What is a Feminist?

[TheSinglePringle]

What exactly is a feminist? I seriously don't know and would like to.

What do you think a feminist is?

Maybe, if you put your thoughts down, we can discuss from there?

Hope this helps

this is the definitive and only answer, it took me three days and gazillions of hours to find this please read

Lol at it taking three days and a gazillion hours to find Wikipedia (and love that google thang. Who knew such a thing existed? )

Am faintly amused that an mner has not the faintest preconception at all or even come across the term, nor been privy to any public comment on feminism. Amazing.

Google and wiki are nowhere near as much fun as starting a bun fight, though. Spoilsports.

bun fight?

feminism....its really just women complaining about shit

Hang on, Custardo, I thought it was women complaining about shits.

I'm new to the site and have been going through it slowly. So thought I would ask while was here.

You might be new to the site, SinglePringle, but feminism isn't exclusive to MN which makes length of stay irrelevant.

Astonishing that anyone would genuinely not know what feminism is. Do you just mean you're not good on the details?

I just don't know what it is. Closest I've heard to feminism is burning bras. I've read a few threads but don't understand fully so I asked. Just a simple explanation will do.

Well, I did a google search on the word feminism. The first result says:

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women.

The second says:

Feminism is a lie of the Devil.

So, take your pick

Think il go with the first. I saw threads on rape and similar things which are sore subjects to me so wanted to see what feminism actually was first before posting or replying to posts.

Wasn't trying to bother anyone. Was just a genuine question from a not very knowledgeable 21 year old

Jeez, don't rip her head off.

Feminism is an ideology that believes women should have the same rights and are as equal as men. A lot of men and women disassociate themselves from it (mind fucking boggles) as it threatens the still shit status quo we live in. Not the most in-depth explanation but it is 3.40 am.

Hi again SinglePringle

I'm impressed at how thoroughly you're investigating the boards on MN!!

You'll find a lot of very feisty and fascinating discussion on feminist issues in this area and I for one have learned enormous amounts about feminism by both lurking and posting here.

If some posters come across as a bit irritable about your simple and reasonable question, it's because it's a classic approach by trolls to stir up some feminist ire. And believe me, we get a lot of those on this board.

If you genuinely want to find out more about feminism, then keep lurking here. If you get much time to read, The Equality Illusion by Kat Banyard is an excellent and very informative read about modern feminism.

But in its simplest form, feminism is about perceiving that men and women are not treated or regarded as being equal in our world, that this is unfair (to put it mildly - it can be a lot more horrific than that) and to have the desire to want true equality.

It's not quite as simple as thinking men and women should be treated equally. It's possible to think that and not be a feminist.

A feminist is someone who, before they say or do anything, considers what impact it will have, however small, on how women are treated or perceived. For a feminist, the personal is political.

Really seeker?

Aw crap, I suck at being a feminist then. :(
Can I be a part-time one? I would usually say I am a feminist (just not a well read one!), but I don't always consider the impact. I would probably spend my life second guessing myself.

Caitlin Moran:

a) Do you have a vagina? and
b) Do you want to be in charge of it?
If you said ‘yes’ to both, then congratulations! You’re a feminist.

OK. A feminist is someone who tries to consider.....

Not sure why people were so instantly rude to the OP. Unless there is a back story to this particular poster, surely queries like this should be considered genuine til proved otherwise?

I think it has something to do with the general calibre of posts at one thirty am after a lot of wine, seeker- nothing more sinister than that. That said, it does seem a bit daft to expect people to explain something to you as if you were an alien from Mars; some starting point might have been useful, as the OP is clearly capable of using a computer.

I agree. But the op was not in any way offensive. And there are depressingly obviously a lot of people who need to be educated on the subject- why notnsieze the opportunity!

It was only 7pm here. and no wine imbibed. These threads are usually started to get the fems arguing into the wee hours.

Really? A 21yo woman with no idea what feminism is?

To be honest, it's very interesting. At 21 she probably hasn't suffered that much obvious gender discrimination (it will have been v subtle) but presumably the op is about to have a child, or has just had one, and her employment prospects and the very way she is treated by the entirety of society are about to be entirely constructed by her gender alone. So whether she likes it or not, it might be quite useful to finally find out what feminism is.

I think most young women tend to the oblivious side until inequality either sneaks up on them or smacks them in the chops without warning. But tbh, most of them have heard about feminism and see it as something historic and not at all relevant to their own situation as we are all equal now... Until they realise they aren't. I'm fascinated that a 21 yo has no concept at all, instead of a vague understanding and a belief that it isn't anything that needs to concern them.

But yes, ok. Welcome to the totally genuine op. apols for assuming you were a troll.

MadWoman.. I have a 2 year old son.
I get the comments off men but they don't seem to bother me but reading some threads here makes me think they should.

I have only heard that feminism is bra burning and hair growing but guessed it is a lot more then that. I didn't google as I tried and basically didn't understand some of it so thought I would just ask people directly on here.

It was posted late as I couldnt sleep so thought I would use time to ask questions. Wine was not involved then but is now

I saw a few things about rape and would like to post but didn't want to jump straight in and end up looking an idiot. I have had a bad experience which happened at 15 and maybe knowing some thing on feminism and other things will make me see things differently.

Also what is a bun fight?

I had no idea about feminism when I was 21 either. I went around college at 16/17/18/19 talking shit about how I was an equalist because I wanted equal rights but didn't want to be better than men, like feminists do - I have literally no idea where this idea came from.

Then all the feminist stuff I found online was all about making placenta prints and yoni jewellery and painting with your menstrual blood and just really NOT my thing, so I continued this idea that it wasn't relevant to me at all. I used to follow someone on livejournal who was a feminist of this ilk, and then one day she posted a chapter from a feminist book, about menstruation and how we're conditioned to see it as dirty, you have whole aisles in the supermarket for "feminine hygeine", "femfresh" wipes etc. Where are the "manfresh" wipes? And so it interested me but I had this weird idea that I wasn't "supposed to" be interested in feminism or something, so I largely ignored it until the board came on mumsnet, and then I started reading, and reading, and agreeing, and learning, and reading some more, and posting too, and now I would definitely consider myself a feminist, or at least interested in feminism, since there's no way I could say that I do what seeker posted :(

Glad its not just me then BB. Felt like a right thick twat with people been amazed I didn't know much. What I googled was similar to what you found to so freaked me out abit! That's why I asked on here because after seeing some threads I realised I'm best asking on here.

I was hoping coming into this forum will help me see things differently after years of thinking what I do over something that happened 6 years ago.