Why I am a feminist

I intend to write a number of posts about feminism and feminist issues on this blog so I thought it might be prudent to begin with explaining why I subscribe to feminism in 21^st century Britain.  I have limited my thoughts for this post to the UK alone since the issues affecting women in other countries and other societies are a whole different ball game to those that affect me, here, today.  This is not to say that women in other countries are unimportant in my brand of feminism. Far from it! But, for the sake of brevity I will just concentrate on why I am a feminist rather than the many things that concern and influence my feminist thinking for now.

So, having been endowed with neat internal genitals (save for the odd pokey-out bit) as apposed to dangly, external ones, I was brought up as a female. My parents didn’t try out any gender-neutral rearing techniques with me, in fact they positively showered me in every pink, sparkly gewgaw they could get their hands on.   Whether as a result of this upbringing or social conditioning, peer influence or my own innate personality, I now find myself as a heterosexual woman of nearly 30.  And I am a feminist. Well why not?

I am a feminist because I am curious about other people who, in some way, are like me.  My feminist leanings stem from a sense of kinship and perceived similarity between myself and a group of others, but it also stems from a curiosity for those women who may be as different to me in their personality as it is possible to be, yet who live in a world where their gender, our gender, is seen as a collective, homogenous union to be judged, studied, controlled and used.

I have heard some women state with a certain degree of disdain that they are not feminists. For feminists dislike men and believe the world is against them and that The Patriarchy is the sole root of all their woes. I think the majority of women in the UK (dangerous as it is to speak on their behalf) balk at these ideas and find little truth in them anymore. So, they avoid identifying themselves as feminists. I agree. As far as I am concerned, living in the UK in 2012 as I do, there is no evil patriarchy forcing me to make beef wellington for it while wearing stockings and a lacy apron.

            I am still a feminist though despite the apparent progression from those days when women really were misunderstood, underestimated and undervalued. I know we have the vote (honestly, thank you) and I appreciate being able to have a job and earn my own money, but churlish and ungrateful as I may seem, I still think there is a pressing need for feminism today, for the sake of every human being, not just the ones with vaginas.  The very culture that once embodied the notion of the little pointy-boobed homemaker, in cardigan and pencil skirt, may have found a new home on fridge magnets and birthday cards as ironic flashbacks to that bygone era but feminism is still here and its gaze is now directed elsewhere. Feminism has undergone yet another change. It is present today in a different manifestation from the times of Emmeline Pankhurst, Simone De Beauvoir or Germaine Greer. As societies change, so too does feminism. In its first wave feminism sought to achieve universal suffrage, the second weave sought to achieve equality for men and women in the home and the workplace.  The third wave supposedly began in the 80s and apparently this is where we are now, though many would argue we are entering a fourth wave.  Regardless of which wave we are currently riding the point is that feminism evolves and remains pertinent even when its previous goals have been achieved or at least recognized.

            I am also, like all other reasonable human beings, opposed to human suffering and this fits in well with my own feminist outlook. I don’t particularly like poverty, war, disease, oppression, discrimination, tyranny or Simon Cowell, because such things promote human misery. Of course these factors do not work their evils upon women alone.  In fact there are few ills in the world that only affect women, even if they are specifically directed at women initially: religious control and oppression, an unregulated and frankly barmy porn industry, sexual slavery, sexual objectification, genital mutilation, workplace discrimination, unequal parental rights and debates about abortion are a few issues which form part of the spectrum that gets filtered through the lens of modern society on to women. No one woman is subject to all these ills. But the female gender forms the prism through which this harsh spectrum is then reflected and refracted on to everyone else.  Optics and feminism: who knew?

            So issues affecting women actually affect everyone. My feminism is not for the sake of women. It is for the sake of men, woman and children alike. Someone fetch me a medal! My feminism doesn’t feel as though it should be outmoded despite the fact that we have progressed on from an oppressive patriarchal society. My feminism encourages me to be mindful of the issues that affect my fellow women, and my fellow human beings today.

            Finally, my feminism is rebellion. It is rebellion against the foolish, anodyne myths about men and women that are propagated by the media and occasionally taken as canon. It is rebellion against the turgid notion that women can all be lumped into the same, narrow categories.  It is rebellion against this notion of having to be pretty, sexy or slim or nice in order to feel feminine.

            My feminism is mine and mine alone.  It is different to other womens’ feminism and for that it is sometimes criticised for lacking a uniform consistency across the board.  But the thing with womankind is that, like humanity, it lacks the necessary homogeneity for us all to cry out against the same ills at the same time with the same voice.

            So whatever your feminism looks like, from wherever it stems and to wherever it’s going be thankful you are mindful enough to have it.  Those of us who assume feminism is for moody, boring women who don’t like makeup or men are missing a trick. Feminism is for everyone.