“We can’t be feminine and feminist and be successful? I want to be a f—king feminist and I want to wear a f–king Peter Pan collar. So f—king what?” That’s Zooey Deschanel in Glamour’s February issue, and God bless her. So nice to see a young lady happily embrace the word. At this point, maybe the word feminist has gotten so radioactive in our culture that there’s no reclaiming it. And truly, if a person is down with fighting the good fight, they can call themselves whatever they want. But are women who don’t identify as feminists getting involved in women’s issues like reproductive rights and violence against women? I’d love to think so, but I wonder. And honestly, I don’t get it: there’s so little risk involved in calling yourself a feminist now, something that was anything but the case back when the big battles were being fought. And it worries me to think about this younger generation (God, I hate how I sound but there it is) because they don’t get that the women who really made it happen didn’t take a machete through the woods just so we could all walk down the path they cleared for us and smell the pretty flowers. They did it so, when things like the freaking Violence Against Women Act gets killed by our lawmakers, as it did this week, there would still somebody around to make some noise.
Amen. I love the quote from Zooey. I wish more women felt that way. Lately I’ve heard far too many comments from women in their late 20s/early 30s along the lines of how they wish feminists would keep their mouths shut or how feminists never did anything for them – usually after a guy has made some dumb joke about women. I just don’t get it. I think that they have no idea what feminism is and I don’t understand how that can be. This is making me angry just thinking about the comments again! Ugh!
Good for Zooey! So many young women just take the opportunities they have for granted. But if the latest elections tell us anything, the fight isn’t over.
I think there is stumbling block where femininity and feminism are seen as opposing forces. Does Zooey want an award for claiming she be feminist and, shock!, wear something she likes?
As long as women feel like they have to apologise for wearing high heels or think that lipstick makes them frivolous “feminism” will be a dirty word for some.
Being female makes me inherently, relentlessly feminine. Now if I want to be conscious and vocal about the specific challenges faced by women and how I would like to see them addressed, call me a feminist.
Well, being female makes me inherently, relentlessly unfeminine, even masculine. We’re not all the same, but we can all embrace feminism in order to have the opportunity to be who we are.
Standing up for the ‘younger generation’ here, though I’m not *that* much younger (today’s my 30th birthday): I am a member and volunteer for Planned Parenthood and for my local abortion access fund. Many of closest male and female friends– of my age range and younger– identify as feminists, vote with feminist issues in mind, contribute to candidates with those issues in mind. And yes, I do get what women–and men–did for us in decades past to help break down barriers to equal pay, abortion, etc…though as anyone following the news should know, those things are still a struggle for many, many people and our fights are far from over.
Granted, me and a handful of my friends aren’t representative of all of the ‘younger generation’, but when is any handful of people representative of anything? There are plenty of young (and old) people who don’t give a crap about feminist issues, but there are plenty who do, myself included, and it is a HUGE bummer when I read or hear people say that young people in general just don’t care, or that we take our opportunities and advantages for granted. Its not true and its not fair.
Anyway, I’m glad you are putting it out there as a conversation point in your blog.
Hope you had a lovely birthday!
I have a veeeeeeeery loose theory that, if you were a teenager in the 20th century, you’re more inclined to identify with feminism. Just a hunch I’ve picked up from observing friends my age (I’m almost exactly a year older than you) versus friends/family a decade younger. That’s, um, as scientific as it gets for my ‘theory’.
Ryan Gosling in “Crazy Stupid Love”:
“The war between the sexes is over. We won, okay? We won the second when women started doing pole dancing for exercise.”
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Amy Poehler for having pictures of Madeline Albright, Hilary Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsberg on her desk and walls in Parks and Rec. IT makes me sad when i hear younger women make fun of hilary’s cankles and jowls. Egads, the woman probably only gets three hours of sleep a night shlepping all over the world to help smooth out the wrinkles men (for the large part) cause!
How did feminist become a dirty word? Since when is equal pay for equal work a liberal concept? Arrgghhhh… don’t get me started. Yay for Zooey, and amen, Kim.
“But, of course, you might be asking yourself, ‘Am I a feminist? I might not be. I don’t know! I still don’t know what it is! I’m too knackered and confused to work it out. That curtain pole really still isn’t up! I don’t have time to work out if I am a women’s libber! There seems to be a lot to it. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?’
I understand.
So here is the quick way of working out if you’re a feminist. Put your hand in your pants.
a) Do you have a vagina? and
b) Do you want to be in charge of it?
If you said ‘yes’ to both, then congratulations! You’re a feminist.” — Caitlin Moran, “How to Be a Woman”
Uppity? Of course you are, and properly so. My slim hope is that Patty Murray’s prediction that the new session will revisit the issue will be an accurate one.
“There are 7 billion people on the planet. Half are women. One third of them are raped or beaten.” From the One Billion Rising website. It’s time to be SHRILL, girls !
I wonder how much of it is these “starlets” saying these things so they don’t risk lowering their “accessibility/likeability” rating? I’d like to believe things are the way Amanda describes them, and it’s what I’ve seen of the younger generation; but then, I live in Berkeley.
I’m 25 and I have very few friends, male or female, who are comfortable defining themselves as feminists. Ive had to give all of my boyfriends crash courses in what the word actually means. And I think it’s really cool Zooey said what she did.
I never apologize for being a feminist, or a Liberal(BIG “L”)for that matter. I think we need to really embrace the word again. For some reason, young women are afraid of it and I think that’s because the radio and TV jerks out there (and you know who they are…Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck, Coulter…did I hit all of them?)have drilled it into the consciousness of America. And why does anyone bother to listen to them? I don’t know, although I found it quite heartening to see that they had lost Ratings (that’s a BIG “R”)to Rachel Maddow, et al. I’ve always encouraged my daughters to own the word “feminist” but it always led to an argument about whether or not the word was still necessary…Until, that is, my 24-yr. old daughter heard Gloria Steinem speak at American University. She came to me and said, “I never understood before, Mom. But after listening to her tell her story, I think I finally get it.” And I didn’t gloat.
I think this is what you mean: http://whatshouldwellesleycallme.tumblr.com/post/21435419143/whenever-a-woman-tells-me-that-shes-not-a-feminist
(Tumblr created by a current Wellesley student, so that’s something.)
Hurray for Zooey and hurray for the comments here. It gives me hope for the future.
Amen, sister. I am a proud feminist and trying to raise one as well.