Poll: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

[JUMBO PALACE]

Have I done anything to further feminism? Probably not.

Do I think men and woman should be given equal opportunities? Yes, I believe in fairness.

What he said. I believe in equality, but I'm not going to make any picket signs.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Shouldn't it be said that all people have to be actualised feminists if there is to be any reparations to current social wrongs concerning sex in society? In the end, no matter whether male or female, al people have to be actualised feminists in order to repair the sociological divides between the sexes.

If feminism is taken to mean equality of living and reward for action to their male counterparts then all individuals must become feminists in order to 'level the gap' ... so to speak.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

Males, females and thirds all treated equally sounds pretty good to me, so, Yup. I suppose that makes me a feminist...

 

[Colour Scientist]

Am I supposed to vote whether I self-identify as feminist or if I'm a feminist according to OP's definition?

Would you describe yourself as one.

"Feminist" is the worst word ever, because the word doesn't mean anything. You say you're a feminist, you've told me absolutely nothing about what you stand for. Everyone is a feminist, everyone, because the definition is so loose that everybody fits under it. If you're really going to call yourself a feminist then please, be more specific - Are you a liberal feminist? Social? Radical? The different forms cover the entire political spectrum, you can't put them all in the same category.

I said I was a liberal feminist, mostly anti-essentialist but that's because I don't know enough on the essentialist side. The point of the poll was to ask if people would consider themselves one, the point of the OP was to start some kind of discussion.

I didn't feel like it would be appropriate to launch into the inter-feminism arguments in a thread on a gaming website, put simply. I figured that would develop as the discussion did.

Well I do believe in equal rights regardless of sex but I don't agree with modern feminism at all. I feel modern feminism marginalises men (or rather attempts to) and holds certain untruths to be true because it's convenient.

How does it marginalise men? Are you talking about a particular faction or "feminists" as a whole?

 

[varulfic]

Well, yes then, I consider myself a feminist. Liberal kind. I don't identify myself as a feminist because it seems redundant, and most people who identify themselves as feminist are of the radical kind, which I hate.

 

[The Stonker]

I could say that I'm a liberalist, because I want equal rights for EVERYONE not just "women" or "men".
Since I believe that most feminists are after only womens rights and nobody else and most of the feminists I know are, in fact douchebags.
Call me a dick but I believe that everybody deserves equal rights and that feminists don't express that idea quite 100%.

 

[Taranaich]

Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
- Cheris Kramarae

By Kramarae's definition, yes.

 

[duchaked]

well by definition anyone who supports equality for men and women can be categorized as a feminist

although modern connotation speaks volumes of feminazis so...let's just not go there

(plus, I'm only joking when I say "girl, make me a sandwich and I'll love you forever"...sorta. oh c'mon you ladies really really do NOT want to share bathrooms with us dudes...trust me)

 

[Colour Scientist]

It marginalises men by implication, if you're a woman and you're earning less it's because The Man is keeping you from the money you deserve. There's no consideration that men may be more likely to fill vacancies that play to our strengths or may actually be filling positions that society views as important enough to pay more for.

The problem I have with a lot of feminist thought is that it's very keen to trump up the female sex's strengths but it downplays men's at the same time. The view seems to be that women function exactly the same as men and then some. Basically I believe in equality of opportunity for the sexes but feminism, at least in the UK, seems to be more concerned with fighting reflexively than for a good reason.

I don't really go by all those little divides of feminism. "Gender feminism, sunday feminism, I-can't-believe-it's-not-feminism" mean jack shit to me, I basically go by 'feminists fighting for real equality' and 'feminists fighting for disingenuous reasons' and I consider that second group to be a problem for all feminists. They're an undesirable element in the movement and I refuse to count myself as a feminist until either feminism takes care of it's public image or until they abandon the name.

A lot of feminists, including myself, don't believe that it's men who are keeping women down. It's not a matter of men keeping women from the money but women not getting paid the same amount for the same job.
If a specific man is more qualified and able for a specific job then fine, great, he should get what he deserves. It's the hesitancy of employers to put women in high paid, managerial positions that's the issue with the workplace.

You know, I've never actually met a feminist who believes women are better than men.

The divides in feminism are important, the beliefs of specific groups vary hugely. It's like saying all Irish people support the IRA or all African-Americans supported Martin Luther King. The main problem is that people see feminism as an umbrella term and, as you said, are unwilling to distinguish between the different groups apart from what is acknowledge by society as a whole.

 

[AlphaLackey]

This is why feminism, as a movement that is not at all unique to women, is still very necessary.


Watch it and be appalled by the stats that are given.

I'm appalled by how poorly sourced and devoid of context those stats are, if that's what you meant. I'm appalled at how our society would require a firm citation for something as banal as a toothpaste advertisement, where one couldn't make a claim that their product "makes your teeth whiter than other brands" without showing a citation to a peer-reviewed study, but one can make sweeping claims about half the population without even needing to provide context.

Other observations about this video:

A) notice how "..even when doing the same job" did not include ".. with the same qualifications, with the same experience, with the same education,.." etc. Nor does it address explicit pro-woman sexist institutions in our society. And not just affirmative action, but things such as athletics -- the best female tennis player couldn't beat the 200th best male tennis player in a match, yet due to the sexist institution of "separate but equal" sports leagues, she will make millions more than she would make if she had to compete openly, fairly and equally against all tennis players. Same with golf, basketball, and pretty much any sport where body strength is a key element -- and even in those that don't, where women compete as biological equals, women are pushing for segregation anyways. Is there any logical reason why women chess players should have their own (lower) title requirements, their own tournaments and their own championship?

B) "1 in 4 women are victims of domestic violence" means nothing unless you define domestic violence and compare it to what proportion of men are victims of domestic violence by that same standard. When it comes time to cite how many women are victims of domestic violence, even "yelling" and other non-violent behavior gets categorized as violence, but when it comes time to show how it only affects women, the bar gets raised as it takes. This statistic is completely worthless without context, which naturally is not provided.

C) Like all media created to portray half a truth, there is a huge part of the story missing here. Where is the mention of how women commit the same crime under the same circumstances, but get off with far lighter sentences? Or how a woman spends the same dollar into a pension fund but gets more out of it than a man would due to a longer life span? Or how she pays the same deduction for health care plans but, again, gets more out of it? Or the massive pro-woman sexism in family courts? And so on.

.. and ultimately, there's my point. Feminism is not about equality. Feminism is about elevating the status of women, under the assumption that women and only women are ever at a disadvantage in society. This assumption was pretty well valid up until very recently in Western society. It is valid in pretty much all of the developing world today (which is why this video so freely intermingles the latter with claims about the former). But in Western society, in the here and now, it is not a valid assumption. And until feminism fights as vigorously for women to get "equal time for equal crime" as they do for "equal pay for equal work" (including the demanding of legislation for affirmative action to redress past sexism and discrimination), it can never claim to be about equality.

Rather, they fight to maintain such pro-woman sexism. The NOW is vigorously fighting legislation that would bring equality to child custody decisions, where if both parents were fit and both parents wanted to be in the children's life, that joint custody would be the mandated starting point. When Andrea Yates drowned her children in a bathtub, the NOW held candlelight vigils for her and claimed she was the real victim and it was her husband who was to blame. Just recently in the UK, despite women already getting a strong advantage in sentencing for the same crime under the same circumstances, the published judicial guidelines actually called for MORE leniency for women in sentencing. Equality, indeed.

Of course, I will be painted as a baseless misogynist and a male supremacist by those who want to redefine equality as "either equality or preferential treatment, whichever pays better." No matter. I know how I live my life. I treat women as equals, for better for worse. I have worked with them as equals, I have competed against them as equals, I have socialized with them as equals in a non-sexualized manner, and I have never, EVER lowered my assumptions about what a woman can do nor have I patronized their achievements because of their gender. If that's the earmark of misogyny by today's standards, so be it; I'm content with being decades ahead of my time in that regard. In a generation, I know who will be seen as the visionary and who will be seen as the dinosaur.

 

[duchaked]

I support equality, but never to the point where there's a certain quota. Also, women are better at some things, and vice versa. This subject should be studied more, but unfortunately in modern days it's considered as sexist, with all the political correctness gone mad: a well respected scientist who had done breakthrough research for over 20 years, decided to research this subject, and after the results got out; he got sacked and the results weren't released in the normal manner, because feminism was an extremely hot subject at the time.

Both sexes should have equal rights. Feminist acts often go towards just increasing female rights, not to equalize. I know that's not what feminism means, but that's how it often works. If men would be asking the same thing on professions/industries/areas where they aren't equal, they'd be thought as being chauvinist.

I totally agree. I respect women as much as I can having grown up around so many, and it ticks me off to see so many guys just playing girls and the girls playing along, falling for it, or just not caring that they're treated like a hunting trophy. However, it has to go both ways.

Political correctness...sigh, people are entitled to their own opinions. Sometimes you have to be a bit controversial when making a stand that YES, this is what you believe in. Sorry it may not be "open-minded" enough to include everyone's differing various beliefs but is that really possible? Is that really believing in anything at all?

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I understand that it is always the worst of a particular group that is the most vocal, but my views of feminists has been damaged a fair bit over time. Don't get me wrong, I believe everyone is equal and should have equal rights, but most of the feminists I come across seem to want more rights for women and less rights for men.
For example, a woman in my town who is a very vocal feminist will blow her top at the most courteous men for doing harmless things, and she never seems to be happy about the way she is treated. One day a man might hold a door open for her, and it's "How dare you! You think I'm incapable of opening a door because I'm a woman!?". The next day someone might do the opposite and she claims they're rude and un-chivalrous. She's a mad witch.
Equality is always a good thing, though..

I absolutely despise that sort of person. It's so hypocritical I want to barf on them.

 

[Dense_Electric]

Male, and no. I'm 100% an individualist - I believe every single human being should be treated according to their own merits, their own character, their own abilities, etc. Lumping people into groups based on anything and then judging them on belonging to a certain group is just wrong.

 

[Verlander]

The flaw in feminism is that it favours one gender by it's very definition. I'm a dirty liberal all the way, and I think that the concept of feminism is outdated-we need equality, not segregation

 

[HentMas]

i personally am not a feminist, i do not believe in the equality of gender because females act differently according to the set rules on our society, and untill those rules are take away, i dont believe they can be "equal" in all the sense of the word, yes! they can work the same jobs, think the same things, so most of the stuff we do, but only they can carry the kid in its womb, and that is a really important role in todays society.

i might be stupid or watever, i know this is a wrong way to think, but having a kid and being divorced has made me realize that the mother of my son could do a better job taking care of him if she wasnt trying to do everything we males do

of course i try to be as motherly as i can whenever my kid is over, but i can never replace his mom (better said, A mom).

 

[Colour Scientist]

Female, and no. I want equal rights and things like that, but I don't believe we should be anywhere ahead or superior to men. Both sexes should be equal in my opinion. If women were to become superior to men, then they'd become the bad guys, I.E. the roles are reversed. :O

Feminists wanting to be superior to men is a stereotype, and an old one at that.
Yes, there are groups who believe that but they are now in the minority and most would come under the term liberal feminism.

Feminism does not equal female superiority.