'''
So this is where my head hurts. I saw the t-shirt as including the non-man-hating, non-hairy, fashion-conscious feminist. So am I still only a feminist if I ditch my husband and stop shaving my legs? (Ok, I rarely shave them anyways, but that's just because I can't reach them right now.) If I lose weight, does that mean I can't be a feminist anymore? The most radical feminist I know dyes her hair and is a fashionista-goddess. Where does that leave her? Out in the cold? Not welcome anymore? I don't think she'd stand for that one at all.
Why does it all have to be one or the other? Why can't skinny girls, fat girls, married girls, straight girls, lesbian girls, fashionable girls, ugly girls, and all their varied opposites all be feminists? It makes me a bit upset to see a feminist author taking the main-streaming of the movement and painting it as a bad thing. Isn't this what we should want? To see feminism be widely accepted and acceptable? My gorgeous radical feminist/fashionista was recently commenting on how the pagan community likes to build people up but tear them down when they become too successful. Well I believe that this is the feminist community doing the same thing. "Well, if pretty girls are in on feminism then that must mean that lesbians aren't welcome anymore." I just don't see why one should automatically exclude the other.
And besides, none of my lesbian friends hate men anyway. So there!
I read an article in the National Post today about the current shape of feminism. The picture with the article shows an average looking, non-descript, nothing odd about her, woman wearing a t-shirt that says, "This is what a feminist looks like". Cool, I thought, we're shaking the stigma of feminists looking like weird, awkward, women in comfortable shoes. The article (which is reporting on an academic paper being presented at a conference in Saskatoon this week) states, '''Its message to burgeoning feminists? "It's not about not shaving your legs, staging protests, man-hating, becoming a lesbian, or boycotting anything and everything 'feminine.'" The author of the report states that the models being used in the campaign for the shirts, "excludes the 'man-hating, hairy, angry queer,' one of the most 'political and passionate demographics of the feminist community,' the 'devout feminist' she insists has been discarded as a negative stereotype.'''
So this is where my head hurts. I saw the t-shirt as including the non-man-hating, non-hairy, fashion-conscious feminist. So am I still only a feminist if I ditch my husband and stop shaving my legs? (Ok, I rarely shave them anyways, but that's just because I can't reach them right now.) If I lose weight, does that mean I can't be a feminist anymore? The most radical feminist I know dyes her hair and is a fashionista-goddess. Where does that leave her? Out in the cold? Not welcome anymore? I don't think she'd stand for that one at all.
Why does it all have to be one or the other? Why can't skinny girls, fat girls, married girls, straight girls, lesbian girls, fashionable girls, ugly girls, and all their varied opposites all be feminists? It makes me a bit upset to see a feminist author taking the main-streaming of the movement and painting it as a bad thing. Isn't this what we should want? To see feminism be widely accepted and acceptable? My gorgeous radical feminist/fashionista was recently commenting on how the pagan community likes to build people up but tear them down when they become too successful. Well I believe that this is the feminist community doing the same thing. "Well, if pretty girls are in on feminism then that must mean that lesbians aren't welcome anymore." I just don't see why one should automatically exclude the other.
And besides, none of my lesbian friends hate men anyway. So there!