what does feminism mean to you?

[LeBFG]

After following (lurking mainly) on this board for a while, I've seen the threads where posters ask 'what is feminism?' 'do you describe yourself as a feminist?' etc.

For various reasons I won't go into, I've been recently asking myself, 'what does feminism mean to me?'. I wondered how well my top three important feminist issues corresponds with those of other posters. So in any case here are mine.

1. Violence: on women across the world (FGM, endemic rape, trafficking of women)

1. Work: workplace and maternity issues to incl. equality, culture and law

1. Education: to expand the penetration of women (and men) in the areas of society from which they are traditionally excluded (for example, women would be maths, engineering, power sports such as weight lifting etc, men would be the caring professions notably with young children). And very importantly of course, access to education in some parts of the world.

Underpinning these issues are a desire for equality and fairness: that women get the same overall deal as men basically.

How about you?

Blistory
I can't count how many times I've had to explain that I don't hate men, that I don't want men to be punished or penalised, that I simply want to focus on women for the purposes of the discussion and yet I'm told time and time again that I can't be for women without being against men. I can support a breast cancer campaign without it detracting from a testicular cancer campaign. I can support both equally but if I'm on here, then I'm going to talk about the one that affects women.

This.
Correct.
It's like the sneering "you don't wear a Poppy" type stuff; you can't imagine someone saying on the British Heart Foundation page "well what about liver cancer".

I'd expect feminists to concentrate on issues affecting women (or more properly on how all issues affect women). Mostly, men seem to benefit from changes that feminists have worked for... (bar some recidivists).