My favorite definition is a very simple series of three statements that I heard in a college course. The professor said (and I agree with her) that in order to be a feminist, all that is required is that you agree with these three points:
1. Women are disadvantaged in comparison to men (as in, do not have the same rights, and/or privileges, and/or freedoms, and/oropportunities, etc.) 2. There is something wrong with that 3. It can be changed
Feminism, then, can be broadly defined as agreement with those three statements.
The issue of personal experience informing a feminist opinion is much more likely to come up, for me, when discussing fear of rape. A fair number of men have told me, over the course of my life, that my pretty much constant level of fear regarding strange men is irrational - and they're absolutely right. It is (not least because most rapists are not strangers to their victims). But I can't help feeling it, as the cultural conditioning that instilled it in me is very thorough. It is my belief that most men, having not grown up female, cannot easily understand just how strong certain cultural messages aimed at women are. It takes a lot of work on the part of the man in question, and a very open mind, to approach the understanding that personal experience grants to me automatically.
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Date: 2006-04-01 06:08 am (UTC)1. Women are disadvantaged in comparison to men (as in, do not have the same rights, and/or privileges, and/or freedoms, and/oropportunities, etc.)
2. There is something wrong with that
3. It can be changed
Feminism, then, can be broadly defined as agreement with those three statements.
The issue of personal experience informing a feminist opinion is much more likely to come up, for me, when discussing fear of rape. A fair number of men have told me, over the course of my life, that my pretty much constant level of fear regarding strange men is irrational - and they're absolutely right. It is (not least because most rapists are not strangers to their victims). But I can't help feeling it, as the cultural conditioning that instilled it in me is very thorough. It is my belief that most men, having not grown up female, cannot easily understand just how strong certain cultural messages aimed at women are. It takes a lot of work on the part of the man in question, and a very open mind, to approach the understanding that personal experience grants to me automatically.