Isms

I will note that, with “feminism” in particular, it is an “ism” which has absolutely no fixed meaning that I can find. If you can find two feminists who agree on what it is, you will find two other feminists who radically disagree with them.

I’ve had people tell me that feminism is nothing but the belief that women should be allowed to do whatever they want with their lives just like men. Great. Then I’m a feminist and I endorse feminism wholeheartedly and if I ever had a daughter I’d want her to be one and I’d certainly want to marry a feminist.

But then you’d have to say that Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan and Sarah Palin are all feminists, because they believe those things too. But watch people’s heads explode when you point that out.

Then you have people saying that to be a feminist, you can’t even be male. It’s a movement, you see, and only people born with uteruses need apply.

Then you have others saying that it means you have to be for abortion as a civil, constitutional right–as if Susan B. Anthony never existed as a feminist and anti-abortion feminists simply aren’t feminists.

I’ve read feminists who say that if a woman carries a purse it’s a sign of her oppression by patriarchy. I’ve read feminists who say wearing makeup or a skirt is subjection. Feminists who say showing women naked in magazines is oppression. And feminists who say women going naked is an expression of power.

Then you have a whole line of feminist scholars who are basically taking a radicalized Marxist-type dogma and run everything through a prism of females as always and ever oppressed in every circumstance: you find the topic, and they will show you how whatever is going on, women are somehow oppressed. Just like Marxists can always prove that everything is to be interpreted as proof that the upper class is oppressing the working class. Or Objectivists trying to tell you that everything is about how society brutalizes the noble individual and raw capitalism is the only morality.

You even have rants that make no sense at all to me, like this, which a friend recently recommended:

What on earth is she talking about? Which society is this she lives in? I’ve known funny women my entire life, I’ve known of highly successful female comedy actors/comediennes my entire life. Maybe it’s like this in other societies, but I’d have to ask which ones this woman is talking about, because it doesn’t appear to be the society she’s from, or the one I’m from.

Oh, and by the way, she refers to women as “chicks.” I’ve been told that’s sexist. AAAARGH, I GIVE UP!!!!!!!

By the way, I’ve also been told “comedienne” is sexist, and we should only say “comedian.” But in other contexts if you DON’T use a female-specific term, you’re being sexist.

I’ve been told that “Mrs.” and “Miss” are anti-feminist and we should only use “Ms.” Which leaves me wondering why it’s OK to attack women who prefer to be known as “Miss” or “Mrs.” as I don’t think they like being characterized as oppressed slaves.

I not long ago had a ranting male “feminist” furiously tell me there are no violent or abusive women, that most of society’s ills with violence are caused by the idea of male supremacy, and just by suggesting that there were any significant number of violent or abusive women in the world, I was anti-woman.

All of this usually leads me to saying that when you tell me what YOU believe feminism consists of, I can tell you how I feel about YOUR version of this particular “ism.” I in the meantime almost rarely use the word anymore, except maybe in a historical context: what I remember the feminists of my youth, the 1970s and 1980s, were saying back then and how it affected me back then.

Otherwise, I try to concentrate on individual issues.

I will say my favorite writers on the topic are Christina Hoff Sommers and Camille Paglia. Draw your own conclusions otherwise. I’d rather drop the “ism” entirely and discuss what matters of fairness and equity are between the sexes. Screw the “ism,” talk about the specific issues please. Those can be difficult enough without distracting arguments over ideological purity or what a goddamned word means.