I came across this speech by Joss Whedon, a famous writer in
Hollywood. He is talking about
feminism and I think it’s
something everyone should check out.
He has this quote about the word feminist,
“Ist in it’s meaning is also a
problem for me. Because you can’t
be born an ist. It’s not natural…
so feminist includes the idea that believing all people to be people, is not a
natural state. That we don’t
emerge assuming that everybody in the human race is a human that the idea of
equality is just an idea that’s imposed on us. That we are indoctrinated with it, that it’s an agenda”
The speech is wonderful. He even pokes fun at Katy Perry who said she wasn’t a
feminist but believed in strong women.
Pop culture has an influence on how the world views feminism. Icons like Katy Perry influence how
little girls are expected to feel about the word feminism, without
understanding the whole concept and history. Whedon even makes a point by saying “People feel removed
from sexism. ‘I’m not a sexist, but I’m not a feminist.’ They think there’s this fuzzy middle
ground. There’s no fuzzy middle
ground. You either believe that
women are people or you don’t”
It’s so wonderful, everyone should take a look and let me know what you
think.
I always have this kind of "okkkkaaayyyy" suspicious moment when men associate themselves with feminism but this was pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely an interesting perspective. And it resonates with me, because I have a very specific memory in middle school of agreeing with classmates when they said that feminism is just reverse sexism - a thought that women are better than/should be superior to men. Which is definitely (I think) a reflection of the way we're socialized to view feminism. (And is an example of how deeply engrained sexism is in our society...)
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