I am one... but why don't I want to be called one?

[ShanahansRevenge]

A feminist that is. I am very much a strong minded woman...independant, succesful and up for the rights of all females in all ways...so why do I feel uncomfortable with the label "Feminist"?

I think it might be due to the negative connotations of the word...the way a lot of people percieve feminists...it conjures up an image that genral sciety aren't comfortable with doesn't it?

Which in turn puts us..the very people who matter most in the fight for equality..at massive disadvantage. Isn't it time for a rebrand?

Why stick with the old title? Why have a "title" at all? Why not just "be" what we are? Women, strong ones...independant,intellegent, talented, funny, succesful..whatever. Get on with making change...forging a future for women where we don't need a name for what we are and what we do or want.

Whatever Sixpence...you come over as unbalanced rather than passionate.

x posts, with about 10 posts, this time.

I see there are practical reasons Dittany...I came here looking for thoughts and found some very informed opinions and also some mad sounding crap...maybe that's the problem. When someone like sixpence is willing to call a woman like me a woman hater..that's what other people see as crazy.

how far will you go to appease those that will oppress you? and what good do you think it will do in the long run? If you could answer without snide put-downs that would be great.

Sixpence you were the one who began the put downs.

I came on here as a woman who has had nothing to do with any organised Faminist group...who has never conversed with a group of women who hold the same strong beliefs as me and I was prety much scared off.

I won't be told I am a woman hater nor that I am not really as commited as you towards equality... thought I might get some interestng comversation/debate and I did get some...but also what I never expected and that was pretty much "you can't join our club"

That's the million dollar question Shanahan

Anything that challenges the status quo will face a backlash from the status quo, and they are the ones that control what does and doesn't get heard.

But if more and more people use the word, in more and more contexts it will become a bit less 'other'. It's like the Fawcett 'This is what a feminist looks like' campaign. By showing how 'normal' looking people and celebs are feminist too it normalises it. There are things that are and aren't 'normal' and 'common sense' to say and that needs shifting. But alas it is only ever as much as the status quo allows

dittany...I never told anyone to do anything...I began a debate.

You see...I have never heard of Fawcett...or the campaign.So how great was it?

No I never Dittany...I said it did not need a name. I never said that women should not join together to fight inequality.

Ether Feminists want other like-mided women to join with them...AND take on the name or they want to scare them off with bullying because their veiws don't conform to what's accepted in terms of being a Feminist.

Why not just accept that we are a group, called feminism, and that we work towards equality? We'd love you to join our club, we just don't want you to piss on it from a great height.

Here you go

Fawcett are the ones trying to get a judicial review of the government's finger in the air budgeting that discriminates against women.

Well saying that I don't like labels does not mean I don't want to fight alongside other women.

Why should we change the name because the male-orientated media have sneered at it? We have a name, they laugh at it, we change the name - patriarchy at it's best! No, we can better reclaim the name as already suggested. Educate people, especially other women, that you do not need to be a man-hater, wear Doc Martins or shave your head in order to be a feminist and stand up for yourself. (although you can if you want!)

OP: I think you found what you were looking for here actually

Very interesting thank you Alice...the thing is...I do wonder why I never saw that? Is it because I don't read the kind of sites where I might come into contact with it? Why are things like this not more in the public eye? Maybe it was and I missed it.

The judicial review stuff has been in the news, although I knew about it a good long time before it was. Not for some secret reason, just cos I am hooked into the feminist web sites.

But in general feminist stuff doesn't get much coverage. Often unless to perpetuate myths and generate backlash. Cos we live in a patriarchal society, and the media reflect that.

I think dittany you are mistaking ignorance for disrespect...I am woman enough to say that I never really knew much about Feminism..before coming here... still don't but I have learned a lot already...I am and have always been someone who held strong beliefs re womens rights.

I probably represeted a large portion of society when I posted that OP...my thoughts have been somewhat changed...so I did get what I was looking for jenny60....I learned something.

Here's a hypothetical conversation.

Shanahan'sRevenge: Yes, I sort my recycable rubbish and am proud to do so.
Jeremy Clarkson: You plainly live in a tree and want all humanity to die out so the earth can 'heal'.
Shanahan'sRevenge: No! I'm not an environmentalist.
Jeremy Clarkson: That's all right then