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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

...to feel depressed that only 7% of UK identify as Feminist?

999 replies

DioneTheDiabolist · 18/12/2016 18:30

www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/2016/01/we-are-a-nation-of-hidden-feminists/

7% of the population and just 9% of women in this country identify as feminist. I'm not saying that everyone should call themselves feminist, I care more about what people do, rather than the label they assign themselves. But I am Sad that the number is so low.

Given that most people believe in sexual equality, why do so many people not feel comfortable to call themselves feminist? And what (if anything) can we do about it?

OP posts:
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scottishdiem · 19/12/2016 05:51

malificent7 Unite around what though? There are many strands to feminism and not all are able to be reconciled. This especially becomes the case regarding trans issues. Or the idea that men can't be feminists because they are men.

Thisjustinno · 19/12/2016 05:55

I'm a feminist and call myself one. I don't agree with lots of the 'MN feminists' and agree they often alientate other women. That doesn't make me a non-feminist though.

There's loads of stuff on MN I don't allign myself with. It doesn't mean I'm not a MNetter.

Missswatch · 19/12/2016 07:18

Really princess? So a simple google image search is all a lie of proof that ME women are fighting their oppressors? Interesting you call me racist as a silencing tactic as well, this is why women are put off feminism and don't want the label

dailyshite · 19/12/2016 07:36

Woodlander - I find it interesting that in your post (00:16) you describe what happened to Badknee's son as bullying, but what happens to girls at school as routine sexual assault. I would put the incident described by Badknee, firmly in the same category as what happens to girls routinely at school - in fact at the severe end of that. I'm interested to know why you feel differently.

Bananabread123 · 19/12/2016 07:37

Also the slanging matches going on here demonstrate that women have been conditioned to pit against each other rather than unite... depressing

Nonsense... women disagree passionately with each other because they are individuals with differing opinions, not because of some patriarchal conspiracy where men pull the strings to pit hapless women against each other whilst sniggering to themselves at their masterful manipulative abilities.

Bananabread123 · 19/12/2016 07:44

I've participated in a few FWR threads and I simply don't recognise this 'man hating' thing.

You may not get women explicitly saying they actually 'hate men' Dworkin-style, but the double-standards are often stark. I might do an experiment to demonstrate this... start two near identical threads a few weeks apart with the male and female roles reversed.

dailyshite · 19/12/2016 07:47

Banana - didn't you get the memo that being born with ovaries means that you have to agree with all other ovary owners? On everything.

BadKnee · 19/12/2016 07:50

The thing about what happened to my son - relative to this debate - is that:
a) so many women who use the Feminist label actively encourage humiliation of boys and men. (Not the school girls - that was simple school bullying, but the women on here who were ridiculing men with small penises)

and
b) that I was verbally attacked for trying to challenge that view.

I have just looked at another thread and for saying that she thought the Feminist threads were funny - OP was told she was "OK with women being raped, beaten and killed". Really? Really?

That is certainly what I mean about being accused of all sorts of things just because I didn't agree with a specific point. I have been many times - and was on the occasion when I challenged the bullying of boys. So it does happen. All the time. And means reasonable women will avoid identifying with someone who thinks it is ok to attack men and boys or deem women who disagree evil

Thank you to those who understood about my son.

SpeakNoWords · 19/12/2016 07:59

banana if you do your experiment, how will you identify the feminists from the non-feminists without giving the game away?

BadKnee · 19/12/2016 08:06

Also - my remark about some people talking rather than doing was rightly challenged. I don't know for a fact - it was a comment. I am sure many do do a lot of work, but so do a lot of other women - those who don't shout about it.

Those who fought individual battles in the workplace in the seventies are frequently slammed as being "stuck in the 1950's" by someone who knows nothing about the 1950's!!

Rich, middle class, academic women who use their education to belittle other, (especially older), women for not being feminist enough only have access to that education because the women they are slamming fought for it in hundreds of small ways in classrooms and families and workplaces.

Women who volunteer in hospitals, clinics, schools; who teach female refugees English, who run charities to support struggling mothers are really making a difference. But they use the word "girls" so are told that they actively support rape and domestic violence!

Companies that support women with fair employment policies and pay better are fighting to keep their market share. The "feminist" will wear a feminist- slogan tee-shirt made by women working for peanuts rather than pay a higher price for a garment made by a company that pays better.

Not all of course, but that is what I see. And it is an observation not a fact. So it was right that it should be challenged.

Bananabread123 · 19/12/2016 08:09

Speak

Haven't thought it through at all, but would probably come clean afterwards with the results.

Bananabread123 · 19/12/2016 08:14

An example a while back on a feminist thread.... conversation drifted to sex and feminist poster insisted her views didn't make her a lesbian and that she 'loved cock'... imagine the furore if a man when describing his sexuality said he 'loved pussy'!

EnormousTiger · 19/12/2016 08:45

I don't think we need to worry. Plenty of young people are feminists whether they use the label or not. All my teenagers and older ones are feminists.

As long as all of us try every day to ensure fairness for the sexes it will all come good.

BadKnee · 19/12/2016 08:56

EnormousTiger - absolutely agree. And on that note.. to work.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 19/12/2016 08:59

but still what is your point Missswatch

Some women in many parts of the world have to fight for survival and have done throughout history some have chosen to take up arms to fight

There struggles are greater than ours I am thankful I don't live in such a country but I still think it's a fundamental right to not be sexually harassed, to have equal pay, for young girls not to be sent abroad to be mutilated, for our society to move in from placing so much pressure on young women to look a certain way this

are these issues not important becuase wars are happening in other parts of the world

Sallystyle · 19/12/2016 09:10

deep seated trauma

What? I thought it was deep seeded trauma? It's actually deep seated?

SoggyDays · 19/12/2016 09:25

Enormous Tiger i will say amen to that!

BraveDancing · 19/12/2016 10:13

Ooh...just thought of something else and came back to say it. I wish that feminism could be more about learning to listen and less about telling people how to live their lives.

One of the things that frustrates me about the feminism board is how many of the posters there are getting so passionate about subjects they clearly know nothing about beyond the odd Guardian article - again, sex work, trans stuff, and a lot to do with Islam/religion. Its not always the case, but far far too often I see middle class white women who know zero trans people, zero sex workers, zero Muslim women, let alone those who wear hijab or niqab holding forth about either those horrible monsters or poor victims and it's a real turn off.

Feminism should be about empowering women to speak for themselves. Not speaking over other women because you've made the arbitrary decision to speak for them, with all your preconceptions and prejudices.

itsmine · 19/12/2016 10:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BeyondIBringYouGoodTidings · 19/12/2016 10:50

I do wish people would stop commenting on the MC-ness of the FWR board. I know for a fact I am not the only regular there who is not an Islington stereotype.

Not just at you brave, it's come up a few times

RufusTheSpartacusReindeer · 19/12/2016 11:13

Banana - didn't you get the memo that being born with ovaries means that you have to agree with all other ovary owners? On everything

Well thats wrong for a start

I disagree with virtually everyone

I am an equal opportunities disagreer

BeyondIBringYouGoodTidings · 19/12/2016 11:15

Same here, I'm a contrary fucker. But that has already been listed in the long long list of negative qualities of mn feminists, so I guess it's not a surprise

RufusTheSpartacusReindeer · 19/12/2016 11:15

Although its interesting that so far on this thread

We are being naughty if we disagree with women on an internet forum because we should be supportive of women

And we are being naughty if we dont disagree with the same women

Can some one give me a clue what i should be doing? In the meantime i will just disagree with everyone just to be safe....or maybe i should agree with everyone

RufusTheSpartacusReindeer · 19/12/2016 11:16

Yay!!

Morning beyond

I agree....or not

BeyondIBringYouGoodTidings · 19/12/2016 11:17

Who knows, rufus. Grin
Just make sure that bra is burnt and you have your dungarees and docs on!