ETA: Thanks to everyone who commented on this post about feminism; your perspectives really helped. I did edit the tumblr post a little. I've also un-privated the previous post.
I went back and re-read your post on tumblr. I still think you are a feminist. I don't think that the living on your own part has anything to do with whether you are a feminist or not. How you live in general and your opinions and feelings are more indicative of being a feminist rather than your living arrangements. You know that you can support yourself. You know that other women can support themselves. You demonstrate that in your life and the causes you support. Not being afraid to live alone (especially after some of the things you have experienced) is a symbol of being a strong person who is comfortable in themselves. In my opinion, that is what a feminist is, someone who is comfortable in being female in whatever situation they find themselves in and who knows that they can do whatever it is they want to do (if they put forth the effort). I must admit that I don't read the feminist blogosphere because it just makes me want to punch the screen too much.
Well, your opinions and feelings can't possibly be what counts because if that were true then the feminist blogosphere wouldn't be in this constant state of calling each other out. They'd be like, we feel this and then they'd be, I don't know, doing things? But they're pretty much screaming all the time, so I think that what you feel and think might not have as much to do with it as what you do! But unfortunately I am not out having all that sex they're always talking about, so I think I'm SOL on the feminism tip. I also don't get as angry as they do about the stuff they get angry about? So I was looking for another basis but as you and my other friend have pointed out, living alone is not that basis! And I don't really feel like I have another one. I mean, yes, I'm comfortable being a woman in any situation--to the extent that I can make the claim that I am a woman--and I think that it shouldn't keep me from doing things, but the whole "I think that women are people" thing is obviously not enough to qualify as being a feminist.
I am remarkably close to ditching the whole 'feminist' thing, but I feel like I still want to identify with SOMETHING, and 'womanist' probably shouldn't be it because that term is so closely associated with women of color and I don't fall into that category.
They do seem to be interested in something incredibly narrow--which really, one could say of so much of the movement going all the way back to Seneca--and one wishes that the word could be expanded instead of contracting.
And you know, it isn't just that womanism is something WoC's started, but also that it is itself doing something fairly specific, with which I have MANY MORE SYMPATHIES but still do not entirely align.
I don't know. Maybe it's about not identifying with something, just doing stuff? That's where I keep ending up, in some kind of hippie bullshit rejection of your bourgeois labels, man.
LOL. Well, to some extent I think that we've got to, because if you try to expand labels you get in trouble too. (For instance: queer. Man, the arguments I have seen.)
As for womanism, yeah, there's plenty more there than the WoC thing, but for me that's the first hurdle - trying not to butt into spaces where I might not be invited.
Good point on expansion. I guess rather: I wish the label weren't contracting, and I wish that it didn't feel like these shouty blog people had a stranglehold on what the word means. Also people say it just means someone who thinks women are equal to men, but in practice that isn't how it shakes out.
It's funny, since I started this discussion people are all, "you can be whatever feminist you want!" which is so the opposite of the actual conversation that's going on among the feminists! If I didn't know better I'd be all, I should start my own blog! But brother, you couldn't pay me. Being called out on tumblr once is really enough.
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Bah.
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And you know, it isn't just that womanism is something WoC's started, but also that it is itself doing something fairly specific, with which I have MANY MORE SYMPATHIES but still do not entirely align.
I don't know. Maybe it's about not identifying with something, just doing stuff? That's where I keep ending up, in some kind of hippie bullshit rejection of your bourgeois labels, man.
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As for womanism, yeah, there's plenty more there than the WoC thing, but for me that's the first hurdle - trying not to butt into spaces where I might not be invited.
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It's funny, since I started this discussion people are all, "you can be whatever feminist you want!" which is so the opposite of the actual conversation that's going on among the feminists! If I didn't know better I'd be all, I should start my own blog! But brother, you couldn't pay me. Being called out on tumblr once is really enough.
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This may not be your thoughts on the subject, but this is how I see it.