Is Feminism a Toxic Word? – Response

I’ve been calling myself a feminist for about 10 years, and I started doing so for a simple reason – I believe women and men should be treated equally. I was not going to pretend not to be something because it might make others around me more comfortable.

Just to be sure, I looked up ‘feminism’ in the Oxford dictionary, “The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” I wish it were a concept so obvious it didn’t need a name, but we live in a world where rape is used as a weapon of war; where infant girls are killed because their parents wanted a boy; where girls are denied education, and the multitude of other little inequalities that grind down our daily lives. I will continue to call myself a feminist, because to get anywhere near equality more needs to be done.

I was mocked by female friends at school for expressing “radical” feminist opinions, such as, “why does that have to be pink?” or “are we going to learn about any female scientists?”, or “why aren’t we telling the boys not to rape?” Without fail, those who mocked all call themselves feminists now, after a brief stint in the real world.

Perhaps they still call themselves feminists because they’ve not engaged in “online feminism”, a warped world where words no-one has heard of before appear at an alarming rate. It bores me. It annoys me. But it doesn’t stop me calling myself a feminist. In fact, it doesn’t stop me being Chair of the society.

Portraying feminism as a monolithic force, where everyone thinks the same is a bit disingenuous. There’s never been a coherent feminist movement. It has never existed. From the splits between the suffragettes and the suffragists in the early 20th century to the controversy of the Spice Girls’ use of Girl Power in the 1990’s. Feminists are going to disagree. There are rather of lot of people who want gender equality, we don’t all sit in a room with an agenda and decide on strategy. By the way, the gays don’t either – there is no gay agenda, just equality.

Although there are arguments for different terms being more socially acceptable or less divisive, ultimately in-fighting is not action and surrendering the identity of a movement because it is deemed unpopular not only doesn’t bode well for the rest of your movement’s principles but it also doesn’t make sense. It’s not the combination of letters or sounds in the word ‘feminism’ that people have a problem with, and changing the word doesn’t change how the backlash to feminism is a reaction to the redistribution of power gender equality would ultimately require, not because some online activism is inaccessible. It’s only a matter of time before ‘ugh those feminists’ becomes ‘ugh those humanists/egalitarians/gender equalists’.

I’m proud to call myself a feminist. I’m proud to campaign to make life easier for women. We don’t need a new word, we need more activists from all backgrounds. Consider this a call to arms: wave your (borrowed) mooncups proudly, bare your hairy legs, do whatever you want really, we’re not picky, just join the cause however you feel comfortable doing so.