Over the past couple of days, I have turned my attention to
Feminism. I have to admit, I haven’t really thought much about it before.
I mean, I’m pretty clear that I want equality for women. I’m pretty clear that women
shouldn’t be treated as second class people, or as possessions of their husbands or fathers. I’ve thought about individual feminist
issues, such as child brides, maternity healthcare, the abortion issue, access
to contraception, equality in work, and in religion, equality in the home and I’ve
spoken out about all of them. It’s just that I’ve honestly never thought about
all joined up before. I’ve never considered Feminism as a movement or a cause that might relate to me.
I think that part of the reason for this is that I’ve sort
of lost track of the history of it all, and I’m lost as to why Feminism is seen
as negative now. I mean, I know about the suffragette movement, and how voting
rights happened, and I know how the two World Wars affected the way women’s
lives were. I know about the advent of sexual revolution that came with the creation of the contraceptive pill (though I see
that one as something of a double edged sword), and I have hazy thoughts about
burning bras.
But then it’s all exploded in my head into a mass of ‘but where are we now?’
The reason this has entered my thoughts in the past few
days, is that I was invited into a group under the heading of ‘Feminists’, and
I thought ‘Am I a feminist?’
Obviously, being a curious sort of soul, I began to look
into it a bit, mentioned to several people that I haven’t the slightest clue if
I’m feminist or not, and could I please listen and learn a bit.
I have done this. Technically I've only done it for two days, but I have to start somewhere. And while I’ll freely admit that I’m still
very much a novice and have a long, long way
to go, I can now answer the ‘am I a feminist?’ question.
Turns out the answer is; ‘fuck yes! Of course I bloody am!
What the hell was I thinking in even questioning that?’
There are still a lot of questions that I do need to answer.
In fact, that I’m building quite a list.
Can I be a feminist if I worry that my teeth are crooked and wish they were nice and straight?
Can I be a feminist if I think that when I’m having a
period, I should just stop trying, lie under a duvet and enlist someone to
bring me masses of chocolate?
Can I be a feminist if I don’t like how my ankles look when
they’re really hairy? (I have to admit, this one doesn’t often come up as I
tend to live in jeans.)
Can I be a feminist if I don’t always agree with every statement
that another feminist makes?
Can I be a feminist if I sometimes choose to do things that
are solely for the benefit of my husband and children?
Is the word ‘feminist’ important?
That last one is the one that I’m working on first. My first
forays into the subject have led me to think ‘yes, actually I think that there
is.’
It’s been brought to my attention that at some point the
term feminist has been skewed so that it sets off uncomfortable images in
people’s heads. There seem to be a number of different images; some see
unwashed and hairy men-haters. Other people see it as part of a larger class
war, and exclusive to their status. I’ll probably come across many more over
the course of time. I don’t know how and where this happened (though I’m pretty
sure I’ll find out), but it strikes me that it’s probably similar to the other
terms that have been diminished and twisted over time. ‘The religious are
illogical, unscientific, stupid people’, ‘Catholics are gay-hating, child
abusers’, ‘Muslims are war-mongering’, and ‘teenagers are smelly, hormonally driven morons’.
So in my very naïve, very ill educated way, I’ve decided
that the best way to counter all of this, is to simply go about my every-day
business, in my normal, serenely sweary way, while holding myself under the
banner of ‘feminist’.
Feminism might well include a some people that could
be described by the statements above, but it also includes me, in the only body that I've got, living the only life that I have.
Having settled that, the next question is ‘is feminism still
important?’
I only opened that door a teeny-tiny amount, and the wealth
of examples of injustice that are still
going on floored me. So yes, it would seem that there is a great deal of work
to be done, and not just in developing countries with different cultures
either. There’s a shed-load just right here on my doorstep.
I don’t know what to do about any of it, but there are an awful
lot of people who seem to have extraordinary wisdom on this subject, and the colossal
strength to do what needs to be done. I’m going to start by listening to them.
I’m Pip Mulgrue. Feminist and Proud.
