Tuesday 25 May 2010

Once a feminist.....always a feminist

This has been in my mind since a conversation with a friend one evening. I can't remember how the subject came up and I had to delve back into my past for answers to a couple of his questions. I can't imagine what, today, men must think of the feminists of the 60's. Perhaps they look on them with something approaching horror - I know I do. Watching Ashes to Ashes brought home to me how awful the workplace could be for a woman - and yes I have worked alongside men who regarded women as the tea makers/decoration or worse and thought nothing of it. So the feminist movement took hold and men were derided and belittled at every opportunity. I remember well that if a man had the temerity to hold a door open, offer his seat on a bus or stand when a woman entered the room he was treated to scowls or ignored if he was lucky; if not so lucky he might have "felt the sharp edge" of the woman's tongue. So sad that common courtesy should have been trampled on. This is the wrong sort of feminism, it was/is guaranteed to offend, to incite a form of hatred towards women. Is hatred too strong a word? I'm not a man, I can't say.
I'm feeling now that I have entered a minefield... I need to rethink, reorganise my thoughts... I'll be back... But in the meantime I think that the answer to my title is "no".

2 comments:

Faye White said...

Labels are dangerous. Once we tag something or someone with a one-word label, it sticks and is oh-so-difficult to get rid of.

Feminist/Feminism came to mean "man-hater" somehow and that is a shame. I don't feel the need to hate an entire gender in order
to stand up for myself and demand that I be treated equally and be given the same opportunities as anyone else.

I am quite happy when a door is held open for me and I always thank the person for their courteous gesture.

Ann said...

I do so agree with you Faye! I must say that the more I thought about this issue the more confused I got - times have changed so radically.