000ooo000ooo 4/28

I found the social experiment we did in class today extremely interesting. I have never sat in on a discussion and not been allowed to talk or had to write something down before it could be said. It was frustrating for a number of reasons. First, if I had a thought about what was going on I had to write it down and by the time I was done writing we had moved to a new subject and my comment was kind of irrelevant. Also, when all you can do is write it is very difficult to defend anything you say. If people disagreed with me or misunderstood me I knew it would be virtually impossible to defend myself because I would have to write down a response and people probably wouldn't want to just wait for me to write something, the conversation would move on. On top of all of this, the person next to me chose to silence me by not reading anything I wrote.
One question that was asked that I most wanted to talk was, why aren't more people feminist? and are you feminist? I hate when people ask this question and I actually really don't like the term feminist. Today I think I finally figured out how to articulate why I don't like the term "feminist". First of all, it is not the ideas behind feminism that I don't like. In fact, I agree with most feminist ideas. However, the term "feminism" has no consistent definition. Everyone thinks of something different when they hear the term "feminist". So when I am asked that I don't want to say that I am a feminist because I never know what I'm saying I am. The original definition of feminism that I learned is someone who believes men and women are equal and should be treated as such. I completely agree with this. But I also think most people would agree with this and I don't think most people consider themselves feminists. To me feminism has been transformed from a simple belief into a set of beliefs like "Republican" or "Democrat". When people ask me if I am a Republican or Democrat I never know what to say because there are parts of each I agree with and to identify as just one means that I agree with every part of it.
Although I have always found it frustrating that feminism has no definition - I think this problem greatly detracts from a noble movement - I think I can finally understand why. Derrida, De Saussure, and Butler all describe that we only understand what things are by comparing them with what they are not. As such, every word needs a concrete opposition in order to have meaning. There is no "opposite" to feminism; no masculism. One could say that hegemonic ideologies or male dominance systems are an opposite but even these ideas are problematic. Feminism doesn't attempt to break down all hegemonic ideologies and the opposite of male dominance would be female dominance, which is not what feminism is about.
Without a widely accepted definition I don't think feminism will ever gain widespread popular support. Even many girls in the class were not prepared to call themselves feminists, this doesn't bode well for feminism's future.