Earlier this week TIME magazine drew flak for its annual poll on words that ought to be banned. Among the predictable candidates like “bae” and “turnt” there was also a surprise: “feminist.” The byline accompanying it read, “You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party? Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.” While the magazine later issued an apology for including “feminist” in its list of words to ban, claiming that it was intended to spark discussion, the incident clearly struck a cord and revealed how divisive the issue truly is.
I have never had an issue with calling myself a feminist. In fact, I’ve usually been dumbfounded by people, particularly women, who eschew the term as something negative or unattractive. When did calling yourself a feminist become such a bad thing, even amongst other women? If anything, rather than banning the word, we ought to be using it more. Telling people that you’re a feminist forces others to consider what it is you stand for, and even if they may have some slightly warped idea of what that is, the core sentiment holds true: equal rights for women. The fact is, easy, affordable reproductive health care is not a national reality. Gender equality in salaries and work opportunities is not a national reality. Street harassment (such as the kind showcased in a video that went viral earlier this month) and sexual harassment are. We can stop using the word “feminist” when we no longer need feminism. Here at UC Berkeley, the month of October was filled with new reports of sexual assault, including a case in which reportedly five women were given roofies and assaulted at a fraternity. That this then becomes a concern when my friends and I go out on a Friday night is a damn shame. So if using the word “feminist” sheds even a speck of light on the myriad of issues that impede gender inequality, great. And if celebrities want to call themselves feminists and bring attention to the cause, that’s great too. TIME’s poll was meant to be lighthearted (in which case it could have done better by suggesting to ban the word “feminazi”), but the attention it incited showed how parts of our culture can be entrenched in anti-feminism. The headline of the Daily Caller article read, “TIME Jokingly Suggests Banning the Word ‘Feminist,’ Feminists Freak Out. Public mockery like this devalues the causes feminists fight for and makes the uphill climb to gender equality all the more steep.
Perhaps from a smaller publication a gaffe like this would have been more excusable, or at least, ignorable. Other reports also claim that the site 4chan had a significant role to play in putting “feminist” on the list, suggesting that TIME is not entirely to blame. But TIME magazine is a national, cultural, and political staple that has the power to unconsciously influence readers’ perceptions on issues, and therefore has a responsibility to those readers, which includes monitoring the information they put out. As collegiates, we are constantly navigating the issues or groups we choose to affiliate ourselves with, to insure that we don’t get caught up in something that may have a negative impact on us. Calling ourselves feminists is not one of those things.