13328325:S.M.G said:
Why is feminism such a bad word? In the Rant thread someone claimed 'biggest anti-feminist ever' or something like that. I know for sure that the dude thinks women deserve equal rights, but why is the word itself such a stigma?
The dictionary definition it as "the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men." I'm sure if you asked anyone if they support that sentiment without
using the word feminism, they would say yes.
I hate that the word has transformed into this ugly image of a man hating bull dyke. I almost broke up with Ben just because he refused to claim feminism. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet right? What can we do to change the nature of the word and make feminism more appealing as a signifier?
This issue has been big in the ski industry this year. I'm tired of talking about this shit. Still, I know nothing is gonna change unless someone does, and I'd rather come off as annoying than maintain an apathetic silence.
Feminism is about the empowerment of women and while we are in the 21st century that still makes a lot of people...uncomfortable... So how do they try to counteract that? By making those who claim feminism out to be this sort of villain. Or the opposite of what feminism is supposed to be, they portray them as a "shrill women" who's grasping at straws.
For example, my roommate several years ago at Hood was a super strong lady, and all about ladies rights and got very heated when she saw women being disrespected or misrepresented. There is a poster up in the local bar of a Burton ad from years ago of a girl who got her muff shaved into a Burton logo, she hated it. In fact multiple times she got heated about it and demanded that they take it down. Now Hood doesn't exactly have a feminist state-of-mind and she got laughed off several times to the point where she was in tears.
She also believed that the empowerment of women meant being able to have the same sexual freedoms as a man, which frankly, did not go over well here either.
Now I agree, with the help of the internet, that there are a lot of thoughts and ideas misconstrued about what feminism is/means and a lot of people claiming feminism but don't truly understand what it is or are using that word to get a different point across. It get a bad rap from some people for using as a way to hate men. Clearly, it's not to hate men, it's to be equal. I don't have to hate someone else to bring me up (but really down) to their level.
I don't claim the word feminist to represent what I am. I am strongly in favor of equal rights. I want women to rise to the level of men in several different positions ( be it in pay, be it in this industry, be it in credibility) but I also want us to work our asses off to get there. However, personally, I don't like dressing overly feminine because it always placed a negative thought in my mind. I didn't want to dress girly because it made me a girl which was bad. And I still have that thought in my head today... which isn't very feminist. And in several ways I think keeping the thought of me "being a woman" on the lowest part of the thought process helps me be more credible. Though I wear makeup, especially at work as a sever. because that raises my ability to succeed.
So what does that make me? A Hippocratic? Maybe. Confused? I don't know.
