Why are feminists treated with contempt and all viewed as being bra burning, dungaree wearing lesbians?

Question

This is a serious Q - I notice that most women make a point of saying 'I think x,y,z..but I am NOT a feminist'..also notice that many male posts treat the social movement with utter contempt..

FTR - there is a huge diversity of opinion within the feminist movement but most are also interested in other kinds of injustice too.. it is not about hating men or thinking women are right all the time.. it is about hating the way women are sometimes treated knowing that not all women are oppressed.. or to the same extent..

Issues like the 40,000,000 missing girl children in China, the 10,000,000 in India..are those feminists campaign for or the fact that 12,000 Russian women are killed by their partner each year and domestic abuse is so common they have a saying 'if he doesn't hit you - he doesn't love you'.. or the fact that over 90% of cases of rape which have enough evidence to go to court do not lead to a conviction..the list is endless but just wondered why the contempt?

I notice many people think it is the extremists to blame yet I see no evidence of a matriarchal society or the desire for one emerging.. is that too therefore just a myth which has taken root.. examples or names of people who are doing those things would be appreciated cos I know of none..

Quick note for guy who asked - yes I too believe in equality along race and sexuality lines.. and you are speaking to the converted regarding the exploitation of people..the fact 30,000 children die everyday from preventable diseases also bothers me. Regarding the financial discrimination of men - I think you should check the facts first.. a few cases reach the headlines but on the whole women fare much worse following divorce, usually because they earn less due to gender/time off having/caring for children.. because they usually cannot make a fresh start since they normally are the ones who care for any children from the marriage, pension wise and so on..

Answer 1

I will describe myself as a feminist - but I know that other people have a very different understanding of what that is than I do. I don't like being misunderstood, and so sometimes I don't use the word feminist, but instead talk about equality.

You should read The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Her argument is that when feminists started to really change things, the beauty myth was employed against them - i.e. the idea that feminists were ugly and masculine etc. She says that they weren't just being attacked for their politics and actions, but their "private sense of self" was attacked. And so it goes on.

Unfortunately, we live in a world which, as you aptly demonstrate, is seething with contempt for women. In those circumstances, feminism / any kind of equality politics is bound to meet with contempt, and women are bound, also, to view themselves with contempt.

I think this is one of the most interesting and powerful questions for women - how do we take control of our own psychology? In a world that hates women, how do we learn to like ourselves enough to effect change?

Anyway - good question!

Answer 2

I have no problem with the Feminist movement, in fact, I'm a complete supporter. What I do have a problem with are Feminist extremists who seem to be working towards a Matriarichal (run-by-women) society. I also have problems with 'girl-power' t-shirts that cast men in a derogatory light. Perhaps they do exist, but I do not see mens shirts that do the reverse very publicly displayed.

Equal Rights is an excellent idea, and something we should strive for.

Now, not all countries have taken the leaps and bounds in equal rights that our two countries, Canada and the United States, have. Perhaps, rather than trying to increase their abundance of rights in North America, they should turn their eyes towards places like China and India, rather than wining about having the same number of rights as men rather than more, which often times is the opinion I'm getting from the extremist feminists.

Answer 3

Yes, I'm a feminist. I never burned my bra and I have never joined a feminist movement, but I I still appreciate it when a man carries a crate of beer into my house and I don't think I am demeaning myself when I accept his help. I have been lucky, since, as a teacher and later social worker in Switzerland, I have always had equal pay. If I were a fork-lift truck operator, I was payed less than my male colleagues then I would complain.

Equal pay for equal work.

But we have other problems. The abortion of female foetuses/viable children in China, dowry killings in India, physical abuse, not just in Russia. Cases of un-reported rape may still be accounted for by the treatment of the victim by the police/courts.

And, I am still actively heterosexual.

I've been out of England for more than half my life, but I've never worn dungarees. 100% feminine and 100% feminist. Where's the problem?

Answer 4

I haven't met a woman who couldn't hold a job or do anything better than this man.

I support all women in the movement however many are misdirected.

Men feel contempt toward the social movement since nobody wants to really be an opressor. It's a bad rap and we're now paying for our gender's mistakes throughout history.

While women want more for their gender, they shouldn't decide that I'm against them just because I'm male.

This is a hot topic so I hope you enjoy the flame war.

Answer 5

You're right. 'Feminism' has become a dirty word. It tends to happen when a movement becomes extreme and invites ridicule. It's probably because the word 'feminism' focuses on the feminine exclusively which annoys people, although at the time it was coined as a celebration of the feminine, which for centuries had been denigrated. There were many male supporters of feminism, and still are.

I think what we should all be is egalitarians, striving for justice for all human beings who are badly treated in this world. Unfortunately, most of these continue to be female.

Answer 6

If you are being treated as a femenist, I believe you have it differently than I do. I have a sense of independance, but I do not have a problem with being a feminist because I am not one. I am just a lady who is on the verge of being different and that is what you should be is different, think of it like this, you are a feminist only if you let yourself be a feminist in the eyes of jealous men who can't stand to see an intelligent woman and who is not afraid of a womens opinion, or a womans' hit when she knocks them silly for calling her a feminist.

Answer 7

It's probably because different people have different ideas about what feminism means. In the UK in the eighties, some feminists were very extreme - with somne believeing that feminists should be lesbians for political reasons, and some leaving their male children so that they cold be accepted in all female living units.

These extreme ideas took emphasis away from many of the real problems that you highlight, and many people still associate feminism with these ideas rather that an attempt to address the real issues.

Answer 8

I think its down to a lack of education and appreciation of the concept of feminism.
Until relatively recently if someone had said to me that they were a feminist I would have had the dungereed,Dr.Martin boot wearing,skin head,aggressive lesbian stereotype figure in my mind.Basically "men haters".
However I have been very fortunate to meet someone who has been able to enlighten my understanding of what feminism is really about and now I realise that the womens lib,feminist movement has been cast in a very poor light for many years mainly through the male dominated media available to us , being television,radio and newspapers and magazines.
It suited men to portray feminists as extremist loonies and as I said ,I for one bought into the image and dismissed them as being mentally unhinged idiots who had nothing better to do with their time than chain themselves to the fence of a U.S military air base or join any anarchist march.
I am glad to say that I have been enlightened and now know this assumption to be way off the mark.
Perhaps its with age and experience that in fact I now find it hard to believe that a much greater percentage of the female population are not men haters because I have seen the utter contempt with which men treat women including their wives/partners,mothers and daughters in society.
Women have been treated badly in our society as well as appallingly in countries like India and China and I think it will take a long time for the real feminist ideals to be accepted worldwide.
Lack of education and understanding has left men fearing,loathing and mistrusting to say the least feminists and a lot of women distancing themselves from the movement because of the stereotypical image men have in their minds of what a feminist is.
I for one have seen the dawn and the error of my previous misconceptions and hope that the cause of equality and feminism can be spread through revelation not rebellion.

Answer 9

The reason is that a group of militant feminists turned the ideas around and used them to brow-beat everyone else, so the 'movement' as a whole got a bad name.

The issues you list are not just of interest to feminists. That's a bit like saying the massive imbalance between research into testicular cancer and breast cancer is a 'masculinist' issue.

Social justice is a less-divise term, which is why I think that few will openly admit to being "feminist"

Answer 10

i am a humanist

i believe in true equality

to me feminism is as bad as the kkk (not really but it made you think)

in this country feminism is seen as women divorcing men and taking more than their share and causing long term financial hardship on the men. financial oppression of men.

I believe in the true equality of women. And muslims, hindus, christians, lesbians, gay men, transgender, etc.

But do you. would you happily let your kids go to school if the teacher was muslim? Or black? Or gay?

Want to stop oppression, stop capitalism exporting the lowest common denominator. Make nike pay the woman in india $7.25 US an hour. Shop at oxfam, don't eat macdonalds, catch the bus. don't watch tv.