Another day, another imbecile.
Divergent star and resident celebrity nature chick Shailene Woodley has recently come out as anti-feminist. Such revolutionary thought! Perhaps she is deterred because of the current lack of intersectionality within feminism, worrying that it only serves straight white middle-class women while ignoring women in minorities? Nay, she defies feminism because “I love men.” Eh?
“No[I’m not a feminist] because I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance. With myself, I’m very in touch with my masculine side. And I’m 50 percent feminine and 50 percent masculine, same as I think a lot of us are. And I think that is important to note. And also I think that if men went down and women rose to power, that wouldn’t work either.. We have to have a fine balance.” [TIME magazine 2014]
You are so smart, Shailene Woodley. Allow me to worship you from the dirty ground I reside in because I am not worthy. You really get feminism! You may have just won the internet! Nay, the world! Congratu-
Oh wait. That ain’t right.
What we have here is another basic misconception of a basic fucking concept. It’s okay, it happens often. Except it’s not okay. One would assume that before giving an opinion on anything, you would at least look up the dictionary definition of it.
Feminism:
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
You’d think that was pretty clear that feminism is for equality of the sexes, not rising above the opposite sex? Maybe we’re looking at the wrong dictionary. Maybe we should look at the Patriarchy’s Dictionary.
Feminism:
A bunch of man-hating arsonists who hate men and babies and want to control all the things and chop off all the men’s dicks and then eat them for supper
Ahhhh, so that’s where she went wrong.
It’s depressing in this day and age, when feminism seems to have re-emerged in popular culture and discussed more than ever, that people still consume the drivel that the patriarchy drives home to the public in order to maintain their power. When women are making giant steps to improve the lives of other women, campaigning for equal rights, for a woman’s right to her own body, for the rights of underprivileged women, there still remains the portion of citizens who are victim to the drivel fed to them by the men who seek to perpetuate the male silhouette in positions of power. I would genuinely prefer someone who knows what feminism is refusing the label of a feminist over someone rejecting the term when they clearly do not understand it at all.
Woodley is not alone in the anti-feminist camp: Famed ear infection Katy Perry recently refused the title under the claim that “I’m not a feminist, but I do believe in the strength of women.” Yeah, no same. I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t eat meat. I’m not sexist, but all men are shite. I’m not a fish, but I do breathe through gills. I’m not a nymphomaniac, but – okay, you get the point.
Recently, quite interestingly, Perry retracted her previous comments on feminism, claiming she was afraid of the word feminism because she didn’t know what it meant. “But now I do. It just means that I love myself as a female and I love men.”
Not quite.
Really, what should I expect from the idols of tweenage girls who are under a general obligation not to express anything that would constitute a Coherent Opinion? Unfortunately, these are the biggest influences of the Next Generation (depressingly enough) so I have certain expectations for them to have some semblance of a worthy viewpoint.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am not one who believes that women have more of an obligation than men to advocate the feminist movement. All humans are responsible for the progression of society in all respects. But it is so sad when women essentially shoot themselves in the foot by playing into the hands of a sexist societal norm, falling victim to brainwashing of the powers-that-be. Nothing makes me want to throw myself off a cliff more than when someone says “I’m a humanist, not a feminist.” Okay, let’s play that game where we pretend that humanist isn’t a synonym for feminist. Let’s play it for five seconds and then get back to real life. Where feminism, in actuality, is the radical idea that women are human beings, and deserve to be treated as such.
Jessica Mercer 