Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.
So said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her 2012 TED talk “We should all be feminists.” In it, she discussed her anger about how gender shapes identity and how society doesn’t necessarily allow us to leave that behind.
“I am angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change, but in addition to being angry, I’m also hopeful because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to make and remake themselves for the better,” said Adichie.
The anger Adichie describes is perhaps part of what has made the feminist movement so alienating to certain parts of society. Feminists are seen as radicals, refusing to shave and burning their bras to bring down the patriarchy. They are misandrists and they are bitter and why would anyone want to ever identify with such a movement?
That’s a question a lot of strong, female celebrities have asked. A December 2013 Huffington Post article listed 10 female celebrities who said they weren’t feminists. Most of the quotes, however, from these strong, successful women follow the same theme. Feminist, they say, is too strong a word. Several of them reference a quote from female playwright, Wendy Wasserstein.
“I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist.”
December 2013 was an important month for feminism in popular culture. Think back on that opening definition. Even if you aren’t quite up-to-date on your Nigerian feminist authors, you probably recognize it. That’s because it’s more popularly recognized as an interlude in Beyoncé’s “Flawless.”
Queen B’s vocal expression of her support of the feminist movement has been an ever-present constant in popular media in the last year. Her VMA performance could not have made it more clear—you can’t identify with a movement more obviously than standing in front of a giant FEMINIST sign on live television.
But Beyoncé is not the only celebrity who vocally casts her lot into the feminist forum. Perhaps most notably in the last month, Emma Watson’s speech at the UN unequivocally deals with this issue.
What is so great about Watson’s speech is that she recognizes the need to make it clear that since the feminist movement is centered on the equality of the sexes, both sexes have to be involved in changing how society treats and creates gender roles. It’s that whole issue of humanism vs. feminism again—but this time, she’s trying to rework the universal understanding of the word.
It’s an issue Adichie addressed in her speech. She told her audience that a feminist is a “a man or a woman who says yes there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it. We must do better.” She also said the best feminist she knows is her brother.
Watson’s speech builds on this. She gave what she calls a “formal invitation” to men to join the movement and then encouraged men to show their support with #HeForShe on social media.
Since June, there have been a number of interesting, feminism-related hashtags trending on Twitter. After Elliot Rodger’s killing spree and legitimately horrifying manifesto video, #YesAllWomen trended for several days. It was huge; it was enlightening; it got a number of rather disturbing reactions.
#NotAllMen started trending not all that much later because many men were offended and disturbed by the idea that they would be related to a mentally unstable, psychotic killer like Rodger. The idea is fair enough on some level but sort of misses the point of the original hashtag. The women who posted weren’t reacting to Rodger specifically—he was just the catalyst. They were commenting on little, everyday instances of sexism that women face. #YesAllWomen took advantage of the media spotlight on an atrocity to start a dialogue and all #NotAllMen did was work to close that up.
In July, #WomenAgainstFeminism started trending. While #NotAllMen might have been annoying, #WomenAgainstFeminism was much more concerning. It was usually the same view expressed above—that feminist was too strong a word, too divisional and too often identified with misandry. Other times, there was a view that feminists just cause conflict.
More recently, in response to the NFL’s dealing of the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal, women have begun tweeting #WhyIStayed, trying to start a conversation about why women stay in abusive relationships without resorting to victim-blaming. As with all things, the more information available from a certain perspective, the easier it is to understand that perspective.
Social media activism isn’t just limited to these hashtags. Since #YesAllWomen, we’ve had #SurvivorPrivilege in response to an article that claimed being a rape survivor was a “coveted” status, #EverdaySexism, #YouOKSis about street harassment and #AskHerMore, which deals with questions people wish reporters would ask women on the red carpet.
The social media storm that has surrounded the feminist movement since June has generated a lot of discussion. And it’s discussion that’s leading more people to an understanding of the feminist movement they can get behind.
One of the ten female celebrities on the Huffington Post’s December 2013 list was Taylor Swift, she of the constantly playing song “Shake It Off.” In an interview with The Guardian after the release of the newest hit, Swift reneged on former statements distancing herself from the feminist movement.
“As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means. For so long it’s been made to seem like something where you’d picket against the opposite sex, whereas it’s not about that at all,” she said in the interview.
Speaking of the music industry, the charts for the last month have been all about female musicians and female strength. Since the week of Sept. 20, the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 have been Swift’s “Shake It Off,” Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj’s “Bang Bang,” and Iggy Azalea’s “Black Widow.” But that’s really just a side note here.
In the Guardian interview, Swift credits part of her feminist awakening to her growing friendship with Lena Dunham, whose social media presence identifies her as a strong feminist.
Dunham’s book, released on Sept. 30, opens up more discussion of feminist ideologies. Not That Kind of Girl: A young woman tells you what she’s “learned” is Dunham’s memoir of her life up-to-now, chronicling her rise to prominence as the creator, director and star of the HBO hit Girls.
It is exactly what one might expect from the woman who created Girls—often insightful, often funny and occasionally a little too informative. In one section of her book, “Work,” she examines how can’t wait to be eighty and be able to look back on her life and tell the world explicitly about the men who tried take advantage of her on her rise to power.
She calls them “Sunshine Stealers” and she doesn’t, and can’t, give a good way for dealing with them. They’re part of the business, but it’s clear she looks forward to a future where they don’t have to be.
Dunham’s book is reminiscent, in some ways, of Tina Fey’s January 2013 Bossypants, which chronicles her rise to fame as well. For me, it’s only made me more excited for Amy Poehler’s Yes, Please! which is released at the end of this month.
One thing is for certain in the midst of the maelstrom of media around the feminist cause: discussion is working towards a new societal understanding of the meaning of the word “feminist.” For many in the media, it seems less and less necessary to distance oneself from feminism because it’s too strong of a word. We don’t need to be humanists, not feminists.
If you’re looking for a quick way to sum up this emerging definition of feminism (or rather the definition that’s maybe always existed but not been so clearly defined), Aziz Ansari’s interview with David Letterman Monday night provides a short, funny metaphor that explains a lot.
Here at Notre Dame, we’re working on extending this discussion into our everyday lives. Groups like Notre Dames hope to engage all Notre Dame students on the evolving discussion around feminism and that discussion is what is really important about all the changing ideas about feminism. It’s not just about breaking the glass ceiling—it’s about changing everyday rhetoric and societal discourse on gender and sex to something that treats men and women as equals. No matter the circumstance.
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