Any "Feminists" Out There?
Tom at TrueTalk wonders if women under forty call themselves “feminists” anymore.
For my own part, I certainly think women and men should have equal rights, but I don’t label myself a feminist. To my generation (I was born in 1984), the word signals radicalism and activism. If many more women openly called themselves feminists in the ’60s and ’70s, I guess either feminism was more mainstream back then, or radicalism itself was more acceptable.
Today, if a woman under forty tells me she’s a feminist, it’s usually because she has An Agenda, and I’m about to get an earful. It doesn’t matter whether she approves of whatever I just said or the behavior I just described in someone else—there’s gonna be a speech.
Agendas aren’t bad in and of themselves, but I don’t want to be associated with that kind of in-your-face crusade, so I avoid calling myself a feminist. Being a feminist may be a legitimate point of pride for some people, but it’s just not me.
I’ve found, actually, that it’s more acceptable for young men to call themselves feminists these days than for young women to do so. A man who labels himself that way COULD be a speechifying activist, but he could also be a modern, progressive, considerate, non-crusading guy. I’ve met a few of the latter kind. Heh, maybe this is another injustice for the crusaders to rail against. I’m not all that worked up about it.
I know most of my five readers are under forty. Do y’all (male or female) call yourselves feminists?
Tags: feminism, feminist, generation, labels, links, trackback, TrueTalk, young
December 17th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I don’t like feminism and I am not a feminist. Men and women are not the same and are not equal.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I consider myself a feminist. It’s the best word I have to describe my views on power, society, and gender. But it’s not something I feel a need to refer to myself aloud as on a regular basis. Such contexts come up about as often as contexts where I’d self-describe as a liberal–basically never outside of things like Facebook or very particular conversations.
The fact that the labeling doesn’t come up constantly doesn’t stop it from being something I am, though. You don’t expect evangelical Christians to be constantly talking about how Christian they are–if they did, you’d probably find it annoying and heavy-handed. Same thing with feminism. I am a feminist all of the time irrespective of whether I wear a t-shirt saying so aloud.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
@Karen: Good point. I guess I associate feminism more with the loud feminists than with the quiet ones because they’re, well, louder. For me, at least, the word itself implies a kind of loudness, but maybe my interpretation is less widespread than I thought.
I do expect evangelical Christians to talk a lot about how Christian they are, or at least how great Christianity is. Maybe not constantly, but more than I expect feminists to talk about feminism. As I understand it, sharing one’s religion is the whole point of evangelicalism (evangelism?). (I admit, though, that I have never been an evangelical Christian nor had a serious religious discussion with one, so my understanding is based on stereotypes and the extreme cases that make the news.)
December 17th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I think the reason why I do not want to label myself a “feminist” is because most people would think that they know exactly where I stood and what I thought about the issues of gender and woman’s rights. And unfortunately the most focal feminists seems to get very angry if you do not agree with them, so they declare that you are “anti-feminist” or whatever. I once got yelled at by this girl in my class because I said that *I* was not feeling particularly oppressed by the men that I dealt with on a daily basis.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
I regularly am accused of being an anti-feminist and a traitor to my gender because I’m usually against some equality issues. Sorry, but I don’t think women should be allowed in elite military groups such as the Army Rangers or Marine Recon Units. I think about 10 years ago a woman sued the Army to be allowed into the Rangers and I was so against that. Plus, I’ve lived with a Ranger and had those guys hanging around my home for two years. They are the biggest group of assholes and I’m not sure why any woman would want to have to work with them. I’m OK with some institutions being all male and that goes for parts of the military.
Also, I drop the C-bomb all the time. It’s my favorite word and I’m taking it back!