Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
“I am not a feminist.”
According to Merrian-Webster’s online dictionary, feminism is:
1 : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
2 : organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests
A feminist is a person who follows the principles of feminism, or one who actively promotes women’s rights and interests.
I learned the true lesson of what feminism means when I was once pontificating about being a “feminist” to a mixed sex group of people, only to have one of the guys pop up with, “Well, so what. So am I.”
Huh? A guy? But yes.
Anyone who believes that women should have equal opportunity for work, equal pay for said work, equal opportunity of religion, equal opportunity to education, equal opportunity to medical care, equal opportunity to speak, equal opportunity to vote, control over what happens with her body, equal say with what happens to her family and her children is a feminist.
If you don’t support these concepts, may I suggest that you read this story about the young girls who lost their lives in a fire in Saudi Arabia because they tried to run from the building and were beaten back because they were not wearing their headscarves.
And if that doesn’t turn your stomach, I can find you a hundred stories about the treatment and murder of women in Afghanistan.
And if that doesn’t get through, I can find you a thousand stories about abuse of women in this country. Matched by a hundred thousand stories of women not being paid the same as a man, even though women in this country head up over 85% of single family homes — a case of those with the most mouths to feed being paid the least.
And if that doesn’t enrage you, I can find you a million stories in history of rape and subjugation of the female of the species, touching every major religion on this planet, crossing every country border, and floating across every damn sea.
“I’m not a feminist”.
The next time you issue a dismissal of feminism, think about what you’re rejecting. And what you’ll get in its place if it were gone.
