This is a tricky issue. Much of the time you hear the phrase "I'm not a feminist, but..." from women because in this day and age the belief is that feminism is over with. There's no need for it anymore because women are equal to men in all respects. There's also the fear of being labelled the ugly feminist, which was a concept that was created as part of the backlash against feminism. All of these are topics for another day.
This is a difficult world to admit being a feminist in. Men supposedly don't like this trait in women. I guess this would make sense. In an essay by Herbert Blumer ("Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Positiion") wrote a piece on how racism is driven by the percieved loss of status by the top group. This can be applied to sexism as well. Men are the dominant group, the top dogs. If women were to gain power then it would percieved that their relative position would lose power. Men would react against this by trying to halt the rise in power. At first, in the 70's there was a proliferation of porn that showed violence against women. It slowly went away until it had almost dissappeared, or at least went back down to the previous levels as men acclimated. As women kept demanding equality, though, there was a backlash against the movement, one that was far more effective than the underground porn movement. They all said that women who were feminists couldn't get men if they wanted to, that they were man-haters, ugly, hirsute, bald-headed, flannel-wearing near-women.
So not true.
She's a feminist.
She is not a feminist.
Both are actually quite good looking. Men can be feminists, ugly or handsome. Women can be feminists, ugly or handsome. Your beliefs are not based off of how you look, but by your past experiences and teachings. Truthfully, there's probably a strong, positive correlation between education and feminist beliefs (i.e. that the higher education you receive the more likely you are to have some or all feminist beliefs) just like with liberalism and education. In the end, though, it's about being true to what you see is fair, even in an unfair world. It's about trying to even the odds out, when they are already skewed so much in favor of W.A.S.P.s in the first place. It's about being true to your wife, daughter, mother, cousins, friends, etc. and telling them their work and time is worth just as much as yours. It's about staying true to your golden rule.
I completely agree. I also think that one tool the patriarchy uses to control women is the notion that women are supposed to be the beautiful ones. If you watch movies (or watch the new documentary Miss Representation...) you'll find that women on TV are usually young and beautiful whereas men are allowed to be old and perhaps not so good looking. It's also interesting to see all the hypersexualized women on TV are there only for male enjoyment (in lingerie commercials especially). Are hot men displayed for female enjoyment? Not nearly as often. There's an assumption that the viewer will be a male who loves looking at hot women. What about women who are watching? Advertisers don't seem to care that over half the population isn't attracted to women but prefers men. Why are the women always objects of sexual yearning, and not the subjects?
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