Feminism Is For Everyone

Jul 5, 2008,7:47 PM

As we near 200 posts....

I would like to send a special message out to all the cowardly anonymous commenters who are in obvious need of a vocabulary lesson.

Even though you think it vilifies feminist ideology, "radical feminism" is not an accurate term for the current third wave of feminism. Although many, many (a disturbing number of) anti-feminists throw around the word "radical" to make feminism seem insane and intense (and really, what is more insane that EQUALITY, ew), what radical feminism really refers to is a sect of feminism that was popular during the second wave (think 1960s/1970s) that believed that our society's gender discrimination is inherent in the way the society is set up, and must therefore be changed FROM THE ROOT (hence, "radical") rather than working within the system like their "liberal feminist" counterparts. To call today's feminism "radical" is a clear attempt at the old "applying a buzzword to an idea so that non-thinking people will think the scary new idea is even scarier" tactic.

On the other hand, it sort of makes me giggle when people use it so ignorantly, so maybe you can all keep it up!

Signing off from the feminist outpost at Yale,
Carly