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In fact, a rant ABOUT feminists. Not any specific feminists, I've heard this coming from feminists of all stripes and ages and political leanings. It goes something like this:
"How can women say they're not feminists? Don't you realise that without feminism they wouldn't have degrees/the vote/contraception/nice things? Don't you want equality? Without feminism you'd all be crushed by the patriarchy!"
You don't understand women who are Not Feminists? Well, I do. I was one. I *decided* I was not a feminist about two years before I decided that actually, having acquired new political and academic stances, I was a feminist after all. But rather than me babbling about my Not Feminist past, let's just look at that statement for a minute.
"We gave you the vote! We gave you new career opportunities! If it weren't for us, your social position wouldn't be as good as it is now! How can you not be one of us?"
You know who else uses that line of argument? You know who else says "but look what we did/gave you!" to fob off people who may actually have a problem with their institution, or simply not be interested? Oh yes, that would be our good friends, the Christian churches.
I'm grateful to the early labour movement for winning the eight-hour working day, but that's not why I'm now a (very apathetic uninvolved) union member. I'm very glad that the church in Ireland preserved so many books and so much scholarship during (the erroneously named) Dark Ages, but that doesn't make me a Catholic. And yes, I'm grateful to and proud of the women who worked for the rights I take for granted - the Rose Scotts and Louisa Lawsons and Louisa MacDonalds of this country and other countries - but that didn't stop me from being Not A Feminist, and it certainly isn't why I am a feminist now.
No. The women who fought for the vote fought for the vote for all women. Even the ones who, no doubt, dutifully ticked the boxes their husbands told them to (and still do). The women who achieved all the milestones we have behind us - they achieved them in the name of emancipation for all women, not the empowerment of feminists. And you know the thing about political emancipation? It doesn't come with a burden of debt. It comes with the right to make your own political decisions - or to vague out and make no decisions at all.
Next time you get frustrated with someone who's Not A Feminist, please, think carefully before you imply that she doesn't deserve to enjoy equal rights unless she adopts the same label as you.
"How can women say they're not feminists? Don't you realise that without feminism they wouldn't have degrees/the vote/contraception/nice things? Don't you want equality? Without feminism you'd all be crushed by the patriarchy!"
You don't understand women who are Not Feminists? Well, I do. I was one. I *decided* I was not a feminist about two years before I decided that actually, having acquired new political and academic stances, I was a feminist after all. But rather than me babbling about my Not Feminist past, let's just look at that statement for a minute.
"We gave you the vote! We gave you new career opportunities! If it weren't for us, your social position wouldn't be as good as it is now! How can you not be one of us?"
You know who else uses that line of argument? You know who else says "but look what we did/gave you!" to fob off people who may actually have a problem with their institution, or simply not be interested? Oh yes, that would be our good friends, the Christian churches.
I'm grateful to the early labour movement for winning the eight-hour working day, but that's not why I'm now a (very apathetic uninvolved) union member. I'm very glad that the church in Ireland preserved so many books and so much scholarship during (the erroneously named) Dark Ages, but that doesn't make me a Catholic. And yes, I'm grateful to and proud of the women who worked for the rights I take for granted - the Rose Scotts and Louisa Lawsons and Louisa MacDonalds of this country and other countries - but that didn't stop me from being Not A Feminist, and it certainly isn't why I am a feminist now.
No. The women who fought for the vote fought for the vote for all women. Even the ones who, no doubt, dutifully ticked the boxes their husbands told them to (and still do). The women who achieved all the milestones we have behind us - they achieved them in the name of emancipation for all women, not the empowerment of feminists. And you know the thing about political emancipation? It doesn't come with a burden of debt. It comes with the right to make your own political decisions - or to vague out and make no decisions at all.
Next time you get frustrated with someone who's Not A Feminist, please, think carefully before you imply that she doesn't deserve to enjoy equal rights unless she adopts the same label as you.