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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Who Are Your Feminist Icons?

65 replies

ALunerExplorer · 05/01/2018 13:37

In his latest article for the Spectator, Brendon O'Neill praises Anne Widdicombe as the 'common sense' feminist icon' we 'should Hmm all get on board with'. Brendan O'Neill, whom I won't give the time of day to is a racist misogynistic arse, so his pronouncements are only good for the cat litter tray.

(Here's a link to it (if you can stomach him) blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/ann-widdecombe-is-the-feminist-hero-we-need-right-now/)

Since it is not for men to tell us who our feminist icons and hero's should be, I thought a thread so that we can name our own would be good. And they don't have to be famous - any woman who has inspired/mentored/helped counts.

Here's some of mine (the list isn't complete because there are so may Grin)

My Grandmother. (For far too many reasons to name here, but she was an activist her entire life)
My Mum (as above).
Mary Wollstonecraft (writer/mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein)
Emily Dickinson (poet)
Aphra Benn (restoration era poet and playwright)
Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (poet)
Effie Gray (artist)
Jane Austin (writer)
Eleanor Roosevelt (campaigner and activist)
bell hooks (writer and activist)
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza (liberation theologian who coined the term 'kyriarchy')
Barbara Castle (politican)
Angela Davies (activist and writer)
Roz Kaveny (poet and activist)
Harper Lee (Writer)
Audre Lorde (writer and activist)
Dianne Abbott (politican)

...to name but a few. Smile Who are some of yours?

OP posts:
PencilsInSpace · 05/01/2018 14:06

Roz Kaveny (poet and activist) is a bloke who thinks the cotton ceiling is a 'useful discussion'. What is it about his 'feminism' that inspires you?

AssassinatedBeauty · 05/01/2018 14:23

Germaine Greer, I had a total revelation when reading the Female Eunuch as a young teenager, and I think it saved me from much angst. Consequently my mum also, for having books like that around and generally being a great role model.

Ereshkigal · 05/01/2018 14:47

Hahahaha Roz Kaveney Grin you have me there, ALuner

Boredofwinternow · 05/01/2018 15:56

Roz Kaveney???

Boredofwinternow · 05/01/2018 15:57

Definitely just hit my peak alunerexplorer moment!

Boredofwinternow · 05/01/2018 15:59

Mine are

Germaine Greer
Andrea Dworkin
Julie Bindel
Emily Davidson
Any one of the suffragettes, actually
Meghan Murphy
Magdalen Berns
Simone de Beauvoir
Malala Yousafzai
Coretta King
Maya Angelou

To name but a few.

Boredofwinternow · 05/01/2018 16:00

Oh, also Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie.

LangCleg · 05/01/2018 16:00

Is this your "Where's Wally?" list of feminists, Luner?!

I'm going to have:

Mary Wollstonecraft
Pragna Patel

And, since we're also putting our favourite men in:

Friedrich Engels

Who said:

The first class opposition that appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression coincides with that of the female sex by the male.

Something useful to bear in mind in every feminist analysis, I feel. Don't you, Luner?

AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth · 05/01/2018 16:05

Roz Kaveny ? Def not a feminist

Megan Murphy
Magdalen Berns
Julie Bindel
Helen Lewis
Nicola Williams of Fairplay for Women

MANY of the posters on these boards. Too many to mention and I don't want to miss anyone, but it was largely these posters who reawakened me to feminism.

vaginafetishist · 05/01/2018 16:12

Roz Kaveny? Arf.

QuentinSummers · 05/01/2018 16:15

Julie Bindel
Caitlin Moran
Glosswitch
George Eliot
Mary Anning
Marie Curie
Shirley Chisholm
Andy Murray
Emma Watson
Leyla Hussain
Germaine Greer
Sarah Hrdy
Nancy Friday
Harriet Harman
Cressida Dick
Vigdis Finnbogadottir
Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Beard

So many

AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth · 05/01/2018 16:16

Didn't realise that Luner had started this.

Guess we know who she has been reading. The Roz Kaveny makes more sense now

sarahjconnor · 05/01/2018 16:32

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bellamuerte · 05/01/2018 16:34

Lucy Stone. Refusing to change her surname after marriage was a huge statement in those days. I love how she stuck to her guns and refused to lose her own identity.

BertrandRussell · 05/01/2018 16:34

Marilyn French
Germaine Greer
Mary Beard
First three that came to mind

BertrandRussell · 05/01/2018 16:36

Magdalen Berns
Cariad Lloyd
Holly McNish

GuardianLions · 05/01/2018 16:38

Roz Kaveny is a wanker.

As far as my feminist icons go - they are mainly who I personally know and I fear it would be outing for me to divulge.

I've noticed that tory public school boys seem to love Anne Widdicome.

BertrandRussell · 05/01/2018 16:39

This is an interesting discussion. I see someone mentioned Jane Austen. My favourite writer - but feminist icon? Why?.

onlyconnect · 05/01/2018 16:39

sarahjconnor you've made me cry! What a woman she must have been.

Ereshkigal · 05/01/2018 16:42

Wow your great gran sounds amazing, Sarah.

MrsKnightley · 05/01/2018 16:55

Janice Turner

Magdalene Berns

Glosswitch

sarahjconnor · 05/01/2018 17:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GuardianLions · 05/01/2018 17:10

Wow hats of to SarahJs ggrandmother!

sarahjconnor · 05/01/2018 17:23

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PricklyBall · 05/01/2018 18:51

Doris now makes it onto my list, Sarah. Thank you for telling us about her.

Let's see. Going for women who inspire me as well as feminists (and in no particular order, just as they occur to me).

Germaine Greer - the first feminist I ever read.
Virginia Woolf for a room of one's own.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Emelie du Chatelet
Rosa Parks
Julie Bindel
Sarah Hrdy
Margaret Atwood
Angela Carter
Barbara Strozzi (fabulous Renaissance composer)
Gwen John
Mary Cassatt (my mum was a portrait painter, so women artists figured in my childhood)
The Dagenham strikers
And while we're at it - Barbara Castle
The Grundig strikers

I think I would put Jane Austen in the list. Yes, the stories are superficially romance - but under the surface, she pulls no punches at all about what it is to be a woman in a world where the only respectable occupation open to you is to be a man's wife, and where you have no guarantees as to how the man you've married will turn out.