What do feminists look like?
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask 'What is a feminist?' because if one is to believe what people say, she is bound to be hairy, militant, aggressive, unreasonable, humourless, anti-male, anti-family, ugly (whingeing because she can't get a man), dominating, pitiless, meanspirited, sexless, judgemental and prescriptive. As Naomi Wolf points out in Fire with Fire, those supportive of equal rights for women have always been labelled unfeminine and unattractive so perhaps these descriptions should come as no surprise. Mary Wollstonecraft, for example, who was an early feminist, was called a 'hyena in petticoats' - which was the eighteenth-century equivalent of these insults.
Kate Pritchard Hughes, "Feminism for beginners", in Contemporary Australian Feminism, 2nd ed., Longman, Melbourne: 1997
1 comment:
So basically any woman who believes women are human beings and thus should be treated equally is somehow not actually a "proper" woman. Oh dear, I shall have to give my lipsticks back.
Post a Comment