A T-shirt campaign launched ... by the ... Fawcett Society urged people to display the slogan: "This is what a feminist looks like". The campaign's very existence confirmed that feminism is still worried about "branding". ... The very fact that some feminists are so willing to accept that women don't want the label for such superficial reasons, rather than crediting women with more profound intellectual discomfort, is an indication that even feminist attitudes can sometimes be dismissive of women and their legitimate concerns.
Unless the Fawcett Society is saying "this is what feminism is and if you don't agree to all of it you cannot be a feminist" how can she make a sweeping statement like that? You can't agree or disagree with anything until you know what it is you're agreeing/disagreeing with. IME all the women who've said "I'm not a feminist but" tend to be very feminist in their attitudes toward equality - they've just fallen for the patriarchal "branding" as " as man-hating, crop-haired harridans in ill-fitting dungarees" as Orr puts it.
Feminists (and I'm generalising here) tend towards the conclusion that women who don't sign up are simply hostages to the tyranny of the patriarchy, whose feeble personal consciousnesses have refused to be raised.
I would say that if a women refuses to believe in the principle of equality, then yes, she has indeed failed to have her consciousness raised. There is a lot of disagreement within feminism, especially about things like dress style and the institution of marriage, but we all agree we're feminists and after equality.
The mass entry of women into the workplace in the latter half of the last century was claimed too unequivocally as a purely feminist achievement. Yet the door opened so easily when pushed because the needs of capitalism had undone the bolt. The exigencies of economic growth left little room for the wilful oppression of people with powerful intellectual potential on the grounds of their sex
True up to a point, but capitalism is also responsible for keeping women at home looking after the DC because - someone has to. Post industrial revolution there is very little work that women can do that allows them to take their children with them, and those that do are usually poorly paid. This means childcare is important and childcare is very much considered a woman's issue because men don't care - they leave it to women to organise and when it is paid for it is mentally deducted out of her salary ("it costs more than I'd earn").
Furthermore, in the scenario Orr gives, women only entered the workforce when men were unable to fill the gap - they weren't freely invited and were very much 'allowed'. They were very much (and still often are) the second choice. And in many cases the right for women to enter a specific career has been fought for long and hard, not granted by capitalism.
But equal opportunity in the workplace has not resulted in equal achievement, and not all of this is the fault of continuing chauvinism. Women bear the children and, far more often than not, they wish to be the primary carer for those children. At its most strident, feminism can be mistaken for an ideology designed to make women feel they are wrong to want that.
Agreed, but the key word here is mistaken. I can think of notable exceptions even on this board, but the vast majority of feminists I talk to very much respect a woman's choice to stay at home and certainly don't see it as wrong - far from it; they are trying to improve the status of it by pointing out its social value. But the point is, there is no one attitude that fits all feminists, so she cannot go around saying "feminism is this and not that".
Worse, feminism has accidentally promoted the idea that it's pretty easy to work and have children, with the right support in place.
Rubbish. Feminism IME is all about the fact that it is STILL far harder for a woman to work and be a mother than it is for a man.
Feminism is paranoid about its most-feared enemy, the wedge, with its bayonet-thin edge. (This can be best seen in the abortion debate. Pro-choice minds have to be closed to the idea that science can alter the age of foetal viability, because such acknowledgement, even in theory, might offer succour to pro-lifers.)
I know, let's seize on one of the most hotly contentious issues facing feminism and use it to debunk everything else. Why is feminism, unlike any other school of thought, not allowed disagreement within it's broader framework?
Sorry for long post. Just couldn't resist temptation to dissect this. I could do a better job given more time but this is just my first thoughts.
This is anti-feminism masquerading as a thought-provoking 'critique'.