Nowadays, Halloween isn't much of a holiday for me; I rarely make special plans for it or bother to get a costume--and considering the average woman's costume--Sexy Ninja! Sexy Vacuum Cleaner Salesperson! Sexy First Lady!--that's maybe for the best. (I may not be a radical feminist--they won't take me--but come on, people--Amanda Hess at the Sexist has done yeowoman's duty on this subject.)You know the drill!
This Halloween, however, I was out in San Francisco and went to see a friend's performance in a drag show. So I donned my homemade ironic vampire disguise--fangs, pvc duster and dress, boots, and my "...And Then Buffy Staked Edward. The End." tee shirt--and caught some decidedly non-vintage drag.
Tom Hardy and a Puppy Talk About Odd Pieces
4 years ago
I can't help saying in response - You don't need to be accepted as a radical feminist - you either are or you aren't. Sod Greer and her other ignorant peers who can't see the wood for the trees.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. As a trans woman I've been iffy identifying as feminist for a while (there are personal reasons as well as structural; I've written about it at LiveJournal but it's one of the few locked posts -- C., if you're interested I could email you the text). The past week or so with Bindel and the festering shithole of the commentariat at Feministing and before that with the Off Our Backs collective choosing to shun and shut out the only black woman in the collective when her life was in turmoil but being all warm and welcoming of Heart, famous for being wildly appalling on race (leaving her monumental trans hate aside for the moment -- to spell it out for OOB: Claiming that an intimate relationship with a person of color and parenting multiracial children permanently erases white privilege makes you racist. Not subtly, neither.)...
ReplyDeleteWell. Feminist is not an identity I am in a hurry to claim for myself. Woman-centered social justice activist might not be so euphonious, but it's less grating on my soul.
@earwicga, @Moira: you both make excellent points. Figuring out what kind of feminist--or even if, like Moira, I want to claim that title--is an ongoing project with me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not as quick as Moira to completely disown the idea of claiming a feminist identity, mostly because I think the definition of feminist has been broadened over time, much like how transgender has seen its definition expanded. That said, I agree with how problematic certain feminisms have been in the past--but I also need to note how many cool young feminists there are as well, who in some ways seem to be reclaiming the original, very radical idea of feminism as a reimagining of the entire power dynamics of human society. So.
OK, now off to actually write a post or two...