This is why feminists are feminists—its why there needs to be a name. Social, political, and economic equality is not the default. The reason Whedon can stand up at the podium and say that equality is natural is because all these feminists he doesnt talk about, from Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth on up, have fought exhausting battle after exhausting, grinding battle to get to this point. Feminist is a movement, a history, a faith, and a hope for change—as Firestone says, if there were another word more all-encompassing than revolution we would use it. Saying equality is natural sounds like a good thing, but Whedon uses it rhetorically to ignore the entire history of feminism. Instead of acknowledging his foremothers, he can just offer up standard-issue self-aggrandizing self-deprecation, spontaneously generating words that will (with appropriate caveats of course) perhaps change the face of feminism and make all those feminists hes not talking about anyway obsolete. (P.S. If you want to make your blood boil, read the comments below the article. The misconceptions around feminism do point towards the need for greater positive branding of the movement - but I dont think the solution is to chuck out the term.) ~LA
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 22:06:48 +0000