pktechgirlbackup (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2011-06-19 01:32 pm
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2011-06-19 01:32 pm
Am I a feminist?
My friend and I formed the Feminist Science Fiction Bookclub Prime, after I found the real Feminist Science Fiction Bookclub Prime to be intolerably full of hipsters. Seriously, you hear these jokes about hipsters and you think they're exaggerated and then you meet some and everything Stuff White People Like said is true. Anyways, we're forming our own club made up of our friends. Which brings up the interesting question of Am I A Feminist?
I am pro-equal rights but have really serious disagreements with the capital-F Feminist movement (represented in my life primarily by blogs). But I still read the blogs, and that reading has led me to change some of my opinions. I agree that laws forbidding both rich and poor to sleep under bridges don't count as equal, but disagree with Feminists about what kind of laws *are* equal and what interventions should be done.
Capital-F Feminism intersects with a lot of other things that aren't strictly about the rights of men and women, such as poverty intervention. This is true of all movements (because you can't be pro-gay rights without being anti-gun), but I think it's especially entrenched in feminism because of the concept of intersectionality. Which I can't really fault them for: different things are interrelated, and good for them for taking their beliefs to their logical conclusions. But I find myself almost entirely opposed to them on a political level (which is why I stopped reading feminist blogs that talk a lot about politics: I just wasn't learning anything). It appears my libertarian streak is more important than my feminist streak.
SO I guess the answer is: if you hate feminism, I'm a feminist. The differences between me and feminists are immaterial to people who are opposed to the very concept.* If you are a feminist, I'm probably not one, because we disagree so much on methods, and some on the scope of the problem. If you're pro-equal rights but also don't identify as a feminist, I'm probably still not a feminist.
*tangent time: it used to be when men said things like "shit- oops, I shouldn't swear in front of women, I'm sorry", I would attempt to convince them that I was One Of The Guys and they could totally swear in front of me. Now, I encourage the delicate flower attitude. I don't have time to move them off the virgin/whore dichotomy and for the brief time I'm going to be interacting with them, it's easier to be treated like a virgin.
I am pro-equal rights but have really serious disagreements with the capital-F Feminist movement (represented in my life primarily by blogs). But I still read the blogs, and that reading has led me to change some of my opinions. I agree that laws forbidding both rich and poor to sleep under bridges don't count as equal, but disagree with Feminists about what kind of laws *are* equal and what interventions should be done.
Capital-F Feminism intersects with a lot of other things that aren't strictly about the rights of men and women, such as poverty intervention. This is true of all movements (because you can't be pro-gay rights without being anti-gun), but I think it's especially entrenched in feminism because of the concept of intersectionality. Which I can't really fault them for: different things are interrelated, and good for them for taking their beliefs to their logical conclusions. But I find myself almost entirely opposed to them on a political level (which is why I stopped reading feminist blogs that talk a lot about politics: I just wasn't learning anything). It appears my libertarian streak is more important than my feminist streak.
SO I guess the answer is: if you hate feminism, I'm a feminist. The differences between me and feminists are immaterial to people who are opposed to the very concept.* If you are a feminist, I'm probably not one, because we disagree so much on methods, and some on the scope of the problem. If you're pro-equal rights but also don't identify as a feminist, I'm probably still not a feminist.
*tangent time: it used to be when men said things like "shit- oops, I shouldn't swear in front of women, I'm sorry", I would attempt to convince them that I was One Of The Guys and they could totally swear in front of me. Now, I encourage the delicate flower attitude. I don't have time to move them off the virgin/whore dichotomy and for the brief time I'm going to be interacting with them, it's easier to be treated like a virgin.