Do you think it is necessary to have good analytical and critical thinking skills be a feminist?

I also worry that feminism can get too academic at times - I'm naturally bookish but was still intimidated by some of the terminology used. Ideally feminism ought to be accessible to everyone no matter if they've learnt critical thinking at uni.

I don't have this fear at all - not about real feminism. Germaine Greer, from what I remember, writes very plain and easy to understand - read The Female Eunuch in my teens, when I had a really bad attention span, and never had a problem.

The only famous feminists whose works I didn't understand (and I went to university!) was Judith Butler, but I don't think I missed anything much there.

People typically do NOT learn critical thinking at university. I know many a feminist who doesn't have any kind of higher education but can plainly see that the Emperor has got no clothes on.

It could even be that being coddled in privilege is bad for critical thinking skills, and getting a dose of reality, however painful, might help developing critical thinking skills.

No I don't think it is necessary. What's the alternative? To tell people "Sorry, you can't be a feminist because you're not clever enough"?

Im not even sure what that means and most feminism goes right over my head. It often feels like its a club for smart women who went to uni (i didnt/couldnt) or the really extreme every mans a rapist types.

Also, on a personal level, its far easier to say 'I'm a feminist, therefore all of my choices are feminist ones' than 'why the hell did I do that?' It stops you having to think about your own actions and those around you

Definitely this. It is hard going when you do actual feminist analysis on the world around you. It's painful. It makes you question everything. If it doesn't, yer not doin it right

Good question. I don't think it's just pertinent to feminism, although it definitely is important for the reasons you highlight. Critical thinking shouldn't be seen as scary or impenetrable, or even necessarily an academic skill. In these days of "fake news", isn't it more of a life skill, like household budgeting or computer literacy?

The lack of it is a scourge that I lay at the door of post-modernism, cultural relativism and those types of thinking. There's been too much woolly "all viewpoints are equal, you're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine", that have completely blurred the ability to distinguish between good theories and positions and bad ones. I like this article called "No, you're not entitled to your opinion".

With feminism in particular, throughout its existence it's been sniped at by people who hate feminists, it's been misrepresented and laughed at, so it can be really hard to engage with the actual debate at hand without being constantly derailed into dismantling straw men as you explain for the eleventy millionth time that no, you don't hate men...it's hard to keep the debate "pure", IYSWIM? So all the critical thinking skills in the world won't help you when someone just responds with "Yeah, your mum".

I think so, and the desire to be nice to everyone. It's almost impossible to have a conversation about male violence, for example, without someone shouting 'not all men', or 'women are violent too'. So the conversation is stopped before it can begin because someone maybe offended.

Also, on a personal level, its far easier to say 'I'm a feminist, therefore all of my choices are feminist ones' than 'why the hell did I do that?' It stops you having to think about your own actions and those around you.

I'm finding it difficult to word this, but I sometimes think that feminism is becoming a badge to be worn, rather than an activism to change things. I wonder if its because the issues are so difficult to solve?

I'm in the middle of a science degree, and have spent literally all of this year on a critical reading module, picking articles apart into pieces and finding any tiny problem (basically just a whole year of Bad Science/Pharma )

I'm shocked that the millions of other science-basis graduates in the world aren't doing the same, cause they really don't seem to be!

I think a lot of people don't engage with the "core texts" as it were and so they misunderstand a lot of the base arguments.

I certainly had not read anything properly feminist until I joined MN and lurked in the background absorbing the wisdom of posters. I think there's a bit of fear around some of the 2nd wave works but when I finally engaged they were nowhere near as scary as I'd expected.

I also worry that feminism can get too academic at times - I'm naturally bookish but was still intimidated by some of the terminology used. Ideally feminism ought to be accessible to everyone no matter if they've learnt critical thinking at uni.

I agree. There's no proper analysis. I do wonder if it's a lack of reading about feminist history and feminism in general

Personally, I have no background in feminism, at all. But I have learnt an awful lot from the women on the feminist boards.

It may not be the same as a coherent argument with a start, middle and an end, but questioning, answering, critiquing, justifying, providing evidence, are all things that happen here. On a wide range of feminist issues.

There are certain conclusions that no amount of critical thinking would have let me to because I simply don't have enough information.

Personal experience of the world isn't enough. It goes a long way to forming a cohesive viewpoint, but realising that many women before have reached that stage and analysed it across time, and geography, crystallises things.

I think the important point is that critical thinking skills are very different from academic education and intelligence as measured by IQ tests.

There's lots of people who went to university and don't have an ounce of critical thinking skills.

There does appear to be a distinct lack of critical thinking. I think it's incompatible with the safe space policy in our universities. I'm basing that on what I hear and read as my children graduated a decade ago and I didn't notice this then.