But then I may need to provide a few more words…
Femen, Everyday Sexism and Slutwalk are just three examples of movements that in their own ways send very clear messages of resistance; rejection; and strength. And yet, despite years of feminist/women’s advancement, we still have those who deny the existence or the opportunities afforded by feminism.
Without feminists, in the UK, women would have no right to vote; thanks to the women who were forcibly fed nearly 100 years ago. Without women’s activism rape in marriage would still be legal (and it was in the UK until 1991). Women’s activism has led to campaigns to eradicate unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport (Project Guardian) and the abolition of the TamponTax. Without women’s activism we would not have an Equal Pay Act, or indeed many of the rights that women in the West now take for granted (or have been ‘granted’).
So when we hear women assert ‘I am not a feminist’ or ‘I am not one of those shouty feminists’ it does give us pause to think: Really? Because it was by feminism, it was by activism, it was by shouting, that women were able to effect the changes that have loosened some of the shackles on women’s lives.
Of course, the history of feminist thought has not been without its own problems. Perhaps most significantly the assumption of second wave feminists that all women’s experiences were the same as the white middle class writers who articulated it. (For a beautiful articulation of this see bell hooks). At the same time, the existence of tensions and debates within feminism does not negate its utility or purpose, rather it enables us to see myriad ways in which the patriarchy is manifest. The problems that feminism has had to work out demonstrate that, rather than being some idealised abstract project, feminism is about real people reacting to the individual social, political, cultural and economic contexts in which they find themselves. The tensions within aspects of feminism actually legitimise it as a collective of egalitarian projects belonging to the multifarious men and women, around the world and throughout history, who seek to question and challenge the shifting guises and/or manifestations of patriarchy. As patriarchy has evolved and mutated into new forms, so must our response.
The existence of contemporary feminist literature and movements, also remind us that there is still work to do. And this work is taking place within the academy, and beyond. Within the academy we are encouraged to present our arguments as nuanced and subtle; this is also the case in public discourse. Healy argues that nuance also ‘obstructs the development of theory that in intellectually interesting, empirically generative, or practically successful‘. In short, nuance works to shore up and diffuse, rather than challenge or destabilise the status quo. Feminism in many of its forms encourages us to challenge, or at least, question dominant norms.
Yet isn’t the patriarchy upsetting and offensi