Are you a feminist, if yes, what does it mean to you?

[YouAreNotBatman]

YANBU = I’m am
YABU = I am not

Feminism is mobilising to improve the lives of women and girls - as a sex class.

To me being a feminist means wanting equal opportunities for men and women and trying to reduce grand stereotyping and assumptions either way. That’s for both genders.

I might subscribe to the concept or recognise its existence if someone could actually explain what the fuck it is and why we should care.

Why don't you have a go?

YANBU

It means centring women - biological women - and breaking down the patriarchal power structures that keep women at a disadvantage

Who's down what rabbit hole?

This is perfectly put

How are trans women women? What do they have in common with biological women that they do not have in common with men?

I am a feminist and for me, that means continuing to fight for the rights of women and girls; to fight against regressive stereotypes that have traditionaly been used to oppress women and seem to be more prevalent now than when I was growing up; to fight to protect safe and fair spaces for women and girls (e.g. changing facilities, prisons, sport etc).

@babyjellyfish because it's hardly rocket science and I could provide you with the most comprehensive response in the world and you would either a) not understand it; or b) pretend not to understand it because that's how ignorance works. At the very least, maybe you should give a fuck about it because there are millions of people on this planet who struggle with their gender identity.

If it's not rocket science then why will no one explain it?

You can't live your life as a female if you are not female. You can live your life as you imagine a female would but it is not the same thing.

At the basis of my feminism there has to bevthe recognition of women as a sex class otherwise you are potentially including all humans on the planet as female which is unhelpful and more than a little ridiculous. I really can't think of one thing I have in common with transwomen. All the pressing issues that women and girls face are to do with biology not gender identity.

From the ONS website:

The UK government defines gender as:

• a social construction relating to behaviours and attributes based on labels of masculinity and femininity; gender identity is a personal, internal perception of oneself and so the gender category someone identifies with may not match the sex they were assigned at birth
• where an individual may see themselves as a man, a woman, as having no gender, or as having a non-binary gender – where people identify as somewhere on a spectrum between man and woman

I don’t understand how anyone can call themselves a feminist whilst stating that the concept of “gender” does and should exist. “I’m a feminist but believe women should spend their time raising children and cleaning the house as opposed to earning and controlling the money.” It just doesn’t make sense. And I’ll concede that’s a dramatic and simplistic example, but it’s impossible to come up with an example of “behaviours and attributes” of the “female gender” that is compatible with modern feminism.

You expressed it so much better than I could. Thank you.😊

You can't live your life as a female if you are not female. You can live your life as you imagine a female would but it is not the same thing.

This. I'm sick of being force teamed with a group of males who claim that actual female issues are much less important than their own issues. It's colonising women's oppression.

I accept they have their own struggles, they're just nothing to do with women, and we have the right to a rights movement for ourselves. They have their own.

Supporting women as a sex class. We are born not worn.

At the basis of my feminism there has to bevthe recognition of women as a sex class otherwise you are potentially including all humans on the planet as female which is unhelpful and more than a little ridiculous. I really can't think of one thing I have in common with transwomen. All the pressing issues that women and girls face are to do with biology not gender identity.

This.

I don’t understand how anyone can call themselves a feminist whilst stating that the concept of “gender” does and should exist. “I’m a feminist but believe women should spend their time raising children and cleaning the house as opposed to earning and controlling the money.” It just doesn’t make sense. And I’ll concede that’s a dramatic and simplistic example, but it’s impossible to come up with an example of “behaviours and attributes” of the “female gender” that is compatible with modern feminism.

And this.

To me, there are two definitional problems here.

1. We need to have a word which means "female people", including all female people and excluding all male people. You cannot fight against sex based discrimination if you do not have the language to accurately define and discuss people in relation to their biological sex. This is where using the words "male" and "female" to describe gender identities is hugely problematic, because it means we no longer have a word that means, "actually, biologically female in the biological sex sense of the word and not the gender identity sense of the word", and therefore we can no longer easily identify the class of people at risk of discrimination due to their female sex without performing complicated verbal gymnastics.
2. Whilst people are free to believe in and define themselves according to "gender" if that is meaningful to them, I want to be left out of it. If you use the only words we have for biological sex - "woman", "girl" and "female" to describe genders or gender identities which can include biologically male people, you're essentially creating a situation in which female people have to start defining themselves as something other than "woman", "girl" or "female" if they don't want to be automatically counted as part of this "gender" or "gender identity".

I, too, am interested in your response @NalaNana, it might make me change my mind. If it isn’t rocket science, then I will be able to a) understand, and I promise to b) not pretend to not understand.

If you want people to ‘give a fuck about it,’ then why not give it a go? You’d be helping the ‘millions of people on this planet who struggle with their gender identity.’

I've screenshot the excellent post from @babyjellyfish

To me feminism is an umbrella term for dozens of ideologies and socio-political movements where a if not the focus is to improve the life conditions of girls and women. Each one of those has different ideas on the roots of the problems and best path towards betterment which is what makes it hard to identify something as entirely feminist or not-feminist.

I've worked with feminist groups and am happy to work with most of those ones again, but no, I don't identify as a feminist largely because of my own personal history of over-identifying with ideologies and ending up in unhealthy friendship circles where I end up feeling I've been led up a garden path and someone set fire to it behind me. There is also the issue now that it's a fairly vague term that's says nothing about someone unless you know and understand what branch they view themselves as part of or ideals they're working towards. This is true of a lot of ideological umbrella categories, but it's really noticeable with the feminism label.

I now don't identify with any ideology. I volunteer and do work towards goals with others, but I don't make that part of my sense of self or try to make activism related work a significant part of my social life.

^ and not picking and choosing which bits you want equality for.

All women are as equal and valid as people regardless of the lifestyle choices that they make, and its no less valid to go chase a career as it is to raise children and run a house full time, or to get married or not, or to seek work in a female dominated industry rather than trailblaze in a male dominated space. Feminism to me is empowering all women to make and be supported in lifestyle choices that work for them, and seeing women as people in their own right. Far too often do we infantilise women without even realising it.

Ah do we have to make this about trans?

I'm really enjoying reading about other women's feminism. I could really do with a bit more connection and cheering up.❤️‍🩹

I second this. I REALLY want to understand. I know the questions we ask sound facetious, but I’m yet to have anyone explain to me what being a woman/female is in this context in a way I identify with. I don’t fit a lot of female gender stereotypes and have no strong sense of “female” identify. I just am female because I have female reproductive organs and XX chromosomes. In the same way I’m a brunette because I have brown hair. I could dye my hair and be blonde, but I can’t change my biology so I will always be female, no matter how I feel.

It’s so unhelpful to me, as someone who genuinely wants to understand and empathise with the other side of the debate that in literally every discussion no one can define what “being female” is to a transwoman (or trans ally) and the default position is to say I’m a TERF or a bigot and disengage.

So please, enlighten me, what does it mean to ”live as a female”?

Apologies!

I do think it goes to the heart of the issue though.

For me, feminism is about female people - the clue is in the word - and freeing us from restrictive stereotypes about what women should be like, which is what I think gender is. Gender is the enemy of feminism.

That's why I get so frustrated with so-called "liberal feminists" who want to make their feminism all about including male people, who aren't affected by any of the things that actually keep women subordinate to men.

Someone who was born male but believes they are female, identifies as female, appears as female, lives their life as a female etc

It is a demonstrably false claim to say that anyone other than a female can 'live as a female' .

The only true statement is that a person from one sex can live the life they perceive as being of the opposite sex. They are living out their perceptions and how they think that a person of the opposite sex lives life.

To make that statement believing that a male taking artificial hormones with a penis converted into a replica off vagina and that may be readily perceived as a woman by some, is just that. A male taking artificial hormones with a penis converted into a replica off vagina and that may be readily perceived as a woman by some people.

That does not mean they have any clue as to how a female, who has had a female sexed body since birth, lives their life. How having that body since birth has shaped the group of people that represent half of the population.

Considering how many of them transition after many years of living as a male, I have not yet been convinced by anyone that they should have the protections against negative sexist discrimination that females need from birth.

They need their own protections, but that is NOT feminists job to secure them.

And it does not matter how many of these males there are. At all. It is irrelevant. they are not females. Despite some feminists wishing to include those males in their work. And despite some organisations trying to make feminists the 'mothers' of the world to fight for other's rights ahead of their own.