A beginners guide to feminism - which one are you!?

[DJLippy]

makemorenoisemanc.wixsite.com/mysite/mmnblog/the-feminist-cheat-sheet

Interesting piece from MMN about the different schools of feminism I didn't know there were so many!

Reading through I think I am 30% radfem, 10% eco feminist, 40% socialist feminist and 20% post modernist feminist.

Thoughts? What got missed?

Based on that I’m a mix of radical and liberal. It’s interesting though that the article uses the old definition of liberal feminism that I learned 20 years ago- not the 21st century sex positive version that us old crones get so annoyed by.
There’s no mention of muslim feminism. I think there should be, not least because it is so different from the other schools of thought that it does cover.

Ooh, really good article! I agree with Doo- that's very reminiscent of the libfem I grew up with. I generally feel I'm getting more radfem with age, but if we can go back to this definition of liberal, I'd be wavering . I have elements of Marxist and Anarchic in there, but at a much lower level.

I would also like to see African feminism (or did I miss that in there? Entirely likely!) and other forms of none West-centric approach: I'm pretty certain there are likely plenty of feminist approaches out there I'm not at all familiar with.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I haven't heard much about Muslim Feminism @doobigetta if you have any recommendations for further reading I'd love to take a look.

re African feminism @Herfzi we covered black feminism (and mentioned African Feminism in passing.) We appreciate the two schools of thought are not the same and we would be up for learning more - any links much appreciated!

As was said in article this list is not complete and we are still learning our feminism - as I am sure many women are!

I'm not sure I'm anyone of them or a feminist at all now.

Is there like a quiz to take?

I would LOVE to make this a Reddit Quiz. Why do I think they wouldn't like that?

Black feminist here

RadFem I think.

Not sure I'd put Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler in the same category

There's an interesting "What feminist are you?" test [[https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/FPS.php]]

MogPlus I think this is the link you mean openpsychometrics.org/tests/FPS.php/openpsychometrics.org/tests/FPS.php

Nice article. And I agree that Islamic feminism would be a good one to add. I studied it at uni (chose to do a research project on it) and it was fascinating.

Personally I think I'd call myself a radical socialist feminist. Although I tend to avoid labels.

I don’t know much about it, unfortunately @DJLippy - just read an article recently by a Muslim feminist and thought it was interesting. I’ll try and remember what it might have been and let you know.

For anyone interested in Feminism and Islam, i recommend Leila Ahmed: Women and Gender in Islam. Broadens the mind.

I agree with GenderIsAPrison in that I am completely non-plussed by that list and I think it is a weakness of Feminism that there are, seemingly, so many different strands which results in totally different objectives and no cohesive voice.

No other ideology is so fractured they all have one simple aim at their heart and those who adhere to that ideology all sing the same song and that increases their strength and likelihood of success.

Mog and King, thanks for test link. Interesting but slightly frustrating as I wanted to give nuanced answers to several! Agree/disagree didn't cut it!

I ended up a roughly equal mix of them all, apart from conservative - no surprises there

Ha! Me too, I'm 38 - 47 on everything except conservative

I don't see it as a movement thats fractured. Its a movement thats open and welcoming to a wide range of ideas. Its an excellent demonstration of how anti-authoritarian feminism is.

Imo, wide ranging ideas and differing ideas of how to achieve serves only to confuse, dilute the message and direction the end result being mixed messages which are easy to dismiss and this may be why so many women adamantly state they are not feminists.

Not sure - tipsy feminist at the moment 🤤

I seem to remember reading a Ann Oakley as a student (our history prof was a big fan).

I do not think these ideas are all mutually exclusive though - more a demonstration of how individual and groups of women have responded to the inequalities they experience. There is a coherent and consistent strand through it that women are indeed human beings and should not be treated as lesser. The difference is how that should be achieved.

Why would there only be one view about how women’s liberation and/or female equality should be achieved? There are around 3.5billion female people on the planet. They all have brains and ideas to impart. Not every woman sees the need for feminism, not every woman wants to challenge existing social structures, but since the advent of modern feminism, say from Wollstonecraft, feminism has been a conversation, sometimes an argument, between women about their lives and social position.

Feminism surely is the right to have that conversation freely and for women to decide what matters to them, not to narrowly define the boundaries and parameters of what should be advocated or discussed. Surely it is possible to have diverse voices and views in one movement to advance the social, economic, political and legal position of women, itself a massive task?

That was really a response to what RedDogsBeg said

Very well said!

KataraJean how do you advance or achieve the social, economic, political and legal position of all women if you have several groups within whose ideas are polar opposites? Which one of the many differing groups purporting to represent the movement do the powers that be listen to?

No other ideology is so fractured they all have one simple aim at their heart and those who adhere to that ideology all sing the same song and that increases their strength and likelihood of success.
I'd say this is a failing of left wing political movements generally.
Look at the number of left of centre parties vs right of centre in the UK. That's one reason it's hard to get a progressive left government - because of the split vote

RedDogsBeg if you look at women’s social, legal and economic position 150 years ago, say, and compare it with now, women have greater autonomy, opportunity and rights than previously (in the UK). There has never been a Feminist Party with a unified manifesto. Different groups have fought and campaigned for different things - liberal feminism brought us the right to retain property and earnings, the vote and equal pay (at different times obviously); socialist feminism argued for the professionalisation of housework and childcare (nurseries and nannies) to allow women to participate in public and civic life and remove economic inequality and also for family allowance, payments for housework, and wage equality, access to contraception so that women could practice family limitation; radical feminism challenged the idea that women were inherently different from men psychologically and unpicked sex roles and challenged them. Refugees and women’s aid organisations come from those roots as well.

I could go on about what neoliberal feminism has brought us, but I do not see that necessarily as contributing to greater equality as much as reframing sex roles as various forms of ‘choice’.

That is just a rough answer, but all of the gains in women’s political, social, legal and economic equality in the last 150 years have been made in a context of a diversity of voices and views of feminism, many theoretical writings and rich scholarship. Scholarship and writing which was rightly called out black feminists for not taking their interlocking struggles with racial oppression into account. Another layer.

How does change actually happen in this scenario? Probably piecemeal, bit by bit and always contingent on enough people, not only women, believing it to be the right thing to do. The always contingent caveat is important - women’s rights are not secure, and for as long as we live in a democracy and women have different biological roles than men, there will always be different views about the respective roles of men and women, just as there are different views about how to organise society generally.

Hell! I am ALL of those o any given day. It depends on what I am thinking / talking about, what the issue is.

LibFem as a lifelong, heartfelt feminist. ALL women and girls should have the same choices, the same opportunities as men.

Marxist and Socialist as class subordination won't automatically reduce every day sexism, but it is a start and classism needs to be fought!

RadFem because I just am a woman. Genes... genes... stop denying biology and accept that socialisation is a powerful moderator of thoughts, beliefs and behaviours!

But never Mainstream. Feminim isn't a bloody fashion statement!

Based on that I’m a mix of radical and liberal. It’s interesting though that the article uses the old definition of liberal feminism that I learned 20 years ago- not the 21st century sex positive version that us old crones get so annoyed by.

Pretty well sums up me too.