It probably isn’t news to anyone that there are a lot of negative connotations associated with the word “feminist.” It’s become pretty common for young women to distance themselves from it in an effort to avoid being pigeonholed as belligerent man-haters with no sense of humor. One need only to preform a Google search to get an idea of popular opinion on the subject.
If I had a nickel for every conversation I’ve had, wherein a friend told me she didn’t identify with the feminist movement because it was “For man-hating complainers,” or some variation of that…Well, I’d probably have about forty-five cents. However, if you asked the same women if they appreciated having the ability to vote, own property, not be owned as property (within the context of a marital contract), and have bodily autonomy (haha, just kidding, we’re still working on this one, apparently) they would undoubtably answer, “Of course!” But it hasn’t been that long since those rights we take for granted were not guaranteed in the slightest.
Growing up, the only context I was given for the word came from sound bites from figures like Rush Limbaugh, who popularized the term “feminazi,” (because a desire for equality really is tantamount to a fascist regime responsible for the extermination of millions of people) and Pat Robertson, who stated that, “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
Clearly, that’s not an appealing picture, and it can be a difficult step for someone to take a stance that will put them in a position to potentially be threatened and ridiculed. Case in point, here’s a small sample of the backlash Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian received when she suggested that women were underrepresented in video games:
Honestly, if these types of mass reactions don’t confirm the need for a movement that seeks for women to be heard and respected, then I don’t know what does (well, I do, but I’ll save it for the next 1,000 posts.) For more inspiration, check out the Who Needs Feminism project.
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