But it's specifically what I'm talking about right now--I asked about the intersection of the people who place such restrictions on the definition and the people who deride that statement. I didn't pull it out with no context.
I read meara's "it seems to frame feminism in a bad light" as based on common understanding of the term and common use of the phrase. That's what I was responding to.
I asked about the intersection of the people who place such restrictions on the definition and the people who deride that statement
Right. And in that case, if you say "Men cannot be feminists because they are not women", the appropriate thing to do/say as a (helpful/ally/supportive) man would be "I am not a woman, but I support feminism" (or vice versa, "I support feminism even though I'm a man" or whatever), NOT "I'm not a feminist"--is that because you don't like feminism or because you don't feel you're allowed to call yourself one?
FWIW, I think the "men can't be feminists" POV is eyerolly BS.
Feminism is the belief that women are equal to men and should have equal rights. Being a feminist doesn't require any particular body part other than a brain.
I read meara's "it seems to frame feminism in a bad light" as based on common understanding of the term
Ah, okay. Well, then it's meara who's misunderstanding me, because I'm referring about the specific definition here that I mentioned earlier.
the appropriate thing to do/say as a (helpful/ally/supportive) man would be "I am not a woman, but I support feminism"
But I'm not a man. I'm a woman who doesn't want to ally herself with a movement that's defined itself to explicitly exclude men.
I'm not sure I'm going to make it through this week without this project making me cry tears of frustration.
I don't think the movement has every defined itself in that way. I'm sure there are women who are part of the movement who do, but I can't imagine there are many of them.
Then you could say "I support a feminist movement that includes and welcomes men". I don't think the definition you're referring to is super common, and is certainly not one that most people would associate with the phrase "I'm not a feminist, but..." which is very common from women, but mostly in a "I don't like those strident activists that seem to be all about lesbians and abortion" kind of way.
Anatomical Heart Necklace
I want this one, because it's a locket: [link]
Also, I cried at work AGAIN today. I think it's because my boss is nice and our weekly meetings are at 11, so I'm at a low ebb pre-lunch. So I moved the meetings to the afternoons.
I don't think the movement has every defined itself in that way
I don't think there is a "the movement". There are many movements.
Then you could say "I support a feminist movement that includes and welcomes men". I don't think the definition you're referring to is super common
Okay, I'm being really unclear. I'm talking
about
those people,
to
those people. I don't see why I'd have to define it to them. I'm saying I'm not a feminist like they're a feminist. I'm not talking about or to "most people". I specified the population intersection upthread, and it's them I'm still referring to, wondering if
they
exist, if there are people restrictively defining feminism yet objecting to people using that phrasing to except themselves from it.
The general population was never an issue. I'm only talking about the people I'm talking about.