Man-haters, Feminazis, and Steinem–oh my!
The slow degradation of the word “feminist” continues to be one of the most powerful weapons in the backlash against the women’s rights movement. How better to diminish the cause than to create an atmosphere where young girls believe that to be a feminist is to be a loser, where women feared that speaking their minds made them a bitch? It opens the door to tainting and tarnishing any issue, like the rape shield laws or the Fair Pay Act, that promised to make the country a better, safer place for females.”
I couldn’t agree more. There’s no better way to undermine the work of a movement than to sully its name to the degree that the common person reacts with disgust, contempt, and fear of being associated with it. That’s what backlash has done to feminism–it has made the word feminist so unpopular, so misunderstood, that it is scares people who identify with its mission into silence.
Kelly’s article continues by turning to an interesting source for guidance:
“So I decided to ask my personal hero what she thought. I e-mailed Gloria Steinem and asked her if she thought women lost interest in feminism once the word became synonymous in some circles with “witch.” … “There has been a long campaign against ‘feminism’ as a word and as a human rights movement,” she wrote. “I would say the introduction of the word ‘feminazi’ by Rush Limbaugh was the low point and beginning of the worst.” But the rest of her answer surprised me; “Every feminist issue has majority support in public opinion polls, and the word ‘feminist,’ even with no definition, causes at least as many women to identify with it as with the word “Republican”—about a third in both cases. With its dictionary definition, more than 60% of women identify with ‘feminist’ and, when they are measured, more than half of men … So some people may support the content and be afraid of the word, at least until they know who’s asking them and why.” And finally she reminded me that the proof is in legislation like the Fair Pay Act last year, and it doesn’t matter what people like Limbaugh or Beck think. “This is a revolution,” my hero reassured me, “not a public relations movement.”"
http://fairandfeminist.com/?p=205
= new reply since forum marked as read
I find people who trash talk feminism (and shy away from calling themselves feminists or furiously trying to distance themselves from "feminists"
to be... interesting.
So dems backed away from that word & in my opinion, that's when they started backing away from the policies as well. We started calling ourselves 'progressives' as we became less & less so.
My friend who was outraged by the repub rape comments this summer, but who then 'liked' Romney this fall, asked me just a few days ago, "Do you consider yourself a feminist?"
"Absolutely, I do! Don't you?"
"I'm not sure."
