Quick poll before bed

[andrewducker]

Taking the definition of feminism as:
The view, articulated in the 19th century, that women are inherently equal to men and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
and remembering that you don't have to select entries if you don't want to (and therefore don't need to choose "I am a woman and a feminist" if you're not a woman):

[Poll #688002]

Comments

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

It's often not used that way in current practice, though. Let me explain what I mean by it. A lot of modern feminists claim that feminism is fundamentally about women, and that men's problems have nothing to do with the movement and should be disregarded entirely. I think, on the other hand, that men's problems and women's problems are of a piece - for instance, men in our society are socialized to be "tough" and "strong" and to hide or deny their feelings. This can lead to a lot of internal confusion in men, which can in turn be dealt with through violent acting out (since anger is the emotion which is most commonly accepted in men). Basically, in a nutshell, I think our society socializes boys and men men in a very disturbing and potentially damaging way, and I see that as both a feminist problem and a general one - a feminist problem because men who take out their confusion and aggression in this way often take it out on women, and a general problem because I don't think anyone should screw with another human being's head the way that boys' and men's heads are sometimes screwed with.

The feminist movement has done a lot of really great work around opening options up to women and helping them to realize their full potential. That's great, but I feel like boys have been left by the wayside in a lot of ways, and that their requests for help are contemptuously dismissed as "whining". In addition, a lot of the problems that women face, men face as well, and that gets ignored. I think you know my feelings on male rape, and how that gets dismissed because "it doesn't happen/can't happen", and even if it does, "men have been raping and abusing women for centuries, they can sit back and take it themselves for awhile." I find that repugnant, but it's what I've heard a lot of feminists say. I see myself as an "egalitarian feminist" because I *do* want full equality - I want both women and men to be free of gender-based stereotyping and socialization, and there are a lot of factions of the women's movement that don't seem interested in going in that direction.

[diotina.livejournal.com]

You know, I totally agree with what you're saying, but I'd just like to mention that this is more a first world post feminist situation - and that there are many countries in the world where opportunities and lifestyles that we take for granted as women haven't even started appearing yet, which is another reason why feminism as being about women's rights still needs to have relevance and resonance.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I think "post-feminist situation" is an apt description. This is something that relates very specifically to first-world countries, and I don't even know if I can extrapolate it out that far - I'm basically talking about an American problem, and though it may be more far-reaching than that, I don't know enough about that aspect to say much about it. So, yeah. I think the work feminism has done in America has been absolutely crucial, and that there are a lot of other countries that could well use feminism's progress in America as a model.