to be annoyed about calling them feminists

[wherearemypaintbrushes]

Hi all. I'm thinking I should post this in women's rights but I don't know.
I was looking through the feminism tag on instagram (Sort by recent and there's some lovely stuff ) when I came across a post about women in history. It was the usual people that you would expect, but then they put Mary Shelley there!! I don't understand - if you read about her, she most certainly was not a feminist IMO. So sick of people labelling every woman who did something in history as a feminist, or inspiring. She invented science fiction, but she was not a feminist. As somebody called myself a feminist, I do not see why we would call her an icon.
AIBU to be annoyed??

You'd probably be better off posting this in women's rights IMO, you might get more replies

What @sockittome123 said..

I get where you're coming from. I find it a bit weird and irritating when people have a very low bar for what constitutes feminism, and when people insist on applying terminology to the past when it doesn't fit.

But, hashtags aren't exactly designed to be subtle. Couldn't the person posting just think it's of interest to feminists to discuss women in history?

@sock thank you! I'll post there

She invented science fiction??????

I know Brian Aldoss has said Frankenstein is the first but there really are many earlier books. She was the first to write sci fi in a recognisable form and encouraged others to do the same.

There are many, many claims to being the first sci fi - think about Arabian Nights; Gullivers Travels and loads more, lots of Greek stuff strayed into other worlds, the moon etc. Lots and lots of social commentary, satire via otherworldliness.

If you want to stick to women look up Margaret Cavendish and Blazing World (I wouldn't recommend trying to read it, unless you have a spare month and a 17th C expert on tap for explanations!)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blazing_World

And yes... I was more incensed about the sci fi claim that the feminist one

But surely she was included due to the struggle she had getting Frankenstein published in her own name rather than it being credited to her husband.

She was Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter. I'd find it hard to believe she wasn't a feminist

I'm not sure why Mary Shelley fails to qualify as a feminist. She firmly believed that she was no man's property (very against acceptable thinking of the time) and had to fight to have her own work recognised. Admittedly having an affair with another woman's husband was a low blow, but that alone doesn't disqualify her from being labelled as a feminist.

Maybe she wasn't as strident as her mother in terms of feminism and a voice for the history pages but she certainly wasn't someone that accepted a woman's place was where the man told her it should be. Not every feminist is a banner waving/book writing activist. Most are just trying to carve out security in their own world and fighting their own battles against patriarchy.