Feminism in 2018!

[Oojavert]

What does it mean to be a feminist in 2018? I would love to hear what being a feminist means to you personally and how this has evolved with the times. I know there are a lot of different views on this website and this post is not to inspire arguement! I just want to hear what progressive feminism feels for all of you.

Personally, being a feminist nowadays has definitely evolved over time. For me, I used to be obsessed with all the ‘normal’ issues like abortion, the patriarchy and tampon tax etc. but have now expanded my views to include LGBTQ+ issues and include people of colour in my narrative.

How about you?

LGBTQ+ issues and include people of colour in my narrative

I agree OP. Lesbians, bi females and women of colour should always be included in feminism. Actually all actual women should be centred in feminism. Glad we’re on the same page.

IDontEatFriedTurtles
Haha no agenda here! Sorry for the ambiguity

Why would being a feminist in 2018 be different? My feminism has always included lesbians and women of colour

Well Quentin maybe t "normal issues" like abortion have been solved or are old hat. And once we leave the EU, the UK government will be able to drop VAT on sanitary products so you can stop worrying about that.

(To be clear this is sarcasm)

Abortion still matters. I don't quite get this idea that feminism is different now. It's roughly 30 years since I was first made aware that feminism could be too centred around the experiences of white women and that maybe I should be trying harder to understand other viewpoints. It has been a painfully slow process moving away from that but it is an ongoing process rather than something that has just popped up recently.

Indeed, all women should be included in what feminists focus on, which naturally includes women of color and women who're gay.

Oh, wait, OP, did you mean that we should include men, because feminism means being everyone's mum?

The political movement for the liberation of women that we call Feminism has changed very little over the past hundred years.
People have tried to change it into an equality movement that includes men.
As soon as they do that it is no longer Feminism because it is no longer a political movement for the liberation of women.

“Feminism is a political practice of fighting male supremacy in behalf of women as a class, including all the women you don't like, including all the women you don't want to be around, including all the women who used to be your best friends whom you don't want anything to do with anymore. It doesn't matter who the individual women are. They all have the same vulnerability to rape, to battery, as children to incest. Poorer women have more vulnerability to prostitution, which is basically a form of sexual exploitation that is intolerable in an egalitarian society, which is the society we are fighting for.”
― Andrea Dworkin

Hi Oojavert. Glad you asked. The main way feminism has changed for me over time is this: When I was young I was a feminist because I considered it progressive, because it was about equality. Because it was what "people like me" were. It was primarily about not being an old fashioned bigot. It went hand in hand with supporting gay rights, tackling racism and not hating poor people. When I had children everything changed. I began to see how women are actively disadvantaged by the assumed role of care giver and the low value society places on this. And importantly I could see gendered roles being imposed on my children and the overt sexist gendered expectations. Having a ds helped me see the source of toxic masculinity and the generally low expectations around male behaviour. Having a dd who is gender non conforming helped me see the dangerous boy brain girl brain narrative and the harm it does our children. So my feminism has not so much progressed as grown up and opened its eyes to very real oppression.

My feminism comes from a lifetime of being the Only Woman in the Village (workplace, in other words)

Sometimes it was strident, angy and confrontational - like the time I went through the building ripping Pirelli calendars and Page 3 posters off the walls and lockers, with only the cleaners cheering me.

Sometimes it's been about lobbying, negotiating and representing the interests of women - as a class and as individuals - within my organisation. I'd been at it so long that I only have allies and supporters now. I rarely come across ignorance or boorishness.

Sometimes (as a boss) it's about encouraging, cajoling and mentoring the extraordinary and capable young women who might have remained at the bottom rung of the organisation without intervention. Their younger, less capable and mediocre male colleagues don't think twice about plunging forward in their careers. Hand-holding and leading by example is the most satisfying part of feminism.

It's about the way I brought up my children. Now, its about any influence that I can have on my grand-children.

So for me it's not about the single issues like abortion or the sex pay gap. It's about giving a leg up to the women around me. No-one did it for me, but then no-one will help women if I don't.

When I grew up, feminism was very much presented as strident women in dungarees and I didn't really connect it with my life.
Eventually, I fell in with anti-feminists, and believed feminism was about men and women being identical and interchangeable, lots of porn, pro prostitution, the destruction of the family etc. Etc.

When I finally managed to extricate myself from all that, as a mother to four children, who dealt with pregnancy related disability, with daughters trying to navigate the world, I realized that everything was set up for the benefit and comfort of men. I had been conditioned through abuse and submission into thinking it was noble, good and pure to be the sex that suffered stoically, and I began to rebel against that.

I started reading widely, and discovered that feminism really wasn't what I had thought it was. That it spoke to a real, human issue - and I began to see evidence of women's systematic oppression everywhere. I've been getting steadily angrier ever since, and more determined to make a dent in the whole twisted thing.

I don't know if that makes me a feminist, genuinely. But that's where I'm planting my flag right now.

Are you one of those people who evangelically see the light and "publicly acknowledge their white privilege" without actually doing anything else?
I am flabbergasted that you only considered those things to be white women's issues. Did you not think of woc as women?

I beg your pardon @NotMeOhNo I do not know who you are addressing with these accusations.

Hi Oojavert. I have to admit I wasn't very interested in feminism for most of my adult life, even though I worked in a male-dominated job and sometimes encountered problems with sexism. I was aware of some basic inequality but I felt that feminism had achieved most of its concrete goals, and what remained was just impossible to fix.

One day I stumbled across an MRA site called 'The Rights of Man'. I'd never heard of MRAs and was intrigued. I started trying to debate with them, and I also read anti-MRA sites like 'We Hunted the Mammoth'. MRAs hate feminists, really hate them, which made me interested in this 'feminism' that I was defending. When I looked, I found it weak and disappointing. It seemed to me that modern feminism was shying away from real issues for fear of causing offence, and was dwelling on trivial things that made it look ridiculous, like 'manspreading'. I was uncomfortable when I saw feminists supporting prostitution, aggressively pushing the idea that 'transwomen are women' and bashing one another over the head with accusations of 'white feminism'. I'd wanted to create a feminist Twitter account for arguing with MRAs, but I felt that I wouldn't fit in very well with the feminists I saw on there.

Then I discovered trans ideology. Radical feminists had been fighting it out with TRAs for years, but it was 2016 when trans ideology started to hit the mainstream. When women marched against Donald Trump, TRAs criticised them for daring to link female anatomy with being female. That was crazy. I started to read up on it and heard, among other things, about the cotton ceiling. I'd already known that the feminist movement was divided over the trans issue but it was only then that I began to understand how totally feminism is being destroyed. Liberal feminism is a mess, it's a shell of what feminism is supposed to be; it has lost sight of its central goal, sexual equality. I think now that it has to be rescued from the malign influences that have dragged it down and reoriented towards what it should be.

My feminism is the same in 2018 as it always was. I started reading feminist literature as a teenager 30 years ago but my own life and the lives of those around me taught me a lot too. working class background, early motherhood. I can't get on with this idea that feminism was always white and middle class and elitist in the past. It's an argument used by people who like to trash feminists, oh and include men in feminism

What does it mean to be a feminist in 2018?

What it always meant, defending the rights of those born female in a world run by men.

Only, now with the added burden of proving that people born female exist as a class in the first place.

Equality of opportunity is what drives my feminism.

It has always been a mystery to me why either gender should be treated any differently or have a different set of expectations or standards to the other, and my feelings on that front have not changed one bit.

One shift for me in later years has been to acknowledge toxic masculinity and the suppression of choice and opportunity for boys and men as part of the problem.

I would have to agree with a pp that "my" feminism hasn't really changed; it has simply grown up. When you are a girl or a young woman, you simply haven't had the time or experience to understand exactly why feminism is so necessary. You nod your head when bloggers discuss the empowerment of prostitution and pornography because, simply put, you know fuck-all about the world and how it works.

You don't care about things which have a massive impact on women, such as maternity - you have not had to live through the incredible and dehumanizing process of becoming a mother in a society which devalues mothering while simultaneously holding it up as a woman's highest calling. Your supposed "highest calling" in life is worthless. Creating and raising the next generation of our species is treated like a fucking hobby, like gardening or scrapbooking.

... sorry, little tangent at the end. Ultimately, feminists are still fighting the same battles as ever. Except now the words we use to describe ourselves and our oppression are being taken from us.

Means the same to me as it ever did. Standing up for women in a world where men usually set the agenda, and not conforming to gender stereotypes. I discovered feminism as a 20 yr old after a pretty normal childhood for a girl I guess - exposed to by a male relative, invited to go and see some random man’s kittens ( As a naive 9 year old I would have gone had a neighbour not shouted out,) flashed at by random man on the street, excruciating embarrassment at wolf whistles and calls of ‘cheer up love it might never happen’ etc etc. Then in my 20s finding out that men I had worked with and trusted were child abusers, etc . Volunteering for rape crisis, supporting women affected by male violence. All pretty standard stuff right? For girls & women. Feminism helped me deal with all this, make sense of it and stand up to it. So in 2018 I think we have made some progress but not sure really how much has changed - and am appalled to see how far we are going backwards in some ways - threats to safe spaces, girls not feeling they have the right to voice concerns, and belief that if you don’t conform to gender stereotypes then maybe you’re born in the wrong body

It's odd that your feminism didn't always include lesbians and non-white females. Why didn't it?

It's odd that your feminism didn't always include lesbians and non-white females. Why didn't it?

Really. Would you like to share the evidence of that? Lesbians and non-white females have always been women. Maybe you’re confusing your own bigotry with the reality of feminism. 🤔 You should really work on your unconscious racism and homophobia.

Who are you talking to, PositivelyPERF?

Well you’re the one making accusations about feminists, RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime OP, so I think you can take it that I’m talking to you.

No I'm not, and my post is quite clear so I'm not sure why you think that. I've asked the OP why her feminism didn't always include lesbians and non-white women, because she states this is a recent development:

"but have now expanded my views to include LGBTQ+ issues and include people of colour in my narrative."

Why did you think I'm making accusations about feminists when I'm addressing a comment to the OP solely, about her approach to feminism?