Are you a feminist?

A friend of mine recently told me that she was not a feminist, because she liked girly things. This illustrates the typical misunderstanding many women today have about feminism. To be perfectly honest, I cannot understand how these stereotypes persist. For me, feminism no longer carries the stereotype of shaved head, butch, blue-stockinged, man hating lesbian. And that is one big fat stereotype, isn’t it. It encompasses generalisations based on prejudices formed from fear of the unknown. It is also something men are happy to perpetuate in order to maintain their dominant status within society.

I think that women have the choice not to be feminists if that is what they choose. Of course, if it weren’t for feminsm, there would be no choice at all. However, be careful before denouncing feminism, because you may cast yourself a hypocrite. If you dump your boyfriend because he treats you badly, you are a feminist. If you plan to get a job and work for as long as you feel like it, you are a feminist (only 20 years ago, it was not possible for a woman to get a job if she was married because she would be likely to have children, and take time off work).

Our society arose from a patriarchal construction. It can be argued that the patriarchy has dominated every part of human life, from our religious institutions, to the norms relating to family structure, to the direction technology has taken. It is easy for men to scoff at feminists, to scorn the "girl power" slogans of the Spice Girls (who, by the way, are a dubious example of feminism). Women, some men believe, have become equal. They can apply for any job a man can, they are paid the same wages as men, they can vote, they can be the head of a company if they so desire. And woman’s status has become more equal over the last hundred years, of this there is no doubt. But the progress we have made has made women complacent. It has borne the field of "liberal feminism" (aka status-quo feminism).

The fact still remains that women are NOT paid the same as men, they do NOT get all the jobs men get, and the proportion of women in high positions in the community is miniscule. We have come so far. In law, women and men are equal, and women have more of a say in society than ever before. Having achieved all we have, by becoming complacent, we risk giving all of our progress up.

Beware the simple analysis. This warning is always timely. As simple as any person finds an issue, it is infintely more complex. Feminism is not as cut and dried as my friend would have us believe. Some feminists are the most girly people I know. Feminism is about being proud of being a woman, thinking like a woman, behaving as a woman- appreciating individualism. But it is about recognising that women will continue to suffer inequities in society unless we continue to fight the dominance of the patriarchy.