Anonymous
04-04-1999, 11:36 AM
In responding to a women in combat message, RDT stated that she's "not a feminist" but goes on to state that she thinks that women should have an equal opportunity to compete for the combat arms. This is a pet peeve of mine. I don't know how many women I've heard say this "I'm not a feminist, but" thing.
Just what do you think that feminism is and who do you think feminists are? Are you still living with the male propaganda that feminists are great big bull dykes who want to be men? If you are, shame on you...that's the same thing that I was told about most women who wanted to join the Army (the ones who weren't dykes were whores, of course). What do you think feminism wanted/wants? Unisex bathrooms? The destruction of civilization as we know it?
Feminism is about equal opportunity to compete for jobs which have genuinely job-related requirements. Feminism is about women not being the sole caregivers in our society. Feminism is about every person being able to live up to his or her potential without genitalia being a handicap. Feminism is about understanding that gender roles are cultural constructs that have always been fluid to meet society's changing needs. (When typewriters were invented, they were machines considered too complex and hard to use for women; only men were hired to be typists.) Feminism is about truly thinking about who we are and how we distribute power.
Feminists are our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters. In some cases, feminists have even been our grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sons. (I once worked for a man who had always believed that women shouldn't be in certain jobs until he held his infant daughter in his arms. Looking at her, he said that he had a sudden revelation: he didn't want his daughter to be discriminated against. He didn't want anyone to tell her that there were things she couldn't so, things she couldn't be. He became a feminist.)
Yes, there were (and are) radical forms of feminism, such as Jill Johnston's "Lesbian Nation." There are many radical forms of every philosoply, every social movement, particularly when the movement is frustrated. The Civil Rights Movement gave birth to the Black Panthers and other groups advocating separatism. Whatever group is trying really hard not to give up power use the existence of these radical groups to discredit the entire movement. YOU should not be so gullible. The existence of radical groups is a response to frustration that a movement is not being successful; it is not evidence that the movement should not be successful.
I am so tired of women in formerly men's jobs (and let's not forget that ALL paid labor was once men's work) saying "I'm not a feminist, but..." Instead, all of you young women in business who are not secretaries, in the health professions who are not nurses and nurse's aides, in the Army as anything but clerk-typists; all of you young women who are truck drivers, policewomen, letter carriers, engineers, and a thousand other jobs once restricted to men OUGHT to spend a few moments every day to celebrating and giving thanks to the feminists who went before you and opened those jobs for you. Men did not just wake up one day and say to themselves, "Oh, heck, let's stop disciminating against women today. Let's give up power and position and let women have an equal opportunity to compete for jobs we've always kept for ourselves." No, that didn't happen. Feminists made that happen through our discourse in the media, in the courts, at the barricades (sometimes quite literally as per the first-wave feminists-suffragists). It was feminists who were the first women in these jobs, usually alone, and had to suffer and prove themselves, and paved the way for you.
I am proud to say that I'm a feminist. I look at girls' sports programs in schools, women in corporate management, women in the Gulf War, and women in a thousand other places they were once unwelcome, and I'm proud to know that I can see those things because I and my sisters (and a very few brothers) demanded those things and fought for them and were reviled for it. However, I do resent women taking those hard-fought prizes and failing to understand the history behind them. TME
greatoz@aol.com
Just what do you think that feminism is and who do you think feminists are? Are you still living with the male propaganda that feminists are great big bull dykes who want to be men? If you are, shame on you...that's the same thing that I was told about most women who wanted to join the Army (the ones who weren't dykes were whores, of course). What do you think feminism wanted/wants? Unisex bathrooms? The destruction of civilization as we know it?
Feminism is about equal opportunity to compete for jobs which have genuinely job-related requirements. Feminism is about women not being the sole caregivers in our society. Feminism is about every person being able to live up to his or her potential without genitalia being a handicap. Feminism is about understanding that gender roles are cultural constructs that have always been fluid to meet society's changing needs. (When typewriters were invented, they were machines considered too complex and hard to use for women; only men were hired to be typists.) Feminism is about truly thinking about who we are and how we distribute power.
Feminists are our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters. In some cases, feminists have even been our grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sons. (I once worked for a man who had always believed that women shouldn't be in certain jobs until he held his infant daughter in his arms. Looking at her, he said that he had a sudden revelation: he didn't want his daughter to be discriminated against. He didn't want anyone to tell her that there were things she couldn't so, things she couldn't be. He became a feminist.)
Yes, there were (and are) radical forms of feminism, such as Jill Johnston's "Lesbian Nation." There are many radical forms of every philosoply, every social movement, particularly when the movement is frustrated. The Civil Rights Movement gave birth to the Black Panthers and other groups advocating separatism. Whatever group is trying really hard not to give up power use the existence of these radical groups to discredit the entire movement. YOU should not be so gullible. The existence of radical groups is a response to frustration that a movement is not being successful; it is not evidence that the movement should not be successful.
I am so tired of women in formerly men's jobs (and let's not forget that ALL paid labor was once men's work) saying "I'm not a feminist, but..." Instead, all of you young women in business who are not secretaries, in the health professions who are not nurses and nurse's aides, in the Army as anything but clerk-typists; all of you young women who are truck drivers, policewomen, letter carriers, engineers, and a thousand other jobs once restricted to men OUGHT to spend a few moments every day to celebrating and giving thanks to the feminists who went before you and opened those jobs for you. Men did not just wake up one day and say to themselves, "Oh, heck, let's stop disciminating against women today. Let's give up power and position and let women have an equal opportunity to compete for jobs we've always kept for ourselves." No, that didn't happen. Feminists made that happen through our discourse in the media, in the courts, at the barricades (sometimes quite literally as per the first-wave feminists-suffragists). It was feminists who were the first women in these jobs, usually alone, and had to suffer and prove themselves, and paved the way for you.
I am proud to say that I'm a feminist. I look at girls' sports programs in schools, women in corporate management, women in the Gulf War, and women in a thousand other places they were once unwelcome, and I'm proud to know that I can see those things because I and my sisters (and a very few brothers) demanded those things and fought for them and were reviled for it. However, I do resent women taking those hard-fought prizes and failing to understand the history behind them. TME
greatoz@aol.com