While we were not assigned this article, I was flipping through Women's Lives, and the title, Radical Heterosexuality, caught my eye. The author, Naomi Wolf, challenges the traditional idea of a feminist. She creates a baffling persona of a feminist, one who hates sexism yet still loves men. Throughout the article she challenges the stereotypical man hating feminist, and constructs one that while being able to love the opposite gender, still fights for the equal treatment of women. This article stood out because of the idea of feminism that the author is searching for is one that many do not see possible. The feminist she is creating is one that I find commendable. Yet, to most, being a radical heterosexual female is often an enigma. Feminism has been traditionally constructed to be "butch" lesbians; unladylike with super short hair, wearing mens clothing, and burning their bras in city centers. The author fights to design an idea of a feminist that is accepting of all areas; whether straight, lesbian or bisexual, of women fighting for equality. She goes on to tell of the "Men We Love". She searches for a man that sees her on an equal plane, one who also fights for the equality of women. I thought this article was a way to step out of the usual idea of what a feminist was; a way to show that straight women can be feminists, as well; and just because they choose to love the man, they can still hate sexism.
1 comments:
While the stereotype may be a butch bra burning lesbian, I think the reality is the majority of feminists are heterosexuals and even fems. People forget that being a feminist is about equality, not making promoting woman as the better sex. Men can be feminists, hell even homosexual men can be feminists, I definitely consider myself one. How can gay men fight for equal rights alongside lesbian women if we don’t support the equality of their sex as well? But that’s beside the point I guess.
There is nothing wrong with being a man loving female feminist. Obviously a heterosexual female feminist isn’t going to love sexist men, rather they’re going to look for men with feminist qualities, even if that man is afraid to call himself a feminist. I think there are actually a lot of men out there who are feminists in their values but don’t realize that feminism isn’t the stereotypical Femi- Nazi type who think men are bellow women. My older brother took some persuading from me and his wife that he was in fact a feminist, because he had that stereotype burned into his mind. I think men who aren’t for equal treatment try to promote this image in other men’s minds to care them away from equality for woman.
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