Feminist personality recognition litmus tests

Let me start by saying that I consider myself a feminist. But I also think that word and label, whether self-applied or other-applied, are becoming increasingly meaningless without further context. Almost every day I see it used in a way I wouldn't personally agree with, but I know, to throw that Christina Hoff Sommers book title around, I don't own the word or the meaning behind it, and I most certainly wouldn't want to. Sometimes I feel like "feminism" consists of women policing ourselves to death, or until we drive others out of the club by out-feministing each other.

So that being said, I do strongly urge you to watch Feministing.com founder and Full Frontal Feminism author Jessica Valenti kick ass on Colbert Tuesday night. She gave him a "feminist chicks dig me" t-shirt and joked around but also made her points and really handled herself brilliantly imo.

Single State of the Union editor Diane Mapes recently posted:

. . . I picked up Jessica Valenti’s new Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters. (The day I excitedly told a 26-year-old woman that I’d met Gloria Steinem over the weekend and she responded with a befuddled “Who’s that?” was the day I realized feminism could use a little help — thanks Jessica!)

This is probably going to be a pretty unpopular view, and I write this as a fan and longtime reader of Gloria Steinem's. However, this topic is dealt with in some recent books such as Jennifer Baumgardner's Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics and Deborah Siegel's Sisterhood, Interrupted and to me speaks to the heart of "What is feminism?" Is feminism about "knowing who Gloria Steinem is?" With or without quotes. Really? Because, I don't know, something about the answer being yes to that strikes me as a little sad. Not that Steinem wasn't and isn't a huge, huge part of feminist history and modern activism, but I guess I feel the same way about people knowing who she is as I do about people calling themselves feminists. It's not the whole point. Or even part of the point. Maybe I'm missing something super key here, but I don't think so. I just think it's more than a little condescending to assume any of us knows what's best for anyone else. I think we can offer information and opinions, but as much as I think Jessica's book is a great primer, I think you can be an independent, educated, kickass woman without embracing feminism (or Gloria Steinem or whoever the feminist leader du jour is) as such.

Also, as I think Jessica Valenti is becoming somewhat, Steinem's name stands for much more than Steinem the person.

Witness as just one random example easily grabbed by an Amazon search of her name Carole Nelson Douglas's mystery Cat in a Red Hot Rage:

I am so humiliated," Miss Midnight Louise says.

I am so amazed. I did not think anything could humiliate this feline Gloria Steinem.

Gloria Steinem is a passé name in the media world now. Have you noticed what rare birds major media feminists are nowadays? Myself, I could not be happier about it.

I'm not saying Gloria Steinem isn't important. But I don't think feminism is necessarily less relevant because younger women might not know who she is. Or might not call themselves feminists (on that point, Paula Kamen's still-relevant Feminist Fatale has some really interesting reasons this may be the case). And I've never thought that just getting people to call themselves feminists was the goal of feminism. I will have to save for another time a big post about Knocked Up, which Marie Claire called "the antifeminist flick."

In the words of Courtney E. Martin:

The feminism I want to enact is one that champions informed choice and equality, but also encourages wellbeing, also invites women to take care of themselves, to prioritize their needs, to say “no” more often, to feel less hungry all the time. Imagine how much more effective our work in the world would be if we weren’t exhausted or starving or bitter? Imagine how much more fun we would have.