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RE: Are you brave enough to be called the dirty word?
Current feminism has been raided by screaming angry women. I can't relate to marching and gathering in groups to find unfairness.
I would rather spend my energy being as equal as the current circumstances will allow.
If I have the ability to vote, earn and own, I am not sure what else I can ask for. It takes time for society to catch up. I am busy out there trying to do it. I will leave those who want to march about it to march. I just don't see how that connects to the real world issues.
I'm not suggesting any marching here. The question is who owns the title and doesn't let propaganda redefine it.
I agree that is part of the problem. The media shows the worst of the worst of feminism and then it attracts more of those types. I've tried to understand what the current movement is about. I can't find very many people who can describe what the goal is or how they want to achieve it.
The propaganda ends up creating and attracting what they portray. I agree, that you aren't asking for marches and I have always respected you. I avoid anything that is about Women's groups, Feminism, etc. It isn't because I think everything is equal, I just think it is actually a negative for women in the current propaganda space. I'm sorry the movement got hijacked, but it did.
The way you talk of it though it sounds like you buy into the idea of it being one big collective with hidden agendas. It's really just people. Many of whom have no connections to a feminist group of lobbyists or anything else. Of course there are lobbyists within, and they each have their own agendas which they call feminist.
It doesn't mean if I say I'm feminist I associate with them.
And I agree it has been hijacked, but the same will happen for anything people find threatening or could actually be threatening when taken to the extreme. Take anarchy for example. You might argue it's already been hijacked but I would say not to the extent that it will be when it starts becoming more mainstream.
I don't know what I would gain or what I would be fighting for or against if I were to use the title. I've been curious, I have asked.
All groups as you mentioned will get hi-jacked. Did you know the tea party was started by a bi-partisan group that was opposed to additional taxes? The TEA stood for Taxed Enough Already. The group was taken over after the media portrayed them as conservative gov haters. The story was repeated enough that is what the group started to attract and eventually became.
What does Feminism mean to you? What do you hope to gain from your involement?
I don't really consider myself "involved". I'm just me and I acknowlege inequality. For me that's where feminism is useful. People can use it as an excuse to push for quotas that will serve no good, or they can march for the sense of having some kind of influence which they don't. That's just a lot of people being impatient with the current reality. I prefer to use feminism to simply acknowlege that reality and then consider why that reality is. From there I form an understanding of the world and become more self aware, but I don't try to change anything myself.
I would just like for others to think critically and find their own awareness so that they can come to their own understandings, rather than being blind to what influences our sense of identity and self esteem and from there feeds into our culture, our politics and our socio-economics.
Culture doesn't consciously change. It happens naturally when people are so comfortable in their direction that they don't even realise what's changing.
I have to say I really appreciate you asking me that though. I hope you won't mind if I steal it for the contest lol. It really got me thinking of why it's important to me and made me realise something.
So thank you.
I enjoyed the conversation, and I am left with the feeling, I still have no idea outside of the extremism portrayed that I have no idea what it is about or why I would choose to embrace the "Title" of feminist.
@whatsup and @beanz, I have to say, I found your conversation interesting and enlightening. But it's like @whatsup says:
I still don't understand why I would choose to embrace the "Title" of feminist. The truth is, if feminism is about advocating for equal rights for both genders, then choosing the term "feminism" to represent such a concept is unfair to begin with. Why not 'masculism' ? So it seems from the word go, we are already siding with women. Personally, I am a strong advocate for gender equality and I find the term 'humanist' more refreshing and fair.
I am certainly not going to engage in who has advantages or disadvantages, I don't really the see the value in it, and we likely would disagree. A pet peeve of mine is arguing for your victimhood. I think there are pros and cons for both genders.
I could care less what you name any group, call it Ralph. What rights are we fighting for, for whom, and with what goal in mind?
I'm only seeing this reply now so sorry for the delayed response.
Before feminism became a movement focused mainly on the injustices against women, but strictly to bring them to an equal level of rights and opportunities and not higher, "feminism" was actually a study. And this study which led to a movement is where feminism gets its name.
The study was of femininity and how it is socially constructed and learned through culture. At the time they did not even consider that masculinity was also a culturally learned social construct. It was - as it often still is - considered the default. As the study progressed it began to incorporate the study of masculinity and gender as a more broad topic.
Your argument that the word feminism makes the movement more biased towards women is true, but because of an important misinterpretation of femininity.
Femininity does not mean women. It is a list of characteristics that are expected of women and demonised in men as part of patriarchal society. This oppression of men is actually included in the movement, but it has never been made a priority for the participants and that is problematic. It is mainly due to lack of participation by men to fight for their rights (parental for example) as women fought for theirs. This could be due to a lot of women using "feminism" as their badge of entitlement who misdirect their anger at men for the issues their gender faces. So we can't blame them. But in reality, by definition feminism is about freeing both men and women from the restrictions of gender.