Why I'm a Feminist

May 05, 2009 21:06

Return from wedding (which was lovely; when I get my hands on pictures, I'll share a few, because damn I looked hot in that dress) and am launched straight into finals. Le sob.

Anyway -- this is something I wrote about half a month ago on the Hetalia anon meme, to answer the following question: what has feminism done for you? And/or how much ( Read more... )

the great liberal conspiracy, socially relevant!, meta(stasis)

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puella_nerdii May 6 2009, 02:25:49 UTC
That's largely how I feel about radical feminism, too. My main issue with radical feminism mostly stems from the seventies and the decision of some women to appropriate and redefine the term "lesbian," which made me profoundly uncomfortable. A lesbian is not the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion, and straight women really don't have the right to redefine an identity that women-loving-women have been harassed, assaulted, and killed for. But that particular brand of headdeskiness seems to have subsided, thankfully.

I don't think being a feminist means you have to identify with or agree with all feminist ideology, because there isn't one feminist ideology. I have plenty of disagreements with some of the gender essentialism in certain lines of feminist argument, and though I think a lot of modern feminists are working hard to incorporate examinations of racism and homophobia into their activist work, that hasn't always been true in the past. Still, I think a lot of those women have done good work; they just might not have unpacked as many of their underlying cultural constructs as they should have, and that kind of unpacking is seriously hard work.

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