02 June 2007

Blurp: What do feminists (not) want?

According to Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones, Thinking for Ourselves: an Introduction to Feminist Theorising. Uk: Edinbugh University Press, 1998; p. 1

"Feminists refuse to accept that inequalities between women and men are natural and inevitable and insist that they should be questioned.... Thinking as a feminist involves much of what has counted as 'knowledge.' Because we have historically lived in male-dominated societies, women have more often been the objects of knowledge rather than producers of it."

Inequality and subordination-objectification are key concepts and realities challenged by feminism. however, inequality exists not only between the male and female (biological sex), but also between old and young (age), white and colored (race), heterosexual and homosexual/bisexual/transgender/intersex/pansexual/queer (sexuality/sexual orientation), lowlander and highlander/urbanite and ruralite/indigenuous (ethnicity), rich and poor (class), able and disabled (disability), high caste and low caste (descent), white collar and white collar (work), etc.

Feminism is not for women only. Feminism works against all forms of discrimination and inequalities. However, feminism is not one "ism." There are many strands of it--liberal, popular, postmodern, socialist, marxist, eco, radical and so on. Sometimes on an issue, one feminism collides with another strand of feminism.

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