Feminists

Last edited Fri Feb 10, 2012, 11:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm probably about to open a can of worms, but I think it's a can that needs to be opened.

I'm not doing this to start another flamewar or fight or whatever, but I feel it's important for other's to know where I stand.

I'm of the school, that feminism to me, is allowing women to make the choices they want to make--whether I agree with those choices or not. To me, that's feminism.

If a woman MAKES the choice to make porn for a living, who am I to tell her not to? Do I like that she made the choice, do I wish she'd made a different choice? Sure but it is not my place to tell her not to do this. I know all about the issues surrounding porn and women's issues but, again, to me, if we take away that woman's choice, we are no better than men (or other women) who tell women what they can and cannot do. To me, that's sexist. To me, it's not a black and white issue.

The whole beauty pageant thing that created such a huge kerfuffle; I'm proud that two OUT lesbians made the choice to break that barrier. Do I agree with the concept of pageants? No, I don't but breaking barriers IS a good thing and these two lesbian women broke barriers. Do I wish one of them were the first openly lesbian President of the United States instead of beauty pageant contestants? Hell, yes I do but breaking down any barrier, IMO, is good whether I agree with what they did.

I see a lot of judgement of other women's actions by some feminists and I think, as I stated above, feminism is not a black and white issue. Women are not black and white, there are shades of grey in all of us and if we treat everything to do with feminism like it can fit in some rigid description, it's only going to continue causing issues within the feminist community. I'm not suggesting everyone has to think of things like I do but I do ask that people think about what they're saying and if what they are saying takes choice away from women or judges them.

EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING:
I realized I left some things out.

On the subject of pearl clutching, b*tch and c*nt -- these words don't bother me. I understand how they can be denigrating to some (if not most women or the LGBTQ community) but I choose not to allow these to bother me. There are bigger things that worry me in life. My biggest issue with these words aren't the words themselves but the intellectual laziness that goes with the use of them. So it's likely you will not see me jumping in on threads fighting against these words or phrases. There's also the probability that I am not aware these battles are going on either.

I've seen other's questioned on these things and I think accusing other feminists of not supporting other feminists in certain battles is not productive. As I've stated above, we all are not going to agree about things and expecting us all to agree on all issues and then throwing that in our faces makes nothing but animosity.