You don’t have to be on Twitter to know that something can go from invisible to trending worldwide overnight. Especially in the 21st century, fads tend to appear and disappear at the speed of light. They come in like a lion and go back out like a lion a few days later. One thing is for sure: ephemeral or not, these trends can be surprisingly influential and instigative. A particularly popular topic that doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon, though, is feminism.
Thinking back on what’s been buzzing in the media over the past few years, I’m reminded of Patricia Arquette’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, Emma Watson’s new role as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and the consequent launch of her gender equality campaign HeForShe, and Beyonce’s song Flawless that features lines from Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s famous 2013 TedX Talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” among many others. Just last month, Gillian Anderson came forward to talk about the staggering wage disparity between her and X-Files co-star, David Duchovny. After years of being paid less and being told to literally stand behind Duchovny in every scene, the sexist “sh*t” that Anderson described continued when she was originally offered just half of Duchovny’s pay for the six-episode X-Files revival this year (Gillian is bae and deserves so much more, always).
Being the curious but often uninformed college student that I am, I decided to take my first Women’s Studies course this semester to find out more: Global Feminisms. I’m becoming more and more conscious of how my white/western/privileged/etc. feminism is different than other types of feminist experiences, and no one kind is superior to any other. In a more micro sense, there are many different types of feminists within the United States alone. In class last week, we discussed a poll carried out by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation in May and June of last year. The short poll, conducted over the phone, included questions about gender-based policies and the connotations that come with the word “feminism,” among various demographic questions. In total, 1,122 women and 488 men were surveyed.
After you take the quiz, your answers are analyzed and you are sorted into one of six feminist identifications, ranging from “‘Certainly not’ feminists” to “‘Hell, yeah’ feminists.” A paragraph pops up describing the beliefs of like-minded women and men in your identification group, alongside a short video interviewing said people about why they selected the quiz answers that they did. It’s interesting to watch the videos of alternative identifications, like “‘Whatever’ feminists,” for example, and see where I agreed and disagreed with what they were saying. What surprised me most was what the "‘Certainly not’ feminists" said; curiously, a few reported accurate facts about the wage gap and other inequalities, but then followed up by saying that they felt that the decisions that women made ultimately were what undermined them. But, later on, one woman said she believed that women acted against themselves in that way because of institutionalized sexism and how we’ve taught women to devalue themselves. For me, following this thought process helped me to better understand the opposing side, and how not all people who don’t identify as “feminist” are radical or outwardly hateful. Sometimes, the differences are nuanced.
Additionally, once your results are calculated, you can see what was the most common answer for each question in the actual poll that was conducted in 2015. The Washington Post also offers some aesthetically-pleasing and easy-to-follow infographics that break down the answers to a handful of questions taken from the poll. I found the breakdown of answers among different female age groups to be particularly eye-catching: 83% of women between 18 and 34 reported that they thought feminism was “empowering,” which was encouraging to read. It looks like all this millennial new-age feminism is doing something, after all. As ages went up, however, the percentage of women who found feminism “empowering” steadily decreased. I, for one, would be interested in seeing a study that focuses on this disparity in-depth, and analyzes the differences in feminism across different generations of women (if anyone knows of a similar study that already exists, tweet at me!).
So, this Valentine’s Day, instead of having a romantic heart-to-heart with a special someone, do some gender-based introspection. Get to know yourself or your female friends a little better, whether it’s by taking this quiz and comparing answers, picking up "The Second Sex" for a bit of light reading, having a fun and boozy-brunch-filled Galentine’s Day, or reaching out to Mary Wollstonecraft from beyond the grave via Ouija board or candlelit incantations. Whatever you end up doing this Sunday, just don’t make a move on any of your friend’s ex-boyfriends—that’s just, like, the rules of feminism.
P.S. If you still haven’t seen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TedX talk yet, do yourself a favor and take half an hour out of your day to do so. It’ll be time well-spent, I promise.
P.P.S. Fun fact: Mary Shelley, "Frankenstein" author and inventor of the science fiction genre, is Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter! Talk about a female powerhouse family. Please excuse me while I print out a portrait of each of them to hang side by side in my dorm room for inspirational/worshipping purposes.
