Do you consider yourself a feminist? Whether you do o not, what does that word mean to you?

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000

Answers

Please excuse my typo! I think you know what I mean, anyway. To answer my own question: hell, yes! I'm all about equal pay, equal opportunities, and equal respect for everyone regardless of gender. I'm also vehemently pro-choice, but I don't think that's necessarily a criterion for feminism. As long you support the choices of others regardless of how those choices stack up against traditional gender roles, then you are basically a feminist.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000

Damn straight! Feminist is not a bad word.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000

Yes, I do consider myself feminist. I hate the word itself, though, because it sounds like a feminist is someone who wants to promote women above all others, when in fact they only want to bring them up to equality.

I used to think the time for feminism was over. Then I hit the work force . Then I became a mother, and things got harder still, partly because of my own controlling tendencies, though, I have to admit. I WANT to be the one primarily responsible for my daughter's care, I just don't want the world to ASSUME that's the way it must be.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

Yep, feminist here. I've been one since the days when we were called "Women's Libbers." That's before some of you young women were born.

Someone once said (and I really *am* getting old, because I can't remember who - Simone de Beauvoir, maybe?) that feminism is the radical idea that women are people. That about sums it up.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

I would say I'm a feminist, by the above definition anyway. I really don't think women should fight for *equality* though, because I truly think we're superior in so many ways. We can bear children, we're much deeper emotionally, we're better friends, better listeners, I could go on and on, but I want to stay humble. :) Which is another thing we are.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

I'm definitely a feminist, but I don't like to say that word. It's fine until idiots like Rush Limbaugh start giving it negative connotations and shit. But I'm all for equality. I can't really imagine the mentality of someone who isn't.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

I think I became a feminist at seven, which was in 1972. I have been one ever since.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

Maggie, what opened you up to feminism at age 7?

It's interesting to me that most people believe men & women should be equal, but are still reluctant to use the word "feminist". It's sad the way the word has been corrupted by Rush and his ilk. I always make a point of calling myself a feminist because I want to bring back its original meaning. Pro-woman does not mean anti-man! Maybe we need a new word. Any suggestions?

You know what I hate? If public restrooms are going to offer baby changing stations they should be available in both the men's & women's rooms, not just the women's!!! I do like the way that some department stores have started having "family" restrooms, for parents with small children of the opposite gender. I don't even have kids, but this is something I always notice.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

Hell, yes. But I'm more of an equal opportunity, equal before the law, equal respect blah blah equalitycakes feminist than an "all sex is rape" feminist. I don't think women are (typically) superior to men in everything, just the skills that are necessary to run civilization.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

Right on, Jill. If women and men are to have equal opportunites, then they also must have equal responsibilies. And one of those responsibilities is child care. I don't have kids either, but the changing-room-in-the-ladies-room thing bothers me, too. It's as though fatherhood is a lesser type of caretaking than motherhood. It also bugs the shit out of me when a father's staying with the kids on Saturday afternoon while Mom is out is called "babysitting." Um, no, it's called "parenting." Sheesh.

Duke of URL, the "all sex is rape" school of thought is the kind of radicalism that gives all feminism a bad name.

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2000

Of course.

All the cool kids are.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2000

"All sex is rape" doesn't have enough adherents to be a school of thought. If there really were that many radical feministas floating around things would be way different!!! "All sex is rape" is just something some random person said that got way blown out of proportion by a bunch of scared little men.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2000

I've heard a number of women on various t.v. shows talk about "all sex is rape", and I'm not talking about watching Sally Jesse Raphael, so I don't think it was all about one woman and a bunch of scared little men. I've also read a bunch of that stuff from various internet bulletin boards. Some women believe it.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2000

Maybe there actually are people who go for the "all sex is rape" rhetoric but I imagine that they are few and far between. It would be interesting to know where that idea actually originates, though.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

All sex is sex, and I'll take it any way I can git it! Yee haw!

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

Regarding the "all sex is rape" thing: I think it comes from the fact that it's all intrusional (a word? I don't know). It does seem that there's an inherent violence to intercourse - since only one person's being "entered", you know? I have seen a lot of women say the all sex is rape thing, on tv, and it seems that I've read it in a couple of things. It's an incredibly separatist view though, not a feminist view. In my opinion.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

That was Andrea Dworkin, right? Or am I mixing up my fringe feminists again? I figure you could look at it as one person "being entered", or you could flip it over and say that one person's doing all the "engulfing". How does that sound? Is that a more powerful term?

I'm a feminist. How could I not be? How could I look at myself in the mirror each morning if I thought that women didn't deserve the same rights as men? Fuck Rush Limbaugh. Who cares what he says?

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore......oh, wait, was that my cue?

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

That answer would be "yes, hell yes." I was raised a feminist and damn proud of it. First girl in a shop class in my school system, thank you very much (and thanks Dad, for making a big stink and getting me in!)

Life's too short to just do the "girl stuff"...total work and pay rights for everyone. I think there are a lot more feminists out there than admit it (because the word has gotten such a strange mis- definition.)

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

I think it was Camille Paglia I was thinking of.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

Hmm, I don't know, that just doesn't sound like Camille Paglia to me.

I've heard the "all sex is rape" argument before and frankly it made me angry. (Ha, isn't that ironic: a man getting angry over a statement like "all sex is rape". Well, I thought it was.) I've heard the woman-centric "hey I'm the one getting penetrated over here, you intruder" perspective and I've heard the man-centric "hey I'm the one getting engulfed over here, you smotherer" perspective. My view is that somebody's taking it all too seriously and they should just get over themselves. No offense.

My opinion on feminism? I'm against haters, period, whether they are man-haters or woman-haters. Proponents or champions of women's rights are OK by me so long as they don't stoop to dumb things like "all sex is rape" or spelling "woman" as "womyn" or insisting that one shouldn't attend "seminars" but instead we should call them "ovulars" if they are of, by or for women (I kid you not). You get the picture. Just let's not get silly, okay?

Chicks, man... gotta love 'em. :-)

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

Er, I don't at all mind women calling themselves "womyn" if it makes them feel better. It's a free country. If they'd like to call themselves flutergorks from now on, that's fine w/ me too. Who cares? Why does it bother you if people call themselves whatever feels good to them?

As for the "seminar" thing, etc, well, that bears talking about as well. Not so much as a point of argument in itself -- I mean, how many people know the root of seminar at this point, anyway? -- but as a general example of the degree to which our language reflects a consideration of men ahead of women at even a very basic level. Language shapes our thinking. It shapes our culture. It says something that we have manholes and manpower and manning the table and that everyone should pick up his pencil, not theirs or hers (that rule is from the 18th century, though -- so I ignore it), that being called a "cunt" is so much worse than being called a "prick" (before anyone argues -- think of the shame that is associated with the first term, culturally, versus the second). These things matter. Language matters. I strongly believe we need to analyze language and see how it makes women or other groups disappear or take on false attributes. How can we be equal if we can't even talk it or think it or write it?

Re: "all sex is rape" -- I hear this a lot, and yet, I can't find a single well-respected feminist scholar who believes it or endorses it. Not even Andrea Dworkin. I know. I've read all her books. The heart of radicalism isn't victimology, though many people (like Katie Roiphe and Camille Paglia, for instance) seem to think so (or at least pretend to think so, since your book sells a hell of a lot more copies if you write it from that perspective!). Liberal feminism looks to change women's status within the system as it stands, within the cultur as it stands (for the most part). Difference feminism looks to have "male" and "female" traits valued equally -- i.e. it's just as hard to make an elaborate quilt as it is to paint a "masterpiece" (mistresspiece?), and making a lot of money isn't necessarily more valuable than raising three really good kids. Radical feminism combines (IMO) the best of both worlds, questioning whether we can make women equal in a system that includes neither their experience nor their priorities, questioning the basis of "male" and "female" and the degree to which these are really socialized categories. It doesn't aver that all sex is rape, and that's for sure.

Shit yeah, I'm a feminist. (A radical one. And radical means "at the root," or some such. I want to get to the root of things. I think that's pretty cool.)

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

Eva! Color me impressed! And color me radical, too. You really said it. Will you be my mentor? Love, flutergork (Ms. flutergork if you're nasty) :)

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

I think I might know who came up with the "All Sex is Rape" thing -- her name is Valerie something, and she's the woman who shot Andy Warhol. I happened to catch the tail end of a movie about it, and then there was some reference to her on NPR the following day.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

Is that the "Scum Manifesto" lady?

Also, Paul, why do you care how anyone spells anything? (although the ovular (?) was pretty funny.)

As I've gotten older I also appreciate the "non-hate" way and how devastating to even a good cause that can be. As a feminist, I try to be supportive of equality in every small way I can, and this means supporting men where they have been discriminated against (like wearing women's clothes - go for it guys!)

There are some women out there who have had some horrible experiences with men, and if they want separate space, I support them at that. I'm just thankful that it's not me.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

Lisa D and Eva, we agree that language matters. I find the word "womyn" amusing.

But I'm a middle-class conservative white male, so what do I know? :-)

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

Eva, was it Hissyfit where women were talking about the original meaning of the word vagina? That it was Latin for "sword sheath"?

I never thought much of women vs womyn and the other debates until I read that. "Sword sheath"? The FUCK?

And yet I can't bring myself to say "yoni", partially coz it gives me raised-by-hippie flashbacks, and also maybe because it ends in the "ee" sound, which is too cutesy for me. Like "panties". I dislike saying that, too.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

Yeah, Valerie Solanas wrote the SCUM manifesto. The movie about her was "I Shot Andy Warhol".

"Vagina" is such a clinical word. Why not say vulva instead? That emcompasses all your "down there" parts and doesn't have such an icky etymology. Vulva is still pretty clinical, though, so I almost never say it. I prefer pussy or purse.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2000

Yeah, I think so. It's true, too. Uck. (Another vote for not using the word "panties" here. I am of the opinion that the only people who can reasonably use that word are under the age of nine.) As far as replacing the word vagina with something better... I still haven't found something I really like. Inga Muscio's book _Cunt_ makes a good case for that aforementioned word, but it doesn't quite work for me. Vulva has the same general sound as "revulsion" in my head, or else "Volvo," so it bothers me obscurely. I've never even been able to take "yoni" seriously and "pussy" it just in too much bad porn, as well as the fact that it goes back to the whole women-named-after-animals thing (women are chicks or bitches, etc.). I wish someone would come up with a really good word.

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2000

It always bugs me when people use vagina to refer to anything "down there"; that's what vulva's for! But I agree, they are both sort of clinical. I'm not to keen on yoni, especially "yonic" as the counterpart to "phallic," 'cause it's not.

The filmed the graduation scene in "I Shot Andy Warhol" at my university

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2000