How did you become a feminist?
Nov. 10th, 2006 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlock*NOTE: follow the link because there are guys in the GW.org discussions, too, and it's interesting to read their thoughts on self-identifying as feminists.
From Girl-Wonder.org to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kphoebe to voleuse, my response to the question how I became a feminist:
It's remarkably similar to the response linked above, actually. It's not so much realizing that I was, it was realizing that other people weren't.
I was raised by two open-minded people who believed that women and men deserved equality, and that I could be anything I wanted to be in life.
When I grew up enough to realize that the world was a lot more sexist than the home that sheltered me, I intrinsically knew no one had the right to make me feel like I was less or worse because I was female. I don't remember any particular moment when that happened, because it feels like I've always known that.
My parents weren't perfect, and in little ways the sexism of their parents still influenced them, particularly in how jobs are divided within the domestic sphere. And there's a bit of the nature vs. nurture argument that's always in question, as I think my dad honestly believes that girls by nature are less inclined to certain activities. Not that they don't have every right to do them, but just that he expects they won't want to. We've had debates about this, and about how much is institionalized by society's messages to kids growing up, and how much really is biological.
Out of this you got a kid who was a feminist before she knew what the word meant, or even before she knew it wasn't a belief everyone else in the world held too. And when she realized that the rest of the world didn't necessarily believe that women were absolutely entitled to everything men were entitled to and that it's so stupid to imply otherwise that it shouldn't even be a question in a reasonable and logical society, well... she was pretty annoyed and somewhat disappointed in her fellow humans. Because she was a logical, pragmantic kid and anything less than equality just didn't make any sense. No sense at all.
You'll notice that in this matter, I haven't changed much in 22 years.
From Girl-Wonder.org to
kphoebe to voleuse, my response to the question how I became a feminist:It's remarkably similar to the response linked above, actually. It's not so much realizing that I was, it was realizing that other people weren't.
I was raised by two open-minded people who believed that women and men deserved equality, and that I could be anything I wanted to be in life.
When I grew up enough to realize that the world was a lot more sexist than the home that sheltered me, I intrinsically knew no one had the right to make me feel like I was less or worse because I was female. I don't remember any particular moment when that happened, because it feels like I've always known that.
My parents weren't perfect, and in little ways the sexism of their parents still influenced them, particularly in how jobs are divided within the domestic sphere. And there's a bit of the nature vs. nurture argument that's always in question, as I think my dad honestly believes that girls by nature are less inclined to certain activities. Not that they don't have every right to do them, but just that he expects they won't want to. We've had debates about this, and about how much is institionalized by society's messages to kids growing up, and how much really is biological.
Out of this you got a kid who was a feminist before she knew what the word meant, or even before she knew it wasn't a belief everyone else in the world held too. And when she realized that the rest of the world didn't necessarily believe that women were absolutely entitled to everything men were entitled to and that it's so stupid to imply otherwise that it shouldn't even be a question in a reasonable and logical society, well... she was pretty annoyed and somewhat disappointed in her fellow humans. Because she was a logical, pragmantic kid and anything less than equality just didn't make any sense. No sense at all.
You'll notice that in this matter, I haven't changed much in 22 years.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-11 05:19 am (UTC)You know, it really shocked me when I found out that the term 'feminist' drew looks; really bad looks, at that. The day I learned there was a term for people who opposed sexism, I sort of stuck to the title of 'feminist' with a hellotta pride, and then I learned that it was something ridiculed on TV, often associated with images of burly women.
In truth, the media is simply confusing the term 'feminist' with 'female supremacist', because there is no way the public can look down on women-and-men equality. In the case of 'female supremacist', I definitely get where they're coming from; women claiming to be superior to men is just as bad as what history features. Still, though, I demand that they would be more careful with the terminology; people are forgetting that feminism is all about equality, and nothing about supremacy. Nor is it about advocating bras and neglecting to shave. I don't want to see the term 'feminist' used as a target for ridicule ever, ever again.