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 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.