Week 13

I am a feminist.  I was raised by strong, outspoken women.  But none of them would ever call themselves feminists because to them feminism means hating men and not bathing and refusing to wear make up and having an overall aggressive and defensive demeanor.  While they themselves hold feminist values and ideals, they are in the seemingly large group of people who misclassify the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s as feminism.  

Feminism is the belief that all sexes deserve equal rights and treatment.  In 1960s America the feminist movement was a second wave of the equal rights agenda of the nineteenth century feminists.  Led by predominately white middle-class women as in the previous century, feminism in 1960s America sought equal opportunities and treatment in employment and education.  The women’s liberation movement emerged out of this feminism.

Women’s liberation focused on the patriarchy as a force dominating and oppressing women.  Liberation meant becoming aware of this oppression and making an effort to throw it off.  They were very direct in their tactics.  They discarded and burned “instruments of oppression” such as bras, girdles, tweezers, and high-heels.  They threw stink bombs into the Miss American pageant in 1968 and crowned a sheep as their Miss America.  While their beliefs were well intentioned and not off base, their tactics were somewhat violent and ineffective in moving the general public.

The widespread misconception that my own family has about feminism is a huge problem facing feminism today.  While a lot of feminists today hold the same beliefs as the women’s liberationists did, many of them do not use the same tactics as a way of getting their message across.  Feminists today are typically less violent in their protests and tend not to attack other women for their own choices.  I think that feminism today has evolved and become much more inclusive and open to the wide of array of experiences that each individual woman has.  So it is upsetting to me when people get so caught up in the old view of feminism as violent and extreme and hateful as people viewed it in the 1960s.  A lot of people need to open their minds and look at feminism for what it truly is: compassionate, loving, and beautiful.