What is feminism?

There are dungarees involved?

InnocentRedhead
I'm very sorry to tell you this, but my diagnosis is - are you sitting down? - you're sounding like a feminist to me. Please put on this pair of dungarees and proceed to the "Man Hating" classes down the hall.

By which I mean, you can be a feminist who works, a feminist who stays at home to raise a family, a feminist who works part-time, a feminist who is off sick, a feminist who cares for a disabled parent or child or partner, a feminist who is a student, a feminist who is sneezing... and you're still a feminist. I've found the feminist community extremely supportive of women who are at home to raise their children, in face I've noticed that the rest of the world likes to pay lip service to how very important mothering is, but doesn't follow through on that with real life support and recognition. Whereas the feminists, well, they do things like provide creches at feminist events, or let you bring your demonspawn DS precious children along! Because Feminism doesn't see motherhood as a way of exhausting, sequestering, and shutting up women - but one of the most powerful and important things that women do in their varied and meaningful lives.

Nice to see some new posters - welcome all.

Milli the 'feminists hate men' thing is unfortunately very common. It comes up on here quite a lot.

Oh yes. DH does all the ironing in the fletcher household. You have to put that greater upper body strength to good use (biology not gender doncha see )

A man who can iron, always good!

He is a clever and intelligent man as well. Thank-u for the replies - i feel very welcome as people have said this is a scary place to post . I don't feel like a very good feminist, but have been trying to learn more as i have a young son (3 months). I don't want him to grow up feeling entitled over 50% of the population just because he is male. I also want him to be able to do his own ironing.

milli - a mate of mine, reasonably well educated and intelligent, once insisted doggedly that feminism 'stopped' in the 1970s and you couldn't be a feminist now, they'd all died out, you might admire what feminists did in the 1970s but you couldn't decide to become one now. Like it was some kind of club whose membership closed in 1979!

Innocent - IMO that's strongly feminist.

OMG at your DH.

LOL.

I shouldn't laugh because it is absolutely shocking that schools are not educating our population properly. It would be a bit like saying that the black activists who worked with Martin Luther King in the sixties, were anti-white racists. No one thinks that, because they are properly educated about what the civil rights movement was and why it was important. And yet feminism, which was one of the central most important movements of the twentieth century, is simply not taught in our schools. Oh well...

Not posted here before but had a discussion with husband the other night and we ended up talking about feminism. I asked him what he thought a feminist was and he replied, 'someone who hates men'. I told him he was wrong. He had also never heard the term 'misogyny' and didn't know what the word meant. I told him I was a feminist and he seemed surprised. I tried to explain it to him in a few basic concepts but couldn't articulate them very well - just sounded like I was ranting. Didn't do very well in educating him.

Just because you think women should be able to do a thing, doesn't mean you personally want to.

I think women should be allowed to fly planes, for example, but I have no desire to fly a plane myself.

Feminism is a political movement, the aim of which is to liberate women from their current state of oppression, by challenging, and bringing about the demise of, male supremacy.

Feminism is the understanding that men and women are equal and should be treated equally but knowing that this is not currently the case and wanting this to change.

IMO anyway

pursuit of equality,inquiry,action into fair equitable treatment of people.recognition women have been and are structurally,culturally and institutionally disadvantaged

Disclaimer (Might be talking bollox here)

Feminism to me is about total equality and everyone having the same ability to make the same choices regardless of sex.

And for society as a whole to understand that violence and control against women has to stop.

And that the world must change to accommodate that

Yes the radical notion that women are people.

But seeing as how lots of people think women are already considered people, my definition in as few words as possible would be

The notion that women's concerns, interests and lives, matter as much as men's.

Er, what do you think equal means wicketkeeper?

We are equal to men, they are equal to us, we are equal to each other. Equal works just the same in both directions. That's why it is equal.

what's the famous quote.... 'feminism: the radical notion that women are people'.

which sort of takes in the idea that they are not currently treated as if they are.

Learning to see men as equal to us.

If we continue to want to be equal to men, we are subconsciously saying that they are in some way superior and we want to 'live up' to that. No, we need to begin to see men as equal to us.

Sounds like an A-level question!
I would subscribe to what has been said above; although I would credit feminism rather than any feminist in particular (seeing as it was/is a bit of group effort).

My only observation would be that my favourite defnition of feminism is one that describes it as a battle to abolish gender.* I hate gender stereotypes and the way people love to define people with the "ah yes, (s)he's a girl/boy though". Women and men are humans both who comes in different shapes, sizes with different strengths and weakness, talents etc. To quote someone else (I cant remember who) biology is not destiny.

*Gender not biological sex. I mean how "feminity/masculinity" is defined and imposed on people via culture and education. I have no truck with biology.

(And sorry I can't tell you who said this stuff originally and I haven't time to google.)

At LRD

Feminism in as few words as possible...?

Finding productive alternatives to patriarchy.

at josephine. I'm tempted to say feminism is about getting women the right to use as many words as they damn well want . And I do think not shutting women up has a lot to do with feminism.

For me: Feminism is the recognition that all people deserve equal rights, and that society is structured such that women are systematically discriminated against.

Ooops - completely missed the 'in as few words as possible' request