"I am not a feminist. For one thing, I’ve never really known exactly what the term means. "
- Cinie
Not trying to single out Cinie, but I've been encountering more and more women like her. To me, such sentiments is proof that the feminist movement is dying out. What does it mean that the average woman doesn't know what feminism means? For those who have been confused, let me help you.
Feminism: a political ideology and social movement that advances the equality of women in all aspects of culture and society and that fights for the elimination of sexism.
Sexism: the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby its rights to domination, power, and privilege.
If you believe that women are equal to men, that all genders are equal, then you have the makings of a feminist identity. If you're willing to fight to advance that equality, consider yourself a feminist.
If you're against sexism, then you have the makings of a feminist identity. If you're willing to fight for its elimination, consider yourself a feminist.
Any questions?
12 comments:
I have always had the making of a feminist identity but I rejected the feminist label. This was mostly due to the reactions I got from fellow Nigerians and Africans who call women 'feminist' to belittle and insult them.
However last year I wrote a paper for my human rights class where I argued for the necessity of women's rights since then I've chosen to identify as a feminist. I do get the occasional hater except now I know more about feminism.
Thanks ABW.
I think the term feminist has come to be viewed as an insulting and derogatory term in a lot of circles. A woman who calls herself a feminist is not looking for equality with a man but rather to actually be a man. She's a rabble rouser. Loves to challenge the status quo and doesn't know her "place". Like eccentricyoruba said . . . it's often used a slur to belittle progressive minded women who refuse to be treated like less than simply because they were born with a vagina and not a penis. So I understand when women want to distance themselves from the term. I also understand not wanting to be labeled. It's good to get back to the basic, fundamental meaning of the word feminist.
While I think you're right in your response/definition of feminism, I think that what often obscures the meaning of it for people like Cinie are the different tropes, schools of thought, etc. that feminists make of feminism. So, while you can be a feminist, you can also have ideologies, epistemologies, and cultural frameworks inconsistent with other feminist thinkers. And, if you don't identify with its thinkers on issues that are substantial enough to turn you off, you may be less likely to self-identify as a feminist. This is the struggle I'm going through right now. I'm a feminist, but feminists are the ones getting on my nerves at this very moment! LOL! :-)
I agree that the word feminism has since become a pejorative term, THANKS TO SEXISM, which must make a woman who wishes to advance gender equality seem like an anomaly, a freak, a deviant.
And while I agree, Prof. PC, that the different schools of feminist thought has obscured the core definition - and believe, I'm presently doing battle with other feminists as we speak - I actually think it isn't so much that we're in disagreement about "feminism." We're in disagreement about the word "woman" and WHICH WOMAN we seek to advance in terms of her equality (be she a woman of color, a poor woman, a lesbian, a transgender woman, a non-Western woman, a disabled woman, etc.)
I am reminded of something I heard recently, I think in response to shows on HGTV and Pottery Barn catalogs and the like that use the word "lifestyle." The person said that their grandfather never had a lifestyle. He had a life.I think a lot of the disconnect with women on the ground and the label "feminism" has to do with this kind of phenomenon. My grandmothers did not label themselves "feminists"---they just did the things day in and day out that they had to in order to survive as Black women. Yet to me they were "feminists."
I am less interested in folks who claim a "feminist identity" and who know all the lingo than who do the work.
PPR, must their constantly be a disconnect between theorizing feminism and doing feminism?
It seems to me that both go hand in hand.
If women refuse to use the term because they allow others to define it,they are showing their own weakness. Nothing makes me angrier than someone who refuses to fight back because someone might call her a "man-hater."
chomskyite--is that really the only scenario you could imagine somebody not claiming the term feminism? I completely and totally refuse the term feminism--and I do it because I center women and honor women and consider women the most important thing in my world. I reject feminism because it *doesn't* center women. It centers power and a competition between men to see who can claim that all powerful one ring to rule them all first. Which is why I have a real problem with the definition you listed ABW--the idea that feminism is about "equality" with men--I'm very concerned about the idea of which *MEN*? Are we looking for equality with the men who are imprisoned in gitmo right now? Or maybe the men that are wearing pink panties in Arizona thanks to Sheriff Arpaio? Or maybe it's the men with the most power--white men?
I think a definition like that is way too dependent on "men" as a definition--it uses "men" to define what "woman" is. and I think a lot of women "on the street" recognize that they don't want to be defined by their relationship to maleness--that being defined in that way is inherently "unfeminist" (as it were)--they they are full human beings that deserve very specific things (not to be punched when they are too loud, as an example, not to be 'treated like a dog' etc) as opposed to some abstract idea like "full equality with men"
What does full equality with men even *mean* when he is punching you because he was the first one to get laid off at his job where he just so happens to be the only man of color?
You see what I mean?
(and sorry, ABW, if I am being strident, I tried to reign it in and not be so snippy--but this comment was about as good as I could get!!! Please know that I am not directing my wrath at you, but at a long standing battle I have with "FEMINISM" that always makes me ranty and bitter!!! Much respect, bfp)
BFP, thanks for your comments, and I think that's a really valid point - the issue of gaining equality with men.
The reason why I claim feminism is because, at its core is an assertion that women and men are equal. Period.
If we're going to get into all the other issues - "which men do we want to be equal to?" - then, yes, obviously feminism can only be achieved when we also build coalition with antiracists and anticapitalists and anti-heterosexists and anti-imperialists. In short, bringing an intersectional analysis that lays bare the interplay between gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality, etc.
Which is why some feminists may take issue, as you do, with gender equity, but fully embrace the second part of the definition: the fight for the elimination of sexism.
Many of the examples you provide, BFP, are all based in sexism, which I imagine feminism is fully about eradicating. But of course, sexism intersects with racism and heterosexism and imperialism, so we need to address those oppressions too.
PBW, your ability to be concise and equally explicit is mesmerizing. I admire your work and the timliness of your themes. The last two interactions were extremely useful it combines concepts with real scenerios.
peace.
anonymous - Just a quick correction: PBW is professor black woman and this is not her blog. This is Anxious Black Woman's Blog (ABW). They are two separate black female feminist professors with two separate blogs.
Hi ABW,
I'm a freelance writer working on an article for Clutch Magazine on the modern manifestations of Black Feminism. Would you be available for an interview?
Thanks,
Kia
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