Pretty Much Out Of The Blue
May. 8th, 2012 06:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillSo. I'm a feminist. I believe that women are full human beings with full human rights and should have the full range of human options when it comes to our choices.
I like a lot of things that are considered "masculine" like woodworking, and pants, and short hair. I don't like a lot of things that are considered "feminine" like high heels and makeup. But you know, that is me--my personal tastes. It has nothing to do with feminism as I understand it.
When I was younger I despised (or sometimes pretended to despise) feminine things--because I had absorbed society's belief that feminine things were less important, less competent, less worthy than masculine things. Shop was important and interesting; home ec was dull and foolish, and girls who settled for that were patsies. But, you know, that wasn't feminism; that was its opposite. (Though it did push me to complain to my Mom, who then went and pushed the school until they announced that any boy who wanted could take home ec and any girl who wanted could take shop, which was both a good outcome and a feminist move.) Now shop was important and interesting (or at least a lot of fun) and I'm glad I took it, but learning to sew and cook also would have been useful when I needed those skills, just like learning to type and drive came in handy.
There's nothing wrong with anyone of any gender choosing the feminine option--as long as you're doing it because that's what makes you happy. It's when you're doing it because you're socially pressured to do so, or because the option available to men isn't as available to you, that I have a problem with it. And even then my problem isn't with you--it's with the situation and the people causing the situation.
Feminism should be about widening the field of choices available to women--indeed, in the larger sense, about widening the field of choices available to *anyone*--not about substituting one constrained set for another constrained set.
I like a lot of things that are considered "masculine" like woodworking, and pants, and short hair. I don't like a lot of things that are considered "feminine" like high heels and makeup. But you know, that is me--my personal tastes. It has nothing to do with feminism as I understand it.
When I was younger I despised (or sometimes pretended to despise) feminine things--because I had absorbed society's belief that feminine things were less important, less competent, less worthy than masculine things. Shop was important and interesting; home ec was dull and foolish, and girls who settled for that were patsies. But, you know, that wasn't feminism; that was its opposite. (Though it did push me to complain to my Mom, who then went and pushed the school until they announced that any boy who wanted could take home ec and any girl who wanted could take shop, which was both a good outcome and a feminist move.) Now shop was important and interesting (or at least a lot of fun) and I'm glad I took it, but learning to sew and cook also would have been useful when I needed those skills, just like learning to type and drive came in handy.
There's nothing wrong with anyone of any gender choosing the feminine option--as long as you're doing it because that's what makes you happy. It's when you're doing it because you're socially pressured to do so, or because the option available to men isn't as available to you, that I have a problem with it. And even then my problem isn't with you--it's with the situation and the people causing the situation.
Feminism should be about widening the field of choices available to women--indeed, in the larger sense, about widening the field of choices available to *anyone*--not about substituting one constrained set for another constrained set.
