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Thanks
for your note to FEMINIST.COM.
While I agree that feminism
is a way of life, I don't think
it's the name that is the problem.
Yes, feminism is more often
misunderstood than understood,
but I believe that what people
really fear isn't the name itself,
but what the name stands for--equality
of all people. Therefore, if
you change the name before long
that new name will be problematic,
too, because people will realize
that it is was feminism used
to be. The problem with humanism
is that feminists still must
lobby human rights to include
women--in other words it still
needs feminizing. So that doesn't
work.
Therefore, I think the best
approach is to stick with the
name and to try to get people
to understand what it really
means--as you said - the equality
of all people - and when people
are given this definition they
are more likely to support feminism
- so the approach might be to
spend more time defining it.
You also need to name it when
you see it. For instance, a
long time ago nobody--except
feminists--took domestic violence
seriously--now they do and it
no longer is described as something
feminist. So you concentrate
on the specific issue at hand
and then let feminism be the
natural conclusion.
—Amy
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