The phrase, "I'm a feminist, but" has been taking over the twittersphere. The idea is promoted by podcasts like The Guilty Feminist and books, such as Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist. What started as a way to excuse behavior that might not be feminist approved, has turned into a debate over what being a feminist actually means. Does this phrase promote a more tolerant or well-rounded feminism? Or does it erase all the work we've done to be taken seriously in academic and social discourse?
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Some of these tweets are funny, while some of them make me roll my eyes. What do these kind of posts do for feminism? There were also a lot of posts tearing down these kinds of sentiments. By holding ourselves to flexible standards, are we invalidating our movement? Should we even care though - is part of being a feminist the ability to define ourselves as we wish, as long as we stay true to the core values of equality? I would love to see this discussion brought into a classroom setting - for the most part, these are the sentiments of everyday women, how would academics feel about this bad/guilty feminist phenomenon?
