Social media is a place where inventive, original people go to be relaxed and mundane. I find it's best to separate the person I know in flesh and blood from their two line summaries of life's current melodrama. People are rarely so baffling when not filtered through a keyboard and a grainy thumbnail.
However something has breached my firewall a few times recently and almost caused me to dive in to a comment section I will later regret. What happens is, someone I dearly love will say something along the lines of:
"I'm sorry, but I just think feminism has gone too far... I love my husband/boyfriend/brother and I don't see why I should have to hate them."
or
"Well, sorry, but I guess I'm just not a feminist then... I love my kids and I'll stay at home and look after them if I want to."
or
"I've got a son and I'm not going to raise him to feel like a pervert for liking women. Hate the way feminism says he is doing stuff wrong just by being a man!"
Thankfully, I restrained my aching fingers from kicking up a virtual dust fight and I've brought the backlash here instead. Because I do think there are some valid opinions above, they just point the finger at the wrong culprit.
It's important not to confuse being a moron with being a feminist.
Some people are both feminists and morons, that truth is an absolute, but some people are just plain old feminists and we need to look at the difference.
Some people will certainly disagree with me, but my test for whether or not someone is a feminist is based on one question:
"Do you think rape is OK?"
If you answered yes: Not a feminist.
If you answered no: A feminist. You've expressed some kind of agreement that someone's body is their own property. Regardless of gender.
For me, that's as simple as it needs to be. Everything else branches off from this basic trunk of belief in what a person is, and it gets more complicated when you move away from the trunk but wherever you sit in the tree, you must have scaled that trunk to have got there.
So, if you see a statement that you disagree with, you can check whether it affects your feminist status by seeing if you still answer the same to the trunk question.
In case you’re still stuck, I have put together a few Feminism FAQs for easy reference…
- Can I still give a lovely, big, slobbery blow job if I am a feminist?
Yes. Although if you were not good at blow jobs before you became a feminist then you will not suddenly become great at them. Feminism is not a super power.
- Can I keep my penis and still become a feminist?
Of course! Most feminists love a good bit of cock!
- I like to look at porn and nudey shots of women, can I still be a feminist?
Not a problem in my feminist book, so long as:
- The woman in the picture wanted to be in them
- She is healthy enough to have made that decision fairly
- She got paid appropriately for the shot
- The shot was featured in an appropriate location
- You didn’t look at them somewhere public like a bus because that can be really gross for other passengers. Especially if you’re the driver.
- A man held a door open for me and I liked it and I giggled and now I’m not sure I’m a feminist.
Did you decide that having the door held open for you made you want to stop voting, driving, speaking in public places, having your skin on display or having your own opinions? If not, then yes you are still a feminist. You just like it when other people help you with stuff.
- I like to cook at home and my husband is better at doing the DIY. I’d like to be a feminist but I also don’t want to put flat pack furniture together and I don’t want to eat his nasty shepherds pie, is this ok?
Sure! Notice that, in your question, you say that you “like to cook” and are therefore exercising your right and ability to decide your own actions based on ones you enjoy. That is feminism in action for you, babycakes.
- I only really feel happy when I’m eating Discos and thinking about Michaela Strachan, am I a feminist?
I have absolutely no idea. But you don’t sound well.
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