"Women against feminism" WTF?!!

[Desperate2012]

Really. Just heard about this as a "thing". Honestly, like there aren't enough important issues out there some women feel their biggest battle is AGAINST feminism. Lets just shoot ourselves in the foot then. Gaaaah!!! Had to get that off my chest

But saying no to feminism means saying no to being treated like an equal, and for expecting other women to be treated as equals.

Women against feminism is a bunch of entitled, whiny, well off women who haven't got the first clue about the oppression other women feel in every aspect of their lives, if they are even allowed to live.

It's.. petulant, for want of a better word. Thinking you're too cool for feminism, like it's so 'right on' to be past feminism when you're living a life that wouldn't have been possibly even just 40 years ago. Not a fucking clue between them.

No it doesn't. Just because you think so doesn't mean it's right. Feminism doesn't have to be the only thinking that supports equal rights for all. Gender Egalitarianism for instance. Or Egalitarianism as a whole.

It's.. petulant, for want of a better word. Thinking you're too cool for feminism, like it's so 'right on' to be past feminism when you're living a life that wouldn't have been possibly even just 40 years ago. Not a fucking clue between them

And this shows you've ignored how I've tried to explain why some women are rebelling against it.

And attitudes like yours is perhaps another reason why people don't want to support feminism. Other women telling them what they have to think otherwise it means X.

Perhaps they should be saying 'I don't need my interpretation of your feminism' then.

Perhaps we should be working towards changing their interpretation instead of letting these other people tar their view of the whole cause.

Some of the original points from the women concerned were considered, thought through opinions. It seems a bit off to dismiss them just because they don't agree with your viewpoint.

aligning yourself with WAF though, which is what these women are doing, isn't making a statement about rejecting notions of authoritative feminisms. Have you actually read the posts they've got put up? "I don't need feminism because I enjoy it being a housewife". Women have been loud for years about promoting women's rights to make the best choices for them, regardless. Rejecting feminism because you haven't taken the time to understand it, and its context is juvenile.

Another one said 'I don't need feminism because my sex life is not a political agenda.' Hardly juvenile.

Some people see ways of advancing equality that does not align itself with feminism. No harm in that - just a different route. This denial of any other way seems rather authoritarian, and as I said earlier, smacks of religion.

Yes I did read it, and I suppose she put that because many women have been shot down and accused of 'being hand maidens to the patriarchy' for wanting to be a housewife.

Perhaps they should be saying 'I don't need my interpretation of your feminism' then.

And perhaps you should be saying "You do need my interpretation of feminism though."

Exactly Morphine

Curwen and Morphine, you are spot-on and it is about time some feminists stopped thinking it is they who have turned the world on its axis. There are women in some cultures in this country for whom feminism has done nothing. So feminism helped the white middle-classes smash the glass ceiling so they could earn £100k and hire Filipino maids to scrub their bogs. Do you think the maid gives a shit about ceiling-smashing?

I'm afraid I agree up to a point. I did consider myself a bit of a feminist in years gone by but now when I see feminist issues I think no I don't agree with that at all.

"now when I see feminist issues I think no I don't agree with that at all."

Please could you say what it is you don't agree with?

I don't agree with all men are violent types. All Men are potential rapists. And abortion to term if a woman has changed her mind about having a baby. I know all feminists won't agree with these things but they should stand up strongly and say so if they don't.

I don't know anyone who says that all men are violent. But all men are potential racists- in the same way that all human beings are potential murderers. There are circumstances in which you have to have that thought in mind.

Abortion is a really difficult one. The problem is that if you believe in a woman's right to choose then the logical extension of that is that there can be no conditions. I have struggled with this since I became a feminist in the early 1970s. I know that for me personally a non medically indicated abortion would be impossible. That would be how I would exercise my right to choose. However, I have to support other women's different choices. And the "abortion to term' thing is always brought up as a smoke screen when women's reproductive rights are being discussed, and attempts are made to curtail them.

As I said earlier, feminism sees to be the only movement that some people think you have to accept anything that any feminist has ever said or you have to reject the whole movement. I am a lifelong Labour voter- and labour politicians have said many things I don't fare with over the years. That doesn't mean I started voting conservative!

That should be "potential rapists" in my first line. Whether they are potential racists is a whole other thread!

Are those the only things you disagree with, Vivienne? Are there things you do agree with?

Go and take a look at one of the AIBU threads from yesterday where the OP was bewailing the 'atrocious attitudes' of some fathers when it comes to childcare. Apparently, attending toddlers' birthday parties isn't really a 'dad' thing and that is appalling, sexist, lazy, blah, blah. Guess what? The massive majority of posters came on to say 'who gives a shit?' Their husbands had a season ticket for his football team and would rather go there than some party for rambunctious snotty-nosed tots. It was the mums who dragged themselves to these parties; mums who slaved over birthday cakes and party bags; mums who shopped for all the kiddie shite. And no-one complained. They accept that it's not a dad's 'thing' and no, they didn't bemoan the inequitable nightmare of it all for them as feminists. They really don't care.

As long as we have money we don't give a shit about equality. We have equal pay now and most of us won't ever suffer the horror of being raped by our husbands. That isn't because feminists have girded the rapist's loins - or even forced that curmudgeonly, sexist judge to pull his socks up -it is because society has moved on - largely all by itself.

'As long as we have money we don't give a shit about equality. We have equal pay now and most of us won't ever suffer the horror of being raped by our husbands.'

Erm ... what?

We don't have equal pay. We only have the law saying you mustn't discriminate (and only in the UK, not everywhere). We're a long way from equal pay, and what's more, the situation is worse for women of colour in many places.

I don't know who 'us' is, but statistically, if you mean 'women in the UK' ... yes, a significant proportion of 'us' will be raped by our husbands. It's horrible, I know. But it happens.

Greedybitch-just checking. Do you mean that or are you being ironic? I don't want to answer until I'm sure.