@muhabba: Well, semantics.
To some extent the question is whether the feminist label has enough negative baggage to justify its continued use or replacing it. People who agree about the importance of the same exact goals are in disagreement over how they want to be labeled/how they label themselves; this debate, then, is primarily between self-declared feminists and the people they largely believe should also declare themselves feminists.
@lykopis said:
@Joygirl:
I tried to get the term "Man-Eater" to take in all the bad juju but for some reason guys were a little too enthusiastic for all the wrong reasons --- **sigh** ---
[LOL]
Great info on Karl Marx - do I see a blog sometime soon on the horizon....hmm? <3
[Yes, please.]
Feminism to me doesn't deserve the fate of going down in history as a description of misandric lunatics -- it deserves the respect it fought hard for which is being responsible for me living independently and with the expectation of being considered equal to a man. To me its a foregone conclusion and that's directly because of feminism. So -- yeah. I am forever a feminist.
Very well-put. Hopefully this doesn't come across as too tangential, but I think it's relevant:
Your mention of the religion thread reminded me of how a friend of mine, studying to be a minister, recently conducted a poll of Christians he knew to find out what they listed as their religious beliefs on Facebook. A surprising number of us actually don't list ourselves as "Christians." We have all sorts of clever/not-so-clever ways of saying the same thing ("follower of Jesus" is a popular one) but for some reason the vast majority had independently decided not to just say "I'm a Christian."
My friend ultimately concluded that that was bad, that despite the fact that others are tarnishing the name (recent apocalypse/rapture scares and that terrible Westboro Baptist Church come to mind), it's still the most accurate term to describe what we believe in AND has a long and proud history attached to it, despite the extremists and the blights. He raised a good point and ultimately made me question whether I was afraid to just say "I'm a Christian" because others might read more negatively into it than they ought to.
And I think my friend, with "Christian," and you, with "feminist" are on an identical wavelength. There's a simple, historically-accurate word for supporting women's equality, and letting it be assaulted or die off is a rather defeatist attitude. If anything, efforts may be redoubled to reclaim the worth of the title with pride, and to make absolutely clear who the "fake" feminists are and why you are disqualifying them; not as a slight to other people, but as a bold declaration of what you believe history has properly defined the word to mean.
I don't know that I've actually changed my stance, per se, but I can definitely appreciate your side better than I previously did.
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