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Do you consider yourself a feminist?

  1. rachiecakes

    coconut / 8279 posts

    @Mrs. Jump Rope: I haven't seen 'riot grrrl' on the internet in a very long time love it

    Yes.

  2. Purpledaisy

    nectarine / 2973 posts

    Of course!

  3. imbali

    apricot / 347 posts

    I would identify myself as a feminist for sure.

    I think what can be difficult re feminism as anti-men is that empowerment is often seen as relating to power, i.e. if women are empowered then men are naturally losing power (which actually is a concern is some situations)... empowerment (if you're going by a community psych definition) is about ensuring no power struggles (everyone is equal and no one is in charge of anyone else). so empowering women in that sense of the word is very definitely not anti-men.

  4. CupQuakeWalk

    coconut / 8475 posts

    @loveisstrange: yup.

    I am not a feminist, err...rather, I prefer not to be referred to as one. I don't want to be referred to as anything, really. I am just a person who thinks all humans deserve equality and that all people (homosexual, black, white, handicapped, women, old, young) should have equal opportunities to be ambitious, strong, empowered, educated, athletic, nerdy, talented, rich, vocal....Furthermore, I just want to live in a world where those words mentioned above do not equate to a certain "type" of person, but rather that those words are words that can be used to describe anyone.

  5. coopsmama

    cantaloupe / 6059 posts

    I absolutely am for equal rights for men and women and am so grateful that we've come so far in that "fight" and know that the US is miles ahead of other parts of the world in terms of that equality. But I probably wouldn't call myself a feminist, though, because I hate some of the sentiments that get attached to it like others above have mentioned. I don't hate men in the least - I just think women are equally capable and deserve the same rights!

  6. Maysprout

    grapefruit / 4800 posts

    It's always seemed weird to me to say I'm a feminist because I support equal pay. That just seems like common sense to me. Label the people who think women deserve less just for being women as sexist or something.

    But I have taken more interest in pregnancy/baby issues after going through it and in that respect I do think I'm a bit of a feminist since I do want to promote discussion on womens issues and how to make improvements.

  7. Mrs. Pen

    blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts

    I would say I'm a feminist before saying I'm not. But if one asked and I said yes, I'm a feminist, I would be quick to clarify that it means equality between genders, not that one is superior- as some feminists believe, and not that there can't be traditional gender roles, and most importantly- I support the freedom for a woman to choose her path in life. My biggest complaint with feminism is how it puts down women who want to stay home with their children because they're not contributing to the workforce or "power of women" or whatever. I could be a SAHM and still be a feminist.

  8. MrsSCB

    pomelo / 5257 posts

    100 percent yes. I think it's interesting to see how many people find feminism to be "exclusive." I've never thought of it that way. There are proponents of all kinds of movements, and that doesn't mean they're anti-other people or think people who fit their cause are better than others. I believe in the equality of all people, but that doesn't preclude being a feminist anymore than the fact that I consider myself to be a proponent of LGBTQ causes means I'm anti-heterosexual.

    @imbali: @silva: Totally agree

  9. MsLipGloss

    GOLD / pineapple / 12662 posts

    WORD



  10. immabeetoo

    honeydew / 7687 posts

    @Mrs. Pen: that's actually what I take from feminism- that women before us fought so we have the choice (acknowledging that it isn't a choice for all, for financial reasons) to stay home or go to work!

  11. MoonMoon

    pomegranate / 3392 posts

    Yes. And I'm going to just come out and say it, most of those I see in real life and online who say they're not don't seem to know its meaning.

  12. Raindrop

    grapefruit / 4731 posts

    @Leialou: "Someone once told me inflation happened because women went to work outside of the home!!"

    This is somewhat true. The feminist movement was great and it did help with empowering women. I can't really imagine what America would be like without it. I think as a woman we would definitely not have the freedoms we have now.

    The problem was that some where along the lines someone and maybe not the people that started the movement but some leaders later on of the movement made the "mistake" (maybe it wasn't a mistake) was that for some reason it uplifted the tradition male role of working outside of the home and basically degraded the traditional female role of staying at home.

    This caused women to think that they wanted (maybe even needed) to work outside of the home which may or may not intentional. Which then cause more families to have duel income which increased competition in the work force which lowered salaries and increased demand on products to make life easier since women were looking for more conveniences since they were working outside the home now and not working on the home economy.

    It's possible that this might have happened anyways but looking at timelines and articles of the subject you can definitely see this trend happened around when feminism really took off.

  13. yoursilverlining

    eggplant / 11824 posts

    @Raindrop: Hmmm. Care to post/cite any of these articles and timelines? I see a lot of assumption of causation above; and in the articles I quickly googled.

    The rate of married women working outside the home has steadily increased in the US since the '30's; spiking a bit during WW2 and then rising steadily following the war. Even in the 50's - the stuff faux-nostalgia is built on - some 30%+ of divorced or widowed women were working outside the home and a quarter of married women were working outside the home. Historical inflation rates are available online and I don't see any real obvious and sustained trending happening when "feminism really took off" - or post feminism when more women are working than ever before.

    Except for upper class white women, women have always worked outside the home in large numbers. We have a soft spot for a false history of the "traditional" role of women and a fair amount of junk science looking to lay all sorts of blame on women.

    http://www.pbs.org/fmc/book/2work8.htm

    Here’s a link to historical inflation rates: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/
    And a good inflation calculator from the DOL: http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

  14. Raindrop

    grapefruit / 4731 posts

    @yoursilverlining: Sorry. I learned this when I was younger and studying this for a course I was taking. I wrote a paper but there is no way I can find sources for that. Also it was kind of long ago.

    The main point I was trying to make was that one downfall of feminism was that it didn't uplift women that wanted to stay at home.

    Feminism in it's core I believe was to support a woman's choice weather she wanted to stay at home or work outside the home. Somehow it got twisted to be only supporting work outside the home women.

    I think you make some good points.

    ETA: I just wanted to add another note. I'm not against feminism in anyway I hope that it doesn't come across that way.

    The reason I ended up taking a course about this was in the middle of my college experience some of my "friends/classmates" told me straight to my face that if they ever find out I became a stay at home mom that they will personally come to my house and make me go back to work because a person with as much education as I was getting and the skills to apply should not stay at home and "waste" it. They even said used the word feminism, saying women didn't fight for me to end up as a stay at home mom.

    To me I was shocked because I didn't feel like that was what feminism was and thus I took a class to see why they felt that way.

  15. mrsrain

    nectarine / 2115 posts

    Yes, and proud of it. My husband is a feminist, too... couldn't have married him if he wasn't. I am currently a stay at home mom, and primary caregiver for our daughter, but that's the choice I made for myself and my family.

  16. bisous

    persimmon / 1304 posts

    Feminist and proud! And so is my SO. I do not believe women are better than men and I do believe in equality of all people.

    So disappointing that feminism seems misunderstood these days.

  17. Ms.Mermaid

    kiwi / 745 posts

    I'm a feminist and I make a point of making statements like, "as a feminist it really bothers me xyz" so that other people equate being a feminist with being a reasonable human being who believes in common sense and equality, and not with being some crazy person who believes women are superior to men or that women have to work to contribute to society.

    @Raindrop I highly recommend reading Elizabeth Warren's The Two Income Trap, which explains in a much more nuanced way the economic impact of women joining the workforce - basically her arugment was that once there were more dual income households in the middle class, the middle class shifted into a lifestyle in which two incomes were much more necessary to afford a house in a good school district, etc., and families no longer had the safety net of a stay-at-home spouse who could also join the workforce in the event of hardship, but that there are a ton of other issues which have led to this kind of inflation as well.

  18. irene

    nectarine / 2964 posts

    I thought about this many years ago. While I admire feminists and feminism, and I am outspoken on things that I do care about, and I do get very angry and speaks my mind when I, or other women, are being treated in an unfair light because of our gender, I don't think I am qualified to say I am a feminist.

    I guess I am just myself.

  19. fairy

    persimmon / 1343 posts

    I think there is a lot of misconception about what "feminist" means because many people seem to take it to mean man-haters when it is about equality. I definitely consider myself a feminist and my DH considers himself one, too

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