More than one friend has read my blog and asked, "when did you become such a feminist?" The assumption is, of course, that all feminists must be bra-burning and man-hating lesbians. Having never observed me actually burn a bra, universally hate men, or, well, "swing the other way" (much to some people's disappointment), you can see their confusion.Out of the 100 or so RSS feeds I read, Feministing and Feministe are two of the more interesting ones. Feminists are not man-hating - they're pro-equality. They're not anti-sex - they're believe in each person making their own choice. They are women and men. If I had to generalize about the actual beliefs of feminism, I'd say that they don't believe in generalization. They believe in the individual.
They believe that pharmacists should not be able to deny contraception to women.
They believe that it's wrong that teen girls in the media are either sexualized or picked on for being ugly (think: Chelsea Clinton in the 90s vs. the Olson twins)In Indiana, the state senate passed a measure that would allow pharmacists to refuse to do their jobs. If a woman wants contraception (including emergency contraception), pharmacists would be within their rights to refuse to fill her prescription. The bill’s sponsor initially said that it wouldn’t apply to contraception, only emergency contraception — a statement he later had to backtrack on, probably when someone informed him that emergency contraception is the exact same thing as standard birth control pills, just in a higher dose. Plus, you know, it’s contraception. And yet, “he claimed this week that it would not apply to birth control pills.”.
So there it is: ugly and worthless, or live bait/freak magnet. Those are the choices patriarchy offers to our girls. Picking on young girls for being awkward is cruel; so is sexualizing them. Men should just leave them alone until they’re grown up. But apparently that’s too much to ask.They believe that women should not have to live in fear in Iraq.
They support Clinton and Obama's views on reproductive rights - they do not support McCain's. They do not believe that you should support Clinton because she is female - in fact, many even support Obama.The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion — some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.
The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other “rules” that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.
They believe that abortion saves lives - literally and figuratively.
They believe that teens should have comprehensive sex education. Abstinence-only programs don't work.I have been an abortion provider since 1972. Why do I do abortions, and why do I continue to do abortions, despite two murder attempts?
The first time I started to think about abortion was in 1960, when I was in secondyear medical school. I was assigned the case of a young woman who had died of a septic abortion. She had aborted herself using slippery elm bark.
And Republicans have… outlawing abortion and telling people to keep their legs closed until they’re married. The very things that never work. And they oppose the measures that have been proven to decrease the abortion rate. Because they’re pro-life like that.They believe same-sex marriages should have the same rights as heterosexual marriages.
They oppose the harassment of abortion doctors.
They’re going after Dr. Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, for approximately the 340,986th time. Dr. Tiller is a favorite of theirs because he’s one of the last abortion providers in Kansas, and he provides late-term abortions. One of their followers shot him in both arms a few years ago, his clinic has been vandalized on numerous occasions, his workers are regularly harassed, and he’s Target #1 for a “pro-life” movement that murders doctors. Tiller’s home address, family members’ information, and pictures are all posted on “pro-life” websites. For protection, he lives in a gated community, has a high-level security system surrounding his home, and wears a bullet-proof vest to work every day.They know that rape and assault happen to women everyday, and is often covered up. They believe that it must change.
Jamie Leigh Jones was raped by her American co-workers in Baghdad. She was then imprisoned in an effort to cover up her assault.They believe that sexism is rampant in this presidential election.
Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has suggested Clinton is not "a convincing mom" and said "modern women" like Clinton are unacceptable to "Midwest guys." He has called her "Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched."They believe that domestic violence is very real in the US - and it affects both men and women.
The CDC said 23.6 percent of women and 11.5 percent of men reported being a victim of what it called "intimate partner violence" at some time in their lives.They believe that calling teens who are having sex "sluts" does not solve the problem. Shame does not effectively discourage sex - it discourages teens from getting help.The CDC defined this as threatened, attempted or completed physical or sexual violence or emotional abuse by a spouse, former spouse, current or former boyfriend or girlfriend or a dating partner. The CDC estimates that 1,200 women are killed and 2 million injured in domestic violence annually.
A state lawmaker used a derogatory term Wednesday to describe unmarried teen parents as sexually promiscuous and complained that society condones premarital sex.They believe that sexism is alive and well in the US - even in children."In my parents' day and age, (unmarried teen parents) were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are," Republican Rep. Larry Liston said during a GOP legislative caucus meeting in Denver. "There was at least a sense of shame."
Liston continued: "There's no sense of shame today. Society condones it ... I think it's wrong. They're sluts. And I don't mean just the women. I mean the men, too."
Men presidents onlyThey believe that "gray rape" is a myth and it condones rape.I think that having a woman president would be a bad idea for our country. Women are not meant to rule countries and be in charge. They are meant to make decisions but not confirm them.
Our president deals with some countries that don't respect or allow women in leadership positions. I wonder if the United States would have more terrorist attacks because we would be seen as weak with a woman leader. I agree that women can do many things, but leave the ruling of the countries to the men.
BRITTANY BAYLES, 13, Kennewick
Rape can be confusing, it doesn't make it "gray." Feminists have long fought to dispel the myth that initially consenting to one form of intimacy does not make it okay for someone to force another kind on you. In this case, the young woman was hooking up with her eventual-attacker when he forced her to perform oral sex on him.They believe there are tough decisions in gender equality. Should you segregate buses by gender in Mexico to make them safe?
They believe that women's rights are changing each and every day.
Feminists believe in equality for men, women and transgendered individuals. They are pro-choice. They believe that teens should receive comprehensive sex education. They do not believe in shaming women on the grounds of their sexual decisions. They believe that sexual violence is a very real problem in the US and beyond. They believe that sexism - and many forms of prejudice - permeate the world.
So am I a feminist? Well, aren't you?
DISCLAIMER: No group can speak for the views of all its members. Opinions vary. Not all feminists are pro-choice, etc.
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10 comments:
I was just getting ready to complain about ALL feminists apparently believing in the more life choice things on the list, pro choice etc but then I read the DISCLAIMER and I was happy again :)
Yeah, I don't agree with everything that is supposedly "feminist". Mainly, these things:
1) Hyper-sensitivity to certain things (eg, there was a rant about a naked woman pencil sharpener. If you insert the pencil into the woman's butt, it sharpens your pencil. Crude, yes. Offensive? To some. Condoning rape? I don't think so.).
2) Perhaps gray rape *does* exist. Feminism says that rape is binary - it is or it isn't consensual - and life is rarely so simple. If a girl consents to oral sex and the guy forces her to have sex, that's rape. Period. But... what if the girl is conscious, but drunk? How drunk do you have to be before it's rape? How is it possible that while being drunk isn't binary, sex-while-drunk is or isn't rape? However, I will say that promoting an idea of "gray rape" is very dangerous. It increases the shame that women feel about being raped, and discourages even more women from reporting it.
3) A tendency to blame society and not put any of the blame on women. If women and men aren't getting equal wages, some part of that blame *does* fall to the women for not fighting for more.
4) Feminism (that is, the feminist blogs) seem to believe that there's nothing at all wrong with teen sex. I think high schoolers should wait until they're mature enough to make responsible decisions.
So, I don't agree with everything. What (intelligent and thinking) person could really whole-heartedly embrace the views of any one group? If you're really thinking for yourself, it'd seem like an awfully strange coincidence to believe everything that one group believes.
That being said, I would still say that I'm a feminist and that pretty much everyone I know is as well. When your beliefs generally line up with the core beliefs of a group - even if you don't believe 100% of it - I think it's only reasonable to identify that way. Otherwise how else would we generalize about people? ;-)
Even though I always considered myself essentially a feminist, I used to avoid the title because of all the baggage that came with it. But you're right in that feminism isn't so much a laundry list of opinions as it is a philosophy that has room for disagreement and progress.
Keep posting about it, I enjoy reading it :)
I think all the baggage is the reason a lot of people prefer equal rights or just equality. It seems like a lot of feminism adds other beliefs that cloud the issue, but I guess many would disagree with that.
What's worse is that as women are still striving to be heard as equals, and not be objectified one way or another, men who identify with neosexim only believe that women have it good these days. They are fully blind to the equality because to them having "a" woman CEO and "a" woman engineer in the company makes it now equal.
Which of course makes the situation worse, because there shouldn't even be struggle. I was in a situation in a course-project (Computer Science at UofToronto) where I was blatantly told by a team-member, that after all I was "just a girl", and that men and women will always be in competition with one another. Yeah...ok.
just a small note about your post regarding contraception. interesting how different the conversations are in the u.s. and here in the u.k. it seems the news in the u.s. is that a pharmacist might refuse a prescription out of personal preference. here in the u.k. the issue is whether or not pharmacists can give contraception without a prescription. i am against the latter simply for a medical reason: women who suffer from migraine headaches, and are taking the combined pill (which is what most people think of when they refer to the pill) are at a higher risk of stroke and some have died. but it is possible to have a progesterone-only pill which provides the same contraceptive benefit without the stroke risk.
no one has as of yet discussed what kind of consultation will be provided should pharmacists alone be allowed to dispense contraception, and without full access to someone's medical records, i don't think these should be handed out indiscriminately.
and, i can well believe that a young girl who might suffer from headaches yet not wish to speak to her doctor for contraception, might end up lying to a pharmacist if she believed it would get her the pill. again, the issue here is different from that in the u.s. contraception here is free of charge with a prescription, but some are campaigning to move contraception entirely to the pharmacy to take some of the intense workload off of the u.k.'s national health service and encourage the young girls who, out of all their european counterparts, are most likely to become single mothers. moving contraception to pharamies may surely create more problems than it relieves.
I think the issues are a lot deeper than just "do you support equal rights for women and men?" Lots of people - hopefully most - would say "sure."
Here are a few of the issues:
1) Abortion: if abortion is illegal, the government is making a decision about what women can do with their bodies. That's about women's rights. That's why it's a feminist issue.
2) Rights for homosexuals and transgendered individuals: if you truly believe in rights for women, it's contradictory in some ways to not believe in equal rights for other groups. Is equality fundamentally important or are women just "good enough" to deserve it? Rights for women are related to rights for other groups.
3) Access to contraceptives: when people try to restrict access to contraceptives, it typically affects women more adversely than men. The issue is normally around birth control, plan b, etc, not condoms. Additionally, women catch STDs more easily than men from heterosexual sex. Moreover, there are social implications - double standards: it's ok for men to have sex, but women who do are sluts.
4) Do equal rights = equality? Women have equal rights in a very technical sense in the US (voting, anti-discrimination laws, etc). Discrimination and sexism is still rampant though.
Talking about whether or not women should have equal rights in the US isn't actionable. Women already kinda-sorta do. We can vote. You can't refuse to hire us based on our gender. It's only an issue to talk about when you start thinking about all the ways in which women lack equality in the US or the much more severe in equalities in other countries.
Wow - I didn't know that contraception is free in the UK. I agree that the idea of being able to get the pill without a prescription is scary. The pill can have some nasty side effects - depression, nausea, weight gain, etc. Without a prescription, will people be educated on these side effects?
Here's what I think we should do:
1) Birth control pills should be 100% subsidized by the government.
2) Birth control pills should be over the counter.
3) Ideally, require people to have a consultation with a pharmacist about the risks... but if there's no way to do the consultation, we should still do #1 and #2.
Here's why:
1) Doctors are not educating patients about the side effects of medications. I usually have to ask to find out - and the doctors are often not the experts on medications anyway. If they're taken out of the equation, honestly, it's not that big of a deal.
2) In the US, something like 25 - 30% of pregnancies are aborted. That's scary. I'll bet the virtually all of those women were not on birth control pills, and probably should be.
3) If 25 - 30% of pregnancies are aborted, how many more women who become unexpectedly pregnant decide to keep the baby? Those women are likely to not have the time and money to raise a child. We need fewer women to give birth to children that they can't raise.
4) Teens are unable to get access to birth control because it requires a prescription. Prescription -> doctors -> insurance / parental notifications. There *are* ways around that, in many states, but it's not trivial. We need to get more sexually active teens on birth control in order to reduce the pregnancy rate.
So, yeah, over-the-counter and free birth control worries me. But with the number of abortions and unplanned births, I think it has to be done.
Well done post. It's shameful that these remain real concerns, even in 2008.
(So how did the term "feminist" get redefined from simply meaning equal-rights to "omg man-hater" anyway? Was that always the case, or was it a smear originated by movement conservatism, or what?)
I don't own ovaries (but my SO does) and I too think birth control availability/cost in this country is completely, tragically backwards. Compared to much of the modern world, we've really failed to keep pace.
Fascinating collection of discussions here—thanks for putting this together.
It was refreshing to see you highlight the example of segregated busses as recognition of the tough decisions behind many of these issues. The polarized views that unite a movement can also distract from seeking the right solutions.
Take the discussions on teen pregnancies and STIs as an example. The value of non-abstinence-only sexual education is obvious. And Rep. Liston’s characterizations are disgusting.
But I disagree with the idea that social perceptions of sex do not affect teen’s decisions. Measures of sexual activity are strongly correlated by peer group. Denying this data ignores a valuable opportunity to influence these perceptions WHILE becoming more “comprehensive.” It ignores the opportunity to tune the message between audiences with 1% and 30% rates of teen pregnancy.
As in other causes, many of the issues here are not as binary as their presentation seems to indicate. The underlying circumstances are complex and dynamic, as are side effects of the proposed solutions. Fortunately, changes are being made for the better, thanks in part to these efforts to shine light on ignorance and inequity.
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