I wrote to a self-proclaimed 'radical feminist', in introduction to forwarding my writings about campus censorship:

On feminism, yes I consider myself one (excepting that I don't think I should be called a black-ist or latino-ist or people-of-color-ist for supporting civil rights and racial equality, I should just be called "sane on the matter of race relations"; similarly the term feminist, female-ist, to refer to my believing in civil rights and equality based on gender as well, seems to me unfortunate, but perhaps that's just a quibble..) Maybe gender-radical. Also sex-radical (of course people, myself included, can be tense about talking sex-radical, but, just as we can talk about and analyze food, its nutrition, other roles in society, etc, as separate from which foods we love, which we hate, which we're not sure how we feel about, the same can be done for sex and sex acts) [...]

I'll have to assume of readers can read criticism of "feminism" without assuming one is against feminism. Inability to do so is like equating criticism of U.S. policy with being "against America" (whatever that means). That is crucial. In particular on sexuality and "pornography", I side with people like Susie Bright, and hence on those issues am 'a critic of [much, not all of mainstream] feminism".

This note isn'teven that, a criticism on a key point; rather, it's a side-note on terminology.

The analogy with a term like "black-ism" makes the point succinctly, I think. Terms are not perfect, e.g. "homophobia" is a good term in some sense (points attention at personal feelings of insecurity lying behind my hate and gay-bashing) but not so great in others (The Right's using gay-bashing is used to intimidate everyone to "stay in line", not just gays/lesbians/bisexuals/transgendered people).

It is an important observation, I think, nonetheless, that calling sane beliefs about gender and promotion of equality "feminism" is like calling the analogous beliefs/positions (substitute race for gender), "black-ism" or "poc-ism" (People of Color).

That was to be the end of the side-note.

But upon further reflection, I realized that there were additional things festering there, which were bothering me. The fact that the term "feminist" is so incredibly similar and close to the word "feminine".

What of it? Few words have been used so effective as a bludgeon against both men AND women.

Bludgeons like "That's not very feminine" used against women, and bludgeons like "you can't do that/wear that/act that way, that's a feminine [action, color,...]". used against men. Which have been used for decades after decades to oppress women and men of any and all orientations, and keep them "in line."

With those additional caveats about the term and my feelings about it, and with the right -- responsibility even! -- to criticize from within, the answer to my friend's question "by the way, do you consider yourself a feminist?" is "yes, and, like you, consider myself to be a 'radical' one, too."

Copyright, Harel Barzilai