What do words mean?
Recently in my Social Movements class we were talking about emotions in social movements and how they can be used to reinforce ideas but also to delegitimize movements. This of course led us to talk about feminism. My professor asked our class (of about 40) who considered themselves a feminist. She didn't give us any definition, just if we were. A majority of people raised their hands, but as I looked around, I couldn't help but notice who didn't raise their hands--it was mostly men or they were white or both (this is not to say that all people who were white, male or both did not raise their hands).
But people in positions of privilege often twist something like the term feminism into something negative. Merriam Webster even defines feminism as "The theory of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" It has nothing to do with "radical" movements or hating men---but rather the recognition that all persons are equal. I even looked up the definition on Urban Dictionary and was pleasantly surprised that their definition paralleled the one you can find in the "official" dictionary.
So if all feminism is is the equality of the sexes, and people openly admit they are not feminist. Does this mean that anyone who does not consider themselves a feminist is sexist? Because they do not believe that all sexes should be equal. Yet if you called someone a sexist (for this reason alone), they would either be completely insulted and say that either "they love women" or "they have no problem that women want to vote or have a job" or they would have no idea what sexist means. My personal favorite line is "I think all sexes should be equal but I'm not a feminist"
But what people don't often realize is what feminism and the women's movement has actually achieved--not the bra-burning, man-hating extremist. Have you ever heard of the 19th amendment? Do you know any women who vote? Thank a feminist. Do you know a women who works? Or went/goes to college? Thank a feminist. There have been different waves of feminism: the first was to gain the right to vote for women, the second to push for women to have a role in the economic sphere, not just the domestic sphere, the third wave began as an movement for the individual and has grown to become something fighting for all women's issues. This includes education, reproductive rights, economic equality, and political representation.
However, another important takeaway from this class is that it's one thing to have an opinion on an issue, its one to be informed of an issue but a completely different thing to take a stand against or for an issue.
