Rebecca West: Feminist of Yesterday?

Rebecca WestEnglish journalist, novelist and critic. "I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute."

Apparently the Feminist of the today is Mary Quant, fashion designer. Now I understand other people classifying Margaret Thatcher as a feminist, I just vehemently disagree and would be willing to argue for as long as my opponent was still standing. I do not understand calling Mary Quant a feminist, let alone believing she should be the feminist of the day. She's a fashion designer. On the list of top-1000 professions whose sole purpose is to do the work of the patriarchy, fashion designer is near the top. So I'm not even going to write about her. But I am going to write about Rebecca West, who was feminist yesterday.

I've never liked that quote though - to me it screams a feminism of individualism, if you could say that you can't be looking at the lives of women collectively, which seems to be to be a vital starting point for any sort of feminism. That obviously wasn't her only thought on feminism, and I certainly agree with this:

Good God enlighten us! Which of these two belongs to the sterner sex - the man who sits in Whitehall all his life on a comfortable salary, or the woman who has to keep her teeth bared lest she has her meatless bone of 17s. 4d. a week snatched away from her and who has to produce the next generation on her off-days?

But I do get an impression from Rebecca West (which may be unfair), that she saw hereself as an exception, an honourary man.

Which is odd, because it seems to me that her life was shaped by society's, and indivdiual men's, attitude towards women. This is an extract from a leter to her son:

You have one grievance against me, and one only: that I did not have an abortion and kill you. This seems to me a most peculiar grievance for a man who has, I imagine, had a good deal of happiness out of his life... You can't be so hopelessly stupid that you think that I, given my particular makeup, would have chosen to have an illegitimate child. I had a love affair with HG and I loved him then as I was always to love him, on the understanding that he would not give me a child, a promise he wantonly broke simply because he wanted the panache of having a child by the infant prodigy of the day. I was appalled by the situation when it arose, and the more so by the way that HG handled it... I felt I had to make every sacrifice to compensate to you for the suffering you might undergo. It was no difficulty to make these sacrifices because I loved you very much.

Conclusion: Her political beliefs appeared to have drifted rightward as she got older, but that doesn't make what she did in the first few decades of last century any less admirable.

Sandra Day O'Connor: Feminist of the Day?

Sandra Day O'ConnorSupreme Court Justice "No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom."

No, just no.

I'm not even going to do any research on this one. She was the swing vote on the US Supreme Court for something like 20 years. Every restriction on abortion that has been OKed by the Supreme Court has got through because she agreed with it. Waiting periods, parental notification, and all the other bullshit that has made access to abortion in America much harder than it is in NZ (where technically abortion barely legal), that's all her fault. I don't care if she spent the rest of her life organising with the women around her to fight sexism and misogyny (and she didn't), she's no feminist.

Conclusion: Clarence Thomas isn't a friend of civil rights either.

Mary Ritter Beard: Feminist of the Day?

Mary Ritter BeardHistorian, writer "The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind."

As I've said before, the starting point for my feminism was the women's history, and Mary Beard was working on women's history about 55 years before anyone else.

What I particularly love is that she didn't just focus on women's oppression, she also talked about women's agency. Now you can tell I'm a feminist historian because I'm inclined to rant about agency at short notice. But to me it's really important that we don't just look at how people suffered, but how they resisted, because as soon as you start looking at history you see that people do resist, and this resistance shapes the world.

But she wasn't just a historian (the best radical historians never are), she was a member of a number of suffrage groups and she was an organiser for the National Women's Trade Union League. She was a member for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and opposed World War II, which was pretty far sighted for someone who was passionately anti-fascist (it's possible that she was line following - although you'd think if she'd changed her mind once Germany invaded Russia that would have been mentioned - there's nothing about her having ever been in anything I've read).

Conclusion: Easily one of my heroines, and that was before I knew anything about her life. Go and read her books, learn more about her, our past matters.

Susan Faludi: Feminist of the Day?

Susan FaludiWriter, 1991 Pulitzer Prize Winner, feminist "My goal is to be accused of being strident."

I read large parts of Backlash on an overnight bus trip down the North Island. It is simply a descriptive account of sexism and misogyny in America in the late 1980s, but it is spectacularly thorough. Ideology, popular culture, and the effect this had on real live women, are all covered in a very well written, very thick, book.

What stands out for me, what kept me reading through the night (apart from the fact that I can't sleep on buses) are her portraits of anti-feminists. Again and again she shows how their personal lives disprove the arguments they are making, whether it is anti-feminist women, whose speaking tours enable for them to live a life outside their own home, or anti-feminist men, whose issues become more and more apparent, she is the expert at getting people to a place where all they have to do is take a little step - and there conclusions are. Her analysis is still the first thing I think of if anyone mentions 'Fatal Attraction' or Moonlighting to me.

I really enjoyed Stiffed as well. It was a solid (if probably a little overlong), analysis of masculinity, and the role it played in our culture.

Conclusion: Not only is she a feminist, but that is the most kick-ass quote of any feminist of the day ever - I now have a goal.

The White Witch: Feminist of the Day?

I haven't written about the Feminist of the Day for the last couple of days, because they were poets, and poets intimidate me. Ursula Le Guin is the feminist of tomorrow, and I've already written about her.

So I thought instead I'd answer a question tenor horn wrote in the forums:

this may be a bit off the radar but it has sort of been on this site before; is the narnia white witch a feminist?

this is a serious question, she was such a killer character.

(the one in the film, not the one in the book).

Now I haven't seen the movie yet (I'm aiming for Tuesday cheap night, or possibly Christmas Eve with my family), so instead I'll try and examine in what senses the White Witch could be described as feminist.

She doesn't describe herself as a feminist - I think the most useful terms are those that people choose, and that is the only test I used when I was writing about feminism academically.

But there are a number of women that I have defined as feminists who didn't use the term themselves (This isn't to say that men can't be feminists - which is a question I remain agnostic on - but that I'd never feel comfortable calling a man a feminist if he didn't actively identify as such). If I was going to try and define under what circumstances I'd do that it'd probably go something like: "A woman is a feminist if she works collectively with other women to try and change the position of women in their society." (Because I'm all about the qualifiers, I think feminists can work with men, but they must work with women).

Anyway having had a definition heavy paragraph I don't think there's any evidence in the book that the White Witch works collectively with other women to try and change the position of women in society. The dwarf and the wolf are the only characters on her side that she relates to, and they are both male. Killing Aslan was certainly collective action, and there were other women involved, but there's no evidence that it happened becuase of any sort of awareness of women's place in society.

So I don't think you can say that she was a feminist. But if you were going to go a little bit further and ask can she be read as a feminist, or can she be interpreted as a feminist character, that's when it gets interesting (it's also when I have to reassure everyone that we're not about to go into a crazy lit crit path where I start using slashes and talk about intertextuality).

Aslan's world is obviously a patriarchal one, from his whole 'war is ugly when women fight' schtick (no war is ugly full stop, you stupid Jesus-substitute), to the relationships we see in the book. As far as I can remember there's nothing which shows that the White Witches World is patriarchal. So part of what she objects to could be patriarchy. You could certainly fill in the gaps and make gender central to the battle between The White Witch and Aslan.

But I'm not sure that she could be a feminist character in the movie (which I'm going to take a guess and assume doesn't recast the battle between Aslan and the White Witch as a gender war). I think you run into the Eowyn problem (is it Eowyn I'm thinking of, that annoying woman in Lord of the Rings who was played by Miranda Otto in the movie?). I've often have guys say to me 'you'll like this movie, it has really strong female characters', which often means 'it has one woman female character who acts in a traditionally masculine way.' To recast The White Witch as a feminist, without recasting the battle as one about gender, would require her to have qualities beyond a desire for power.

I'll ponder that question and give an update once I've seen the movie.

Although for this argument I'm ignoring The Magician's Nephew, which makes it clear she's not much of a feminist, but people can change in a few thousand years, and The Magician's Nephew is one of the crappiest Narnia books.

March Church Terrell: Feminist of the Day

Mary Church TerrellLawyer, member of National American Woman Suffrage Association, writer, speaker "Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance."

Mary Church Terrell was the daughter of slaves (one of whom was the son of his owner, since we were talking about the relationship between gender, sex and race - or at least I was), and fought against racism her entire life. She helped form the NAACP and was the first president of the National Association of Coloured Women. She lived long enough to lead protests to desegregate Washington in the 1950s. At the turn of the century she described the links between women's rights, and the struggle against slavery:

Thus to me this semi-centennial of the National American Woman Suffrage Association is a double jubilee, rejoicing as I do, not only in the prospective enfranchisement of my sex but in the emancipation of my race. When Ernestine Rose, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony began that agitation by which colleges were opened to women and the numerous reforms inaugurated for the amelioration of their condition along all lines, their sisters who groaned in bondage had little reason to hope that these blessings would ever brighten their crushed and blighted lives, for during those days of oppression and despair, colored women were not only refused admittance to institutions of learning, but the law of the States in which the majority lived made it a crime to teach them to read. Not only could they possess no property, but even their bodies were not their own. Nothing, in short, that could degrade or brutalize the womanhood of the race was lacking in that system from which colored women then had little hope of escape. So gloomy were their prospects, so fatal the laws, so pernicious the customs, only fifty years ago.

She had to withstand a lot of racism, not just from the wider world, but within the feminist movement. The Congressional Union for Women's Suffrage wouldn't endorse black female suffrage, because they might lose the support of white women in the south (who by this time had built their campaign for suffrage on the grounds that the more white voters the better). At one stage the Congressional Union for Women's Suffrage asked Ida Wells-Barnett, the other black woman involved in the formation of the NAACP, not to march with everyone else. Unfortunately black women weren't actually women.

Conclusion: She was a feminist, but unfortunately for her it wasn't a very good time for feminism in America.

Frederick Douglass: Feminist of the Day?

Frederick DouglasAuthor, suffragist, abolitionist "Right is of no Sex - Truth is of no Color."

Frederick Douglass's history was a pretty incredible one. He grew up a slave, gained his freedom, fought as an abolitionist, was a station on the railroad, and lived to see slavery end. His abolitionism was radical, he supported slave revolts, and he didn't limit his speeches to safe topics - he was willing to criticise racism in the north, and argue for Irish independance in Britain.

He was also, for a number of years, one of the staunchest male supporters of women's rights. He attended the 1848 Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention, and argued for the radical position to fight for women's suffrage. He signed a letter to Susan B Anthony: "Yours for the freedom of man and of woman always."

But then there's the matter of the 15th ammendment. There were a number of issue to clear up after the civil war (although most of them weren't), such as the right to vote. Frederick Douglass was one of the many people who encouraged feminists not to pursue women's suffrage during this time, as it was Negro's Hour. To me, this begs a pretty fundamental question, were all Negros Men?

There was one man, whose name I have forgotten, who said he didn't want to be able to vote until his daughters and sisters could vote with him. But Frederick Douglass didn't have to go that far. You can support an action while arguing that it didn't go far enough. He could have continued to support women's suffrage in the fifteenth amendment debate, and he certainly didn't need to argue that other people should stop that struggle.

I think the reaction of feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who opposed the 15th amendment because it didn't include women, is equally ridculous. Unfotunately what happened over the next fifty years shows that that sort of lack of solidarity can grow. What makes the whole situation really awful, is that the fifteenth amendment had slightly less force than a wet bus ticket.

Conclusion: His position on the fifteenth amendment fed into the view that unless you were a white man you were either a woman or a negro, but certainly not both. But he didamazing work for women, negros, and those who were both women and negros.

Angela Davis: Feminist of the Day

Angela DavisEducator, writer, organizer "Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary's life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime."

About half a dozen years ago I picked up a book on Angela Davis at one of those wonderful $1 a book sales. I'd heard of her before, or else I wouldn't have bought the book, but I didn't know that much about her. The book I'd bought turned out to be a radical account of her life written in about 1970, but also rush to publication job. At the end of the book she was on the run from the FBI on some pretty serious charges, and I had no idea what happened next. I later read Woman, Race & Class, written in the 1980s so I knew that she got out of it OK, but to this day I've no idea how.

Angela Davis obviously committed herself to a life of struggle, her early work with SNCC, the panthers and the Soledad brothers was just the start. I'm a feminist historian and so 'Woman, Race & Class' was like crack to me. I do need to re-read it though.

What I find most fascinating about Angela Davis is her on-going membership of the Communist Party. I know a fair bit about the communist party of America before the late 1950s, just because so many people were, or had been members. But I've no idea what it became in the 1960s. Did they continue having crazy line changes? Were they still Moscow directed? How could anyone in the early 1970s believe that Moscow was the way to go? (although come to think of it people believed a lot sillier things in the early 1970s)

I really should read her autobiography, it'd answer some of these questions.

Conclusion: Of course she's a feminist. A feminist, an activist, and a author well worth reading.

Nancy Goodman Brinker: Not the Feminist of the Day

Nancy Goodman BrinkerFounder of Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Race for the Cure, US Ambassador to Hungary "You can either respond with anger and destruction, and get nothing done except destroy yourself and those around you. Or you can take the energy and channel it into something productive. I believe that we can make a difference."

Nancy Goodman Brinker is credited with two main accomplishes. I'll deal with her work as the Ambassador to Hungary first, from an on-line biography:

In 2001, Brinker accepted President George W. Bush's nomination of Ambassador to Hungary, and her achievements there are equally impressive. She helped to preserve tax benefits and lower tariffs on U.S. companies doing business in Hungary. Brinker negotiated the hosting and training of the Free Iraqi Forces, an expatriate group who later joined coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom, making Hungary the first European country to contribute to regime change in Iraq. Her groundbreaking efforts to advance the cause of women's health in Hungary included a symposium and ceremonial walk across the country's oldest bridge (lit pink for the occasion) to raise breast cancer awareness.

Wow she organised a ceremonial walk, that certainly gets her enough feminist points to make up for all the ones she loses for helping the invasion of Iraq. Plus wherever you stand on so-called free-trade, ensuring special treatment for American products is not a feminist act.

Then there's the breast cancer work, just because it involves women - doesn't make it feminist. When you want to analyse something from a feminist point of view, but you're too lazy to do it yourself right now, there are a couple of really reliable women who will have done it before you, and better than you ever could. In this case I will quote Barbara Ehrenreich, who has had breast cancer:

In fact, aside from the dilute sisterhood of the cyber (and actual) support groups, there is nothing very feminist - in an ideological or activist sense - about the mainstream of breat-cancer culture today. [....]

Like everyone else in the breast-cancer world, the feminist want a cure, but they even more ardently want to know the cause or causes of the disease without which we will never having any means of prevention. [....]

But today theirs are discordant voices in a general chorus of sentimentality and good cheer; after all, breast cancer would hardly be the darling of corporate America if its complexion changed from pink to green. It is the very blandness of breast cancer, at least in mainstream perceptions, that makes it an attractive coporate charity and a way for companies to brand themselves friends of the middle-aged female market. With breast cancer, "there was no concern you might actually turn off your audience because of the life style or sexual connotations that AIDS has." Amy Langer, director of the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organisations told the New York Times in 1996.

Go read the whole thing - it's well worth it.

Barbara Ehrenreich even has a response for that godawful quote:

No, this is not my sisterhood. For me at least, breast cancer will never be a source of identity or pride. As my dying correspondent Gerri wrote: "IT IS NOT OK!" What it is, along with cancer generally or any slow and payful way of dying, is an abomination, and to the extent that it's man-made, also a crime. This is the one great truth that I bring out of the breast-cancer expereinece, which did not, I can now report, make me prettier or stronger, more feminine or spiritual - only more deeply angry. What sustained me through the 'treatments' is a purifying rage, a resolve, framed in the sleepless nights of chemotherapy, to see the last polluter, along with, say the last smug health-insurance operative, stranged with the last pink ribbon.

Conclusion: No, Nancy Goodman Brinker is no sister. Which is good, because feminists we get angry - because we're paying attention.

Rachel Carson: Feminist of the Day:

Rachel CarsonBiologist, writer, ecologist "Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world."

Rachel Carson is most famous for writing A Silent Spring, and exposing DDT for the poison that it is.

But she wasn't a feminist, a Life Magazine interview shortly before she died described her as "unmarried, but not a feminist" (5 words that say a lot about the attitudes towards women, marriage and feminism). She said: "I'm not interested in things done by women or by men but in things done by people." Unfortunately sexism affects all women, even those who want to ignore it. Those who had a vested interest in defending pestisides were more than happy to use sexism to try and silence her. She was portrayed as being a hysterical spinster (again a phrase which tells you a lot about the people who said it).

I understand why women want to believe that they, as an individual, can escape from a sexist society, that they can be a person not a woman, but unfortunately we can't. It's not those of us who draw attention to sexism that stop that from happening, but our sexist, misogynist society, which continues treating us like the other.

Conclusion: She says she's not a feminist, and I believe her, but her work was very important.

Shirley Chisholm: Feminist of the Day

Shirley ChisholmPolitician, Democratic presidential nomination candidate "One distressing thing is the way men react to women who assert their equality: their ultimate weapon is to call them unfeminine. They think she is anti-male; they even whisper that she's probably a lesbian."

Shirley Chisholm was a Democratic State Legislator, then a Member of Congress, and ran in the 1972 Democratic Primary for President.

Despite this it seems possible that she might have been a feminist. As she opposed the Vietnam War, stood for full employment, and fought for the Equal Rights Amendment and legal abortion, I can't find any holes so far.

Conclusion: It seems unlikely that you could be a feminist and a member of Congress, but it may be possible.

Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace: Feminist of the Day

Ada Byron King, Countess of LovelaceMathematician, writer of the first computer program "No one knows what power lies yet undevelopped in that wiry system of mine."

I have a theory that you could tell a feminist story about any woman's life. It's probably not an original theory, but I can't remember where I might have read it..

That's not to say every woman is a feminist, but that every woman's life is fundamentally shaped by being a woman, partly because of the way reproduction is treated in our society, and partly because of what Simone de Beauvoir would describe as the fact that we are 'other'. If you looked at any woman's life you would see the effect of living at a misogynist society, and I believe you could write a story from that starting point.

I say this because I don't think Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, was a feminist. She was a mathematician and a metaphysicist, she doesn't appear to have had any interest in women, either collectively, or individually. Nothing in her story screams "this is how women suffer", she didn't suffer from endless miscarriage, or illegal abortions, she . But all around the edges there are hints of her life lived as a woman. From a mother who couldn't distinguish between her daughter and herself, to the mysterious health problems that afflicted her, you can see how different her story would have been had she been a man.

Conclusion: Not a feminist, but since she wrote the first ever computer programme, and therefore is one of a long line of people who now bring lots of lovely information to my house whenever I want it, she has my eternal gratitude.

Elsie Clews Parsons: Feminist of the Day?

Elsie Clews ParsonsSociologist, anthropologist, folklorist ""

What I love about writing the feminist of the day feature is that I learn about all sorts of people who I didn't even know existed. Elsie Parsons, like Sarah Grimke, was born to a life of priviledge, and like Sarah she seemed to know what to do with that life. Elise Parsons was a feminist and a socialist (she get an extra tick mark because she was against WW1 all the way through) and became a very prominent anthropologist. She was the first woman elected to the American Anthropological Association, but died before she could give her opening address - which was going to condemn the use of anthropology for racist ends. A colleague summed up her academic work:

Her society had encroached on her she studied the science of society the better to fight back against society.

That wasn't all I found out about her. In a book review someone who knows far more about Elsie Parsons than me wrote:

For example, [the author of the book]lauds Parsons for her feminism and for her support of professional women. Yet nowhere is there recognition of the more complex issue-Parsons's feminism and, by her own admission, her prejudice against her "own sex." This was no small matter for Parsons: she ran up against her prejudice against women frequently and she wrote about it in her articles and her books.

I want to read what she wrote about it, but unfortunately it's not that rare. When you live in a misogynist society it's very easy for women to rebel against that by internalising the value system and seeing themselves as the exception, the one subject in a sea of female objects.

Conclusion: I think it's a shame that she didn't like women, her life would have been richer if she had. I kind of admire the fact that she was still a feminist, despite that, but it's still terribly sad.

Feminist of the Day: What's the Point?

I have a semi-regular feminist of the day feature. I got out of the habit of writing it, and so I'd start again by explaining why I do it.

Margaret ThatcherFirst female Prime Minister of Britain "If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman."

Spacefem.com runs a nifty feature called Feminist of the Day. You put some code up on your website and each day a feminist pops up, with a quote and a link. I liked this feature, but because I felt that some of the women weren't exactly sisters, I didn't want to simply have the feature without comment, because I couldn't have Margaret Thatcher described as a feminist on my blog. So I thought I'd use the feminist of the day to explore my ideas about feminism, both now and in the past, and rant about anything which came to mind.

For some reason Margaret Thatcher is again Feminist of the Day, so I'll simply link to the two previous times that I have written about her.

Tomorrow's Feminist of the Day is Eleanor Roosevelt, and I've already written about her as well. But unless Saturday's Feminist of the Day is another I'll rant about feminism with a vengance then.

Amedlia Bloomer: Feminist of the Day?

Amelia Jenks BloomerActivist for change in women's clothing "It will not do to say that it is out of woman's sphere to assist in making laws, for if that were so, then it should be also out of her sphere to submit to them."

We have another Quaker and another 19th Century American Feminist. This one is most famous for having an item of clothing named after her, which is pretty cool even if it was a particularly ugly one. She continued to wear the alternative even thoughother feminists had given it up, because it got them laughed at too much.

Dress reform was obviously a very worthwhile cause - particularly if you like breathing and therefore prefer not to wear corsets. I sit here in jeans, a t-shirt and a cardigan and it's fantastic. The amount of clothing I'm wearing cannot be measured in pounds and my body is not bound in place by any of my clothes (well possibly my bra - but it doesn't restrict my ability to move in any way - in fact the opposite). But I also wonder about working class women's clothing - I know they wouldn't have worn corsets (because they required you to be dressed by someone else), but those clothes were heavy. How did women sew, work on farms, and care for children under that much fabric?

It's a combination of economic, technological, and social changes that mean we don't wear those clothes now. The T-shirt I'm wearing has some post-war stretchy stuff in it (which is why it is probably tight enough to send AJ Chesswass into a frenzy - but I think the slogan on it would upset in more, as it asserts women's independance) and it was made in China. But the social changes came about partly because women (and men) chose to fight the restrictions on women's clothing.

Conclusion: If she's just 1000th of the reason that I can now wear jeans then she has my eternal gratitude.

Anne Frank: Feminist of the Day:

Anne FrankDiarist "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."

It has been years since I read Anne Frank's diary. I cried, of course, but I think some of its power came not just its exoticness, but from its familiarity. She writes about growing up, and the relationships with her family, just in very unusual circumstances.

Unfortunately I only ever had the first version, the one that had been published by her father (I think her sexuality was the area that was most heavily edited). She'd recognised her diary as a worthwhile piece of writing while she was still in hiding and started re-writing it. You can get copies that compare what she'd originally wrote, with the bits that were rewritten.

Now it may look like I'm contradicting what I said yesterday, but I'd classify Anne Frank as a feminist. Now she didn't identify as a feminist, and unfortuantely her life didn't leave her many opportunities to join together with other women to improve their lives.

But I believe that women telling the truth about themselves is a vital part of feminism. Which is why I think women who write honestly about their lives are always performing a feminist act even if they don't see it that way.

Conclusion: I've no idea who she would have been, but her diary tells her life as it was, and to me that's feminist.

Marie Curie: Feminist of Yesterday?

I was having too many computer problems to post last night, but since I've already written about Denise Levertov I thought I'd write about Marie Curie today.

Marie CurieTwo Nobel Prizes in the area of physics and chemistry, 15 gold medals, "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."

Marie Curie didn't identify as a feminist, she never organised as a feminist. She focused her life on chemistry, and poisoning herself. She was a brilliant chemist, won the Nobel Prize twice, I'm not disputing any of that. I just don't think that makes her a feminist.

Feminism is a necessary prerequisite for individual women to 'achieve', but that achievement is an effect, not the goal, of the feminist struggle. To quote Barbara Ehrenreich in a slightly:

Feminism is not a particular lifestyle, defined by having your own job and checking account, for example. It is a moral stance and one that has always valued the stay-at-home mothers just as much as the corporate strivers.

There's nothing wrong with being a Nobel-prize winning chemist, but its no more feminist than looking after your children.

Conclusion: Nothing against her, but not a feminist.

Margaret Thatcher: Still Not a Feminist

Today Margaret Thatcher is, again, Spacefem's Feminist of the Day. I'm not linking to her this time, because it's my blog and I make the rules. When I was growing up there was only one picture of Margaret Thatcher in our house, and it was this one:

So instead I will link to my previous post on the subject, and suggest that you go find out some more about Jessica Mitford, who was a much better feminist than any British Prime Minister

Feminist of the Day: Fatima Mernissi?

Fatima MernissiMoroccan sociologist, professor, writer "If women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Koran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite."

There's some awkwardness here. I'm a white feminist blogger who has never even visited a country where the majority of the population is muslim. A lot of what I know about Islam comes from someone I never met. After September 11, Women's rights in Afghanistan became a propaganda tool in the most disgusting and hypocritical way. New Zealad sent troops to that war. I don't write this in a vacuum.

But that's no excuse not to write at all. Men have long used religions as a tool to exert their control over women, and women fighting back isn't that new either. As feminists it is important that we actively support women like Fatima Mernissi, and her observation is so important I'm going to quote her twice: "If women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Koran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite."

Now my position is a little bit stronger than that. I'm enough of a materialist girl to believe that a religion will only become institutionalised, if it serves the needs of power structures, and men's power over women is a pretty important power structure. Despite this I also believe that religion can become a site of resistance, and those who hold power in a religion will serve those power structures over whatever their religion professes to believe (see any of the Christian right and most of the New Testament). But ultimately she's right, the problem for women in Saudi Arabia, isn't actually the Koran, it's men's power over women.

Sojourner Truth: Feminist of Any and Every Day

Sojourner TruthAbolitionist, suffragist, activist "If women want any rights more than they's got, why don't they just take them, and not be talking about it."

There are times when you just don't think the words you have could possible do justice to someone's life and history. Luckily at times like these you can turn to their words, which are likely to be better. This is Sojourner Truth's famous speech from an 1851 women's convention:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

Conclusion: I let her speak for herself because she was so strong, and her words so powerful, that they mean as much now as they did 150 years ago.