PUBLIC MIND: BEING A FEMINIST IN TODAY'S SOCIETY

To the Editor,

Feminist! The word seems to ignite the most negative hostility. Yet, despite how some may feel it is not a profanity.

In a clipping I have of a cartoon character bearing the title "A Fine Line", a female with a joyous expression and uplifted arms proclaims: "For the record ... a feminist is a girl person who deeply cares about the world and tries as hard as she can to make things better. Oh Yes."

The word seems to many to evoke a mannish, man-hating female, despite that demeanor being absent in such well-known feminists as Gloria Steinem. Like a lot of life, being a feminist is never easy. It takes an act of either great self-esteem or plain courage to acknowledge it as who you are in such a misogynist society. It means not conforming and accepting everyday sexism without exerting some rebuttal.

As I once told a friend, "there have always been women and some men who have spoken out against the wrong females suffer, and they help to bring about the changes from which all women benefit." It is so much easier to go along with the silent majority and look the other way. There are even some who have the gift of putting another name to injustice by looking at it through a different perspective. I have been told by these people, "they don't 'dwell' on it."

My reaction to this is that it is to their benefit they can view it in this way for their own emotional well-being; but it is also good that not everyone does this or there would never be any beneficial changes to heal the wrongs against females in a patriarchal world.

Just as the female gender itself is often not regarded as individuals, so too are feminists often stereotyped:

"Feminists are man-haters!"

"Feminists are all homosexuals!"

"Feminists were abused as children!"

Let us confront each of those allegations individually.

To the accusation, "feminists are man-haters," just change the words a little to "feminists hate the sexism males employ." As to the homosexual charge, only in such a homophobic society would such an allegation be leveled. As often as not, feminists are either married or intimately involved with a man.

As for feminism being the result of women being abused as children -- then most women would be feminists, since most suffer some form of child abuse.

A major difference I see between feminists and women who do not evoke feminism is very close to the little cartoon I quoted earlier depicting a feminist as being one who "deeply cares." While too many females, due to their oppression, let injustice against women pass unprotected, a feminist will take action and speak against it.

Whereas women may comment privately they believe women should have access to safe abortion, a feminist will often be seen taking up pro-choice banners and marching city streets to "Keep Abortion Legal."

Where too many females will let sexual harassment pass with mild complaint, or else, quit the job to escape it; a feminist would be aware that she was not to blame and take legal action to expose it to public knowledge. Women who are not self-proclaimed feminists, but who help poor women financially, are committing an act of feminism. Those who offer their time to aid or bring some joyous laughter to battered women in shelters are committing an act of feminism.

Humanism is a word I have read being used as a substitute for the still often reviled word "feminist." Only time will tell if that will ever succeed.

It reminds me of a shirt I wear bearing the definition of feminism. The shirt reads: "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." I have a feeling the "F" word will prevail.

KAREN JO ROBERTS

Cape Girardeau