Nonstraw Feminists

We've already had threads about Straw Feminism, so let's have a thread about feminism we like.

The following feminists are ones who I really respect and like:

• Gloria Steinem
• Frederick Douglass
• Tigtog
• Jessica Valenti
• Mary Wollstonecraft
• Jennifer Kesler
• From the forum: Karalora, Woolie Wool, Bobby G, AHR
• John Stuart Mill

edited 2nd Oct '10 3:24:02 PM by LeighSabio

Mary Wollstonecraft

Jacobin!

Do Christine de Pizan, Jane Austen and Dorothy L Sayers count as feminists?

edited 1st Oct '10 10:01:41 PM by Rottweiler

I don't know.

-not sure where I fit-

Technically i'm not a strawman, but still.

Ed, you're a feminist?

^ Ed's a housewife.

I think labeling oneself as a feminist is foolish, but anyone making a contribution to equal rights is aces in my book.

^^Is he also an alchemist?

Well, I believe men and women should be equal. Does that count?

I think labeling oneself as a feminist is foolish, but anyone making a contribution to equal rights is aces in my book.

Eh.

Define "contribution"...

^Not fucking things up for the rest of us might count.

Annie Sprinkle! And all awesome pro-sex, pro-awesome feminists:)

^ Does she pee on people?

Sometimes, yeah.

Life would manage to suck to a much greater extent without the feminist movement, so, yeah, feminism JAM.

Don't forget Susan Faludi.

I am indeed quite a fan of liberal feminsts. Liberal philosophy is awesome and those who pushed it to the logical conclusion that natural rights extend to all people, not just ones with a dick are by extension awesome.

^ While I, conversely, am a fan of the Tory advocates of women's rights (hence naming Jane Austen and Dorothy L Sayers), so I wonder if they count as feminists.

Jane Austen is listed as a "proto-feminist" right there, because you could only be so liberal in the eighteenth century.

^ Jane Austen thought liberals like Mary Wollstonecraft were wrong. She was a Tory like Samuel Johnson. To give her a pass as a feminist on the assumption that was as far to the left as she could be in that time does grave disrespect to her intelligence.

To be fair, she was still pretty good for her time. Writing female characters as characters rather than objects and all that.

I find the notion that feminism is inherently left wing annoying.

Said assumption has a great deal to do with why much academic feminism in recent years has been a load of garbage.

Right-wing feminism seems, more often than not, to have more to do with a woman's right to go and spend lots of money on shoes than it has to do with a woman's right to have control over her own life.

By the way, the political views of all the people I listed:

• Gloria Steinem (Democrat)
• Frederick Douglass (???)
• Tigtog (???)
• Jessica Valenti (???)
• Mary Wollstonecraft (Jacobin)
• Jennifer Kesler (???)
• From the forum: Karalora (Democrat)
  • Woolie Wool (???)
  • Bobby G (???)
• John Stuart Mill (Liberal)

Adding:

• Christina Hoff Sommers (Libertarian)

^^I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I think it's unfair to say a feminist can't have interests that happen to match up with traditional gender roles.