Why aren't women feminists? Surely no-one thinks all the battles have been won?

[WideWebWitch]

OK, so I don't have any proper evidence to back this up (so don't post I hear you say, oh well, I bet there is some, so I will!) but I gather that increasingly young women aren't feminists and don't believe there's any need for a feminist movement of any kind. They think all the battles have been won. I know for sure they haven't but WHY do they think this? And why would anyone NOT be a feminist? If you're not, why not? I know this conversation has been had before on mn but I'm still interested.

I agree with Janice Turner about New Woman mag rebranding itself because young women don't like the word 'woman' fgs, this is an example of the sort of thing I mean.

yep, the flowers... in the first couple of years of our relationship dh gave me flowers and 'congratulated' me on Women's Day. He is an impeccable feminist so I didn't mind, but did find the whole thing rather suspect.

Blimey, women should take responsibility for MEN'S harrassment of them? I'm gobsmacked at that suggestion.

lol lol
I was always being 'congratulated' on something or other in Russia.
Birthdays
Holidays
Returns to Britain
Queen Mum's funeral (or was it birthday??)

WWW she shagged him!!
Did that just happen without her being aware of it then?
I'm bloody gobsmacked too.Since when did being a feminist mean we took leave of our senses???

I hate this bloody victim mentality.
Does us no bloody favours at all.

I'm not talking about shagging, I'm talking about the idea that if a man harrasses a woman (an 18yo) SHE ought to take some responsibility for it. Do correct me if that's not what you meant.

Dc, what are you on about when you say "The slavish obediance of the loud feminists to increasingly discredited policies (unions, anti-nuclear, etc)" - er, who said they were discredited? I still think unions are a good thing and I certainly think nuclear weapons are a bad thing.

Aloha, absolutely, I agree.

It's not victim mentality to suggest that men who sexually harrass women take some responsibility for THEIR actions. It's not a woman's fault if a man harrasses her!

WWW,I'm suggesting that if a woman (and yes,an 18 year old is a woman) shags a man,she takes some responsibility for it,that's all.
What do you think?

(And I do think it is pretty despicable for a lecturer to prey on his students,yes.)

I don't know all the ins and outs of your situation, but it sounds to me like he should have been thrown out as well. It was wrong for the University to take sides.

However I agree with Moondog that an 18 year old girl is old enough to bear some of the responsibility.

MP,I agree that he should have been brought to task.
I also think you should take some responsibility/
I also think Naomi Wolf overreacted. it was a hand on a knee,not a rape.

In general agree with moondog here. I do sympathise with the university situation, although that may have in part been due to the hierarchical nature of the university rather than sexism as such. I fell foul of my supervisor whilst doing my PhD (health and safety issue- not sexism at all- he really wasn't like that at all- more incompetence than anything) and found I couldn't really go anywhere with my issue because of the hierarchical nature of the university.

Is it okay to say I actually now think I agree with all of you??

All points seem valid (referring to custy, WWW, Aloha, hannahsaunt) even though they are apparently in conflict.

I'm certainly not agreeing with Moondog, sorry my lovely, but "I dont buy this victim mentality" is giving a certain type of man a licence to pray on a more vulnerable type of woman, because she shouldnt be "playing the victim". I think that whilst women can do alot of things to safeguard themselves, you will find, more often than not, the man who conducts himself in such a manner often selects a woman because of vulnerability. To suggest she take responsibility for that is like suggesting that any other fragile member of society be responsible for being a victim of some kind of abuse.

I was the one who initiated the whole thing.

I thought he was sexy.

It was a challenge to see if I could get him into my bed.

I worked at it.

No, I'm not proud of it, but he didn't take advantage of me.

I wanted to jump his bones from day 1.

And whilst establishment continues to protect this type of character, over and above the vulnerable woman - whether she takes part responsibility or not, only proves to give further licence to them to continue with this kind of behaviour.

Dont agree that heirachy is an acceptable excuse to abuse power at all.

Agree VVV.
and yes, you're allowed to agree with ALL of us!

Agree with Riab, Twiglett and Martianbishop. But to answer the OP, the reason women aren't feminists is because they're too busy being practical and juggling it all...whether they're in their 20/30s climbing the career ladder, in their 30s/40s having kids, being SAHMs or FT/PT WOHMs, or in their 50s/60s working and/or helping out with their grandkids childcare. We are victims of our own success!
Particularly agree with martianbishop re the sleb aspiration. Is sooooo sad.

I wasn't vulnerable.

I was a calculating little hussie.

Did you get kicked out of university Expat?

Yes expat, but you are quite unique and we love you for it

No, WWW, b/c we continued it for a long while.

We liked it.

Yep, really wrong. But that's how it was.

Also, it was in the US, and I can tell you, he'd have been the one to lose over there if it got out.

Different dynamic there.