“We now live in a country where a generation of Australian women don't even consider themselves feminists, having rejected the term because they think they'll be labelled a lesbian and won't get a boyfriend if they use the word.” That was the sound of Sydney Morning Herald blogger Sam de Brito explaining to Australian women the importance of adopting feminism, both the worldview and the label.
De Brito, who pens the blog All Men Are Liars, laments women’s reluctance to adopt that label, explaining that “fearful, insecure men and the politicised lesbian activists who hijacked the feminist movement in the 70s and 80s can take equal responsibility for this perception problem.”
That was the sound of all of de Brito’s women readers snorting coffee out of their noses. So let me get this straight, Sam: women shouldn’t be afraid of feminism and its accompanying stereotypes about man-hating lesbians. And they wouldn’t be afraid, if those damned man-hating lesbians hadn’t screwed everything up back in the day.
De Brito goes on to explain that feminism – the idea that “women should have equal political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights to men” – is not radical, but common sense, and that more Australian women should get behind it, instead of worrying about frivolous things like fashion, makeup and weight loss. I think I speak for most feminists here when I say, “duh.”
Women should get behind substantive issues, like free day care and reproductive rights, rather than focusing on the superficial cover stories of celebrity magazines like New Idea (or as my mother calls it, No Idea). Nor should women (or men) be afraid of calling themselves feminists, since, as Sam so wisely notes, feminism isn’t about creating a world were Oprah rules the world with an iron ovary, crowned in a tiara made from the scrota and dignities of a thousand emasculated men. It’s about women’s equality – nothing more, nothing less.
But if women are afraid to call themselves feminists – and some surely are - it isn’t because wimpy men and razor-shunning lesbians hijacked a movement that the general public otherwise welcomed with open arms. Feminists, from the suffragettes to Senator Clinton, threatened the status quo, and as such have always been tarred with negative stereotypes about their attitudes towards men, bras and razors. Not to mention the old trope that we hate sex, babies, sunshine and rainbows.
And since feminists hate men, how could a man ever be a feminist? Unless of course he, like Sam de Brito, has a daughter and is struck with the sudden fear that she might not enjoy the same privileges that he has always taken for granted?
I’ll be the first to admit that feminism needs an image boost. But Sam is sorely mistaken if he believes that feminism’s PR problems are women’s doing, or that men are excused from supporting gender equality simply because women insist on reading trashy magazines.
And as for his claim that women under 30 know nothing about feminism? Sam, as a 21-year-old feminist, I wish you could meet my band of pro-sunshine, bra-loving feminist friends. We don’t read No Idea, and we don’t spend much time talking about fashion or makeup. But even if we did, it wouldn’t make us “bad feminists,” and most importantly, it would make us no less worthy of complete and total equality.