Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

→ Introduction (pp. xi-xiv); Chapter 1 (pp. 1-6); Chapter 10 (pp. 55-60); Chapter 19 (pp. 110-118).

Feminism sees the end of all oppression and sexist actions, thinking, and behaviour for all. It highlights how for this to happen, women must gain equal rights as their counterparts. Because of society’s norms, this sexism and oppression against women has managed to pass as the status quo due to the thinking that women are inferior to men and therefore, this is accepted and expected. The reason that the feminist theory movement is also predominantly run by women is because if men were to fully accept feminist thinking in their lives, they would have to give up the benefits they receive as being a man in a patriarchal society. For society to be reformed and revolutionised to support feminist thinking, then other forms of oppression such as the social class ladder, imperialistic thinking, and racism need to cease too.

→ xii to xiv.

As aforementioned, feminism has everything to do with sexism, and one must be able to acknowledge and recognise sexism in order to understand the aims of the feminist movement. Feminism is not an anti-male agenda. More-so, it looks at women gaining the same rights and ending all oppression that is against everyone. Because of the patriarchal way society is run, most people only understand feminism as receiving equal pay, failing to see how it is also actioned with reforming society’s thinking on race, class, and sexualities. Even if there were societies that were only-female, this does not mean that the effects of sexism, oppression, and the patriarchy would not be present.

In the early stages of the feminist movement, men still saw themselves as superior and having to be in the dominating leadership role even in institutions where it was women who were working towards civil and indigenous rights, liberation for people of colour, and socialism. It was then recognised that one’s own biology doesn’t determine if they are sexist or not, as women could be sexist too, hence the movement’s focus on justice for all genders.

In reality, literature and media regarding the feminist theory was only ever made accessible to those who had the ability to access it, usually the wealthy and highly-educated. This meant that the message wasn’t able to spread, not because the movement was rejected by others, but solely because they did not even know what the movement was about without being impacted by a perspective in favour of the patriarchy.

From this rose a branch of feminist thinkers that accepted self-determination but at the cost of lower-class women. They believed they were rejecting the patriarchy in its full extent, but only if it benefited them, ignoring how it affected others. This type of philosophy was only accessible for this in the upperclass as they could afford to live life in that style, not fully feminist but abiding by feminism enough to pass and so it suits them. However, if there is no change to the system or to one’s beliefs that support anti-feminist thinking, then no real change can happen within the feminist movement; society stays the same.

“If feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression, and depriving females of reproductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot be anti-choice and be feminist. A woman can insist she would never choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right of women to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics.” (p.6)

→ 1 - 3, 5 - 6

It is important that feminism is studied alongside intersecting factors such as race and class to fully understand the affect that anti-feminist movements have on society, and what good feminist movement will have. Being white has always been a privellaged case in society, as still people of colour are being discriminated, prejudiced, and stigmatised for something they have no control over. Stemming from imperialism, it was white men who believed that those who weren’t were not civilised and were considered savages and despite the era of decolonisation, these types of thinking are still ever-present in society today.

For a while in the early stages of the feminist movement, the aspect of race was not considered at all, ignoring how race plays as much as part in the movement as gender does - by ignoring race, people thought they were being more accepting as they didn’t ‘see colour’, yet in reality, they were just ignoring the vast impacts that race has on gender equality. If oppression against people of colour is not stopped, then a society reform under feminism cannot happen.

→ 55 - 58

The feminist movement strived to change society in order for racism, classism, misogyny, and sexism to end. Even if women gained equal rights, core changes within the political and societal system need to happen for these to have any great effect, otherwise you are left with a society who still are dominated by the patriarchy, who could easily take those rights away, therefore, limiting the effect of feminism. It is men, especially men in higher class positions, who need to take up feminist thinking and apply it to go against the patriarchal way in order for society to be truly reformed.

→ 110, 112, 114, 116