Well, let me examine the evidence:
I do not believe that women are or should be subservient, the weaker sex or any other gross generalisation of "the fairer sex".
I didn't change my name when I got married. NEVER will I be Mrs somebody else!
I regularly rant at the TV news, noting that there is not a single female face - not presenting, not in the government officials or priests or criminals or experts who are given a voice.
I do not, cannot believe in a God who is made in the image of man. Nor can I support or attend any church in which only men are allowed to minister to their people and represent the voice of the divine.
Therefore I do not, cannot, believe in the Bible.
I get very angry at the levels of violence against women in most societies: domestic beatings, rape as a weapon of control, war and gang warfare, genital mutilation, stoning for adultery - for women only - of course, and the lack of justice.
I fume at the way women's health, especially during childbirth is managed, in the civilised world.
I oppose women's work being systematically underpaid. There is not a country in the world which pays their women equally for equivalent paid work, across the board, let alone all the domestic drudgery and parenting which is just expected of women.
I hate the fact that women make up 15% of politicians.
I am also known to rant about man-kind and their general lack of domestic finesse and emotional empathy.
I harbour great resentment at the requirements on my gender to constantly de-fuzz, be thin, be young, dye their hair, have no wrinkles and all sort of other "women only" rules on appearance. And generally do not uphold any of them very strictly.
I resent having to choose between family and career vocations in a way that men don't usually.
I run women's groups, to support and empower women.
Ditto my writing.
My favourite books are: The Hite Report, The Beauty Myths, Women Who Run with the Wolves, The First Sex and I am currently reading the Female Eunuch.
I fully believe that the personal is political.
So. do I consider myself a feminist?
Well, no.
Tomorrow I'll tell you why...
Are you a feminist?
I was raised a Catholic and from an early age took issue with the weird interpretations of Christ's teachings. Original sin, the sin of omission (doing nothing) purgatory and limbo sounded like a load of made-up rubbish and it turned out that it was. At the moment Anglican Bishops are fleeing their church to protest at women being made Bishops, just like them. They are married and the Catholic Church sees no problem with ordaining these men as Catholic Priests! Hoping to attract as many misogynists and bigots as possible to their ranks so they can maintain their own sense of self-rightousness. Two wrongs still don't make a right...and so human insanity goes on, dressed up as organised religion. Millions of women within organised religion agree with women being treated this way, and so the view of women as less or other is perpetuated, not just by men...but by women. The same madness that 'invented' limbo for unbaptised babies legislates against women, I have two daughters and it makes me sick that they will be exposed to the same hateful, anti-women rubbish that I absorbed all my life and society as a whole is still predominantly anti-women. Whom does this hate ultimately serve? 'Great' Civilizations were built on the backs of slaves, the roman and Egyptian empires to name two obvious ones. Our great Western Civilisation is built on the backs of the vulnerable, the poor and still the old favourite. Women. God help us.
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