Open Thread on Feminism

1. Define "feminism"

2. Was you mother a feminist?

3. Are you a feminist?

4. When did you come to that conclusion (#3) and what factors entered into your decision?

5. What are the top five women's issues that require immediate attention?

Comments

[angie]

1.Equal rights and opportunities, regardless of gender
2.She definitely wasn't a bra burner and she didn't have a job outside of the home. But she always told me I could be anything I wanted to be. So, I guess she was.
3.Feminist is a word I don't like. I believe in equal rights.
4.I don't remember any kind of touchstone if that's what you are asking.
5.Equal pay, reproductive rights, situation for women in the 3rd world, gay marriage, glas ceiling

[Morgaine Swann]

1. It's what we'll settle for - an equal shot at everything.

2. Both of my parents were Feminists. I never encountered the concept of girls being inferior until I was in school, and they simply dismissed it as stupidity. I was always told I could do anything I wanted, and I had cars and trucks mixed in with my Barbies.

3.Feminist is too conservative a word for me, and it implies certain positions I don't agree with. If someone asks if I'm a Feminist, I say 'yes', but I would describe myself as a Matriarchist.

4. It just seems like common sense to me. My mother is a very strong, accomplished woman, so it never occurred to me that a woman couldn't do anything a man could.

5.Choice; an end to "gender apartheid"; Equality -equal pay, hiring, political power; an end to genital mutilation everywhere; health care.

[Michelle]

1. The idea that each person should be able to meet their potential in life, regardless of gender.

2. No way! I wasn't allowed to have the Fisher Price garage because it wasn't appropriate for little girls. I got gifts like a little pink vacumn cleaner and the Fisher Price house instead. My mom let my dad walk all over her and not allow her to have a job. It was an anti-feminist environment.

3. I hate labels. But nail me to the wall and HELL YEAH!

4. I decided that I was going to be a feminist when I was about 12. I didn't know the word, but I knew I didn't want to be a "lady". "Act like a lady; ladies don't do that", etc. I also knew that I didn't want to be like my mom in the anti-feminist houseslave sense.

5. Medical research, empowerment of women on a global scale, better assistance for single moms and their kids, free birth control for all, an end to FGM...you mean I can only name five?!?

Well, there you have it. Good questions.

[B]

From an ancient white male...

1) Courage to do what creates value for you and to support others who do the same.
2) Most of the time.
3) Yes
4) I managed a largely female staff for an extended period of time some years ago. As I worked with them to resolve/overcome childcare issues, spousal abuse, poor senior management awareness, etc, etc......, I realized the depth of need exceeded the slogans I previously (always p.c.) mouthed without feeling.
5) Only one to add to the above lists: Parents who settle and who let their daughters settle for stereotypic roles. Push your daughters as hard - maybe harder - than your sons. Don't let anyone tell them who they are. You'll be so amazed and so proud in the end.

B

[Eloriel]

1. I can't resits quoting the line that used to get so much startled attention: Feminism is the radical idea that women are people too.

2. My mother would have been had she been born in the right era -- suffragist or 2nd Wave (like me).

3. Of course I'm a feminist. I have ALWAYS been a feminist, there were just a number of years that I didn't know it.

4. In the mid-70s, living in Germany with my Army long since ex-husband, I bought a book called The Women's Survival Sourcebook, I believe. A Whole Earth Catalog on all things feminism. Whoaaa!!! What an education, just in that one book. I was hooked (converted), and proceeded to read everything I could get my hands on.

5. I think we very badly need to go back to the basics -- and that means taking control of the language again (and NOT by co-opting words like "bitch," "chick," etc. but by making them WRONG and socially unacceptable again), assaulting all the sexist images used to portray women, lobbying for pay equity and an end to the glass ceiling, and perhaps most of all educating, energizing and raising the consciousness of a whole new generation (or several). There's been serious erosion in our position in this society, our hard-won gains, and it's not going to get any better unless WE make it better. They're not going to hand us anything, but they WILL take delight in making us "equal enough" to serve in the forced conscription they've got planned. It's up to us, sisters. "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will." -- Frederick Douglass

[Poppy McCool]

1) Feminism: The political, social and personal effort by both men and women to create social, economic and political equality for women specifically and all people generally.

2) Yes, my mother, grandmother and maternal great grandmother were all feminists. So was my father and maternal grandfather. And my big brother. And my little sister.

3) Yes, I am a feminist as defined above and a humanist in general.

4) Is there any other way to be? You have to work to provide opportuniry and equality for all people, because without it we are all diminished.

5) Protecting Choice, Wage eqaulity and living wage, child care, health care, fair housing.

[Dean Landsman]

About 10 years ago, give or take a few, a woman I was seeing told me she considered me a feminist. She meant it as a compliment.

So I bit my tongue and didn't tell her that if I was a feminist, then she must be a masculinist. It was not the moment for word play or biting humor. Just for biting of the tongue.

"You're more of a feminist than my mother!" she continued, then adding how repressed and backward her mother was on such issues. Of course, Jerry Fallwell is a feminist compared to that woman's mother, I pointed out to her.

A few years later,when this same woman was dating a total lowlife loser, she called me to complain that he (the new guy in her life)was not a feminist, as she considered me to be, and that saddened her.

Lose this scumbag, I recomended. Jerry Fallwell would be a better boyfriend for you than this guy!

So then I realized that her anointing me as a feminist had resulted in me comparing Jerry Fallwell to her mother and her new boyfriend. In a positive light,no less!

I gave up being a feminist, based on those incidents. Instead, these days I just stand on the sidelines and root for the feminists (and root against Jerry Fallwell).

--dfl

[Sheelzebub]

Feminism is twofold: First, it is a movement that fights for the rights of women. Second, it is a movement that takes a critical look at the structure of power (be it religious, social, political, or economic) and cultural and societal assumptions/expectations and seeks to change them.

My mother is not a feminist.

I've been a feminist since I was a kid, although there was a Paglia-esque period I went through in uni. If Paglia had hit the scene when I was a freshman/sophmore I would have loved her. Then I got radical. I didn't decide to become a feminist, I just knew that things are messed up and unjust for women. I saw it as a kid, and I see it as a woman.

Top five issues--reproductive rights, violence, economic justice/equality, affordable childcare, political representation/power, healh care.

[Echidne]

But of course I'm a feminist. It's the only sane thing to be. Feminism means equal rights for all irrespective of the gender they have, and it means striving for equal valuation of those societal task that are traditionally labeled female with those that are traditionally labeled male. So for me it's a two-pronged attack fork.

The word 'feminism' has been usurped by the anti-feminists, and they have made it into something that includes hating men and stuff. There are also a few extreme individuals who believe in this, though far, far fewer than there are men who hate women, and what these individuals say has become associated with the word 'feminism'. The word needs laundering and mending and returning to its proper place.

If I had had parents, my mother would definitely be a feminist, but as I'm a goddess this is purely hypothetical.

The big things that feminism should achieve (once we get it going again) differ by country, of course, so it's hard to give a detailed list. Many of the old demands are still not quite fulfilled, though, and they should be on the list. Things like equal access to political power structures, equal right to have children and to work, focus on gender-based violence and so on. I also think that we need to focus much more on what we mean by family and how we can make families something everybody can enjoy, not social constructs built on the backs of women, pretty much.

[Lauren]

Jeesh. Sorry for the multiple ping.

[Kate]

Great site. I'm slow, but after I read this at Feministe, I thought I'd answer too.

1. Define "feminism".

For me, feminism is the belief in the inherent equality of all human beings, regardless of gender. And also regardless of race, age, class, religious belief, political affiliation etc. Specifically, I believe feminism is a way of thinking about the world which allows us to identify and help solve power issues relating to gender, race and class.

2. Was you mother a feminist?

No. She wasn't necessarily an anti-feminist and I was raised to consider myself the equal of any other person, but my mother does embody and enact pretty traditional gender roles. For instance, she firmly believes mothers with small children should be the primary care-givers. She's the one who does all the house work and cooking at home, and my father still craps on about "women's work".

3. Are you a feminist?

Yes, yes, and yes.

4. When did you come to that conclusion (#3) and what factors entered into your decision?

My feminist awareness was rather hazy until I went to university and was lucky enough to have an incredibly caring and intelligent teacher who introduced me to academic and political feminism. I started reading feminist theory too and it was like a veil was lifted from my eyes.

Before that, I always assumed women and men were equal and treated equally everywhere, and I was astonished as I grew older and realised how naive this assumption was. I remember reading Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale and thinking, holy crap. This is how women used to live in days gone by, this is how women still live in many countries. It's wrong, just plain wrong, that women are considered second-class citizens. It's wrong that anyone is a 'second-class' citizen for any reason.

5. What are the top five women's issues that require immediate attention?

Most urgently, basic human rights for women across the world, especially in areas like Africa, the middle east and Asia. This includes ensuring women everywhere have enough food, access to health care, contraception and child care resources, and, very importantly, freedom from violence. I am aware the women are not the only victims of war, famine, disease and other natural and not so natural disasters, but it often happens that women, and children, suffer the most in these situations. Look at Sudan, for instance.

Beyond that, equal access to resources including education and the opportunity to attain economic independence. Freedom from restrictive cultural expectations based on gender roles.

That's more than five, I know.

[seitamuts]

Hello!
Look here>

http://pussycash.com/Content/Banners//imlive/banner_a53.gif

[FortFgore]

Hello to all...
Here's my favourite video of all time.

[Larenga]

Summer is here, its time to shed some pounds!

And its never been easier than now, now that Anatrim is available.
Anatrim is the revolutionary new product designed to help users
not only shed pounds fast, but keep the weight off, permanently!

Watch your love handles and waistline melt away over the course of
just a few short weeks.

-No dangerous Ephedra
-No prescription required
-100% Natural and Safe!

Summer discount specials now in effect- save big $! Click here to learn more!

[liecloms]

1.
Texas braces for Erin

[SasortFkire]

New Madonna Showing Sex Tape
In this one you can see even her face, she looks really like her!
Be first and watch it now!

[bubrogier]

hello not a long ago did I search in a search engine yandex pictures to on on demand ?q= bdsm galleries and found site http://postroysite.info/zone-vip/retro-porn.html, when I saw it that accepted resheniewith you will be partaken. Unoften find that search. So wait comments to on this page, what your opinion. Personally pleased me.

[Alerexittanna]

When you do take out a faxless payday loan we will guide you through the process and give you tried and true tips for success.