Calling Yourself a Feminist

Sometimes on my Facebook feed, I’ll see a video criticizing people who have come out and said they’re not feminists. Here’s an example.

Op-Ed What It Means To Be A Feminist
You're probably a feminist, even if you don't like that word
Posted by NowThis on Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The general gist of these videos is “Hey when you say you’re not a feminist, then you’re saying you’re not for equal rights. You’re against eliminating the pay gap, you’re against women’s health care, you’re against women being in power etc”. But I think there are some problems with messages like this.

I’ll put this right front and center, I’m not attacking feminism, I’m criticizing this line of thought. I’m pro feminism and anti- this particular line of logic (which I would say isn’t logic, or is at least hypocritical). Though, feeling like I need to make this warning so explicit might explain why some people don’t call themselves feminists.

People can act in a feminist way and not be feminists. The first, and most obvious support of this is that you can call yourself whatever you want. This is mentioned in the video. You can never butter or fry yourself but still call yourself a fish stick and I think everybody would be ok with that. But let’s use some examples that show that you can be pro equality and maybe not call yourself a feminist.

A lot of people have to take out loans for all sorts of things, cars, houses, school, boats if you’re aquatic. So you got borrow some money, banking (literally) on your ability to pay it back later. That money is called capital, if you’ve got a loan you’re being capitalistic. It’s what gets shit built around here. It catches a lot of flack for its flaws too and some people would not like to be associated with it. So people who use capital, and believe that their student loan will get them the education that will get them the job they want, believe in a capitalistic theory. But can also not be capitalists.

But Taylor! You cry, as you scuttle along an empty hallway impersonating a crab you saw at the beach last week, who had some really interesting hues of blue “Capitalism is by far the dominant economic system of the world, you can’t really opt out of that”. Totally true mon frere. So here’s another example.

You can do yoga or mindfulness or mediation and not be Buddhist right? Or follow the Ten Commandments and not be Jewish (Or Christian). Or be Amish and ride in a car? Never totally got those rules.

Or how about me. I play guitar, but wouldn’t call myself a guitarist. That’s just like one step higher level of commitment I think. I have a few guitars, I play them, I make music with them and I think a lot of people would call me a guitarist. But I wouldn’t be one of those people.

So I think you can act in accordance with an ideology and not call yourself a member. I think that’s totally fine.

Videos like this are trying to address a long standing problem for feminism. Which is basically a marketing one. People who believe in feminist causes don’t want to be called feminists. Why? Well as the video says, people don’t want to be associated with “bra burning, crazy people who hate men”. So videos like this are trying to teach people that feminists aren’t like that. But just watch the video! It’s clearly a little derisive to people who don’t want to be called feminists. Isn’t that exactly who you want to watch the video? To change their minds?

Unless it’s not, and you just want clicks from feminists who already agree with you and you’re mining the ideology for cash, which is pretty capitalistic if you ask me. And I don’t think capitalism and feminism have to be mutually exclusive, they’re are often pitted against each other.

It’s the same old argument as “Well if you want equality why don’t you just call it egalitarianism”. To which the answer is… hard to find? Because these are big flexible things, but as far as I can tell Feminism is a subset of egalitarianism. And I think the importance (and probably the dispute) is the fem part. Where feminists would say that it’s important to recognize the history of the movement, which is rooted in equal rights for the sexes and now encompasses equal rights for all. And the egalitarian namers would say let’s just get rid of that pesky fem part that seems to be all the trouble anyway.

I think a good reason for calling it feminism is because it's women who are oppressed. I don't like the argument of the wage gap, because when you're at the bottom of the financial tier, there really isn't much gap to be made (not saying it doesn't exist, just saying it's abstract, especially for those at the bottom). I prefer this basic example. When I want to leave a bar and go home, I can do so. I can just walk home alone and even listen to music and tune out. But women can't. And that's fucked up. I love love love listening to music drunk on my walk home. Women have to be in groups, or escorted because they are vulnerable to rapists, murderers, and thieves. Even if they don't exist, (as in if you think figures of rape and violence are exaggerated) women still have to be afraid of them. And that's the worst thing. Everyone should be able to walk home alone.

Videos like this don’t really address the problem that they seem to want to fix. The reputation of feminism. What you need isn’t a sassy slam on celebrities but better education on the topic of feminism and rebranding. A fourth wave? Feminism2.0? Femnm?

I think it’s fine to not call yourself a feminist, though you might want to have some answers ready at the hilt, as long as you’re a decent person. Call yourself whatever you want, funnelbucket.

One final note, I am willing to concede that I got this all wrong, my expertise lies only in hair metal, guacamole and Pokemon anyway. So feel free to correct me.