Why I call myself a feminist

Oh dear, sisters, there seems to be a terrible misunderstanding and I’d like to start this brand new year by clearing it up.

In my experience, younger women with political awareness like to preface their statements about a sexist issue with the declamation, ”I wouldn’t call myself a feminist, but ...”

Is there a view among younger feminists (there! I will call you the F word, even if you do not prefer it) that the label of “feminist” was once all the rage ... say in the 1970s ... but today has gone out of fashion? Tell me if I am wrong, but do I sense that young feminists think the “feminist” label was once cool, groovy, hip?

No, no. No, no, no. Feminist was always meant to be derogatory, just as it is today, just as “suffragette” was once a term spat at the brave activists who marched for our right to vote. When the word “feminist” failed to insult us, when we embraced the term, the deriders labelled us “lesbian feminists”. That was enough to deter many women from accepting the epithet.

I call myself a feminist, in part, for the same reason that gay men call themselves “queer” (I think) – to co-opt the insult and reverse its meaning. I call myself a feminist because it is deemed an unacceptable label, I do it so to defy the centuries of socialisation that make me and other women fearful of being despised, misjudged or even just laughed at by men.

I call myself a feminist because feminism is still an important political perspective that is useful and relevant to analysing the workplace and many other environments.

Is it the only perspective? Of course not. But it does help steer me away from falling into the more obvious traps of our patriarchy, one of which is divide and rule. To call myself a feminist is to identify with other women.

And so, dear sisters, I urge you to pick up the poison chalice of the feminist label and drink deeply. Instead of killing you, or sending you into a slumber for 100 years, it might wake you up. Perhaps you will see more injustices by embracing such a perspective but you will also see many fellow feminists, from the past and the present, walking beside you as you defy the wrongs and right them.

Do you agree? Write and tell me your views.

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