Talk:Feminism

Celebrity and Media

(Under category Culture)

First coined by Jennifer Wicke, a professor at the University of Virginia, the term “celebrity feminism” refers to a modern form of feminism that is created by female celebrities who are eager to publicly claim feminist identities. The past few years have been noted for the recurring trend of active feminism, in which numerous celebrities made feminism more visible through performances, open speeches, and social media. Forums, such as Elle UK, released issues solely discussing feminism and quoted that 2014 was “a year…in which feminism was increasingly visible within popular media cultures, including celebrity cultures”. In their article, Introduction: feminism and contemporary celebrity culture, Hamad and Taylor also emphasize this “snowballing” effect of celebrity culture and that the figure of “self-professed” feminist celebrity became an ongoing flashpoint of cross-media celebrity landscape. The growing number of celebrities publicly identifying themselves as feminists, notably Beyoncé, Emma Watson, and Jennifer Lawrence, has defined major moments within the entertainment industry, creating multiple debates on social media platforms. Young women, contributing as the majority of the audience of mainstream celebrity culture and users of online media, are therefore exposed to such discussion and respond to them in distinct ways. According to journalist Connie Crane, social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are “relatively affordable, ubiquitous, and simple” and therefore allow broader access to feminist debates.

With celebrity feminism and social media conjoining to create this new platform, feminism has expanded to become a widespread interest of the public. Feminist blogs have become a ground for young women of different cultures and contexts to come together and advocate for their equal rights in school and work . Debates over the media representations of celebrities as feminists are therefore ongoing and social media has become the major platform for teenage girls to voice their opinions. In her 2014 MTV Video Music Awards performance, Beyoncé appeared on stage with the word ‘feminist’ illuminated in oversized lettering behind her. The performance received great media attention, some critics referring to such movement as a “celebrity zeitgeist” and of “orchestrated publicity”. Immediately after the performance, feminist blog posts and online discussion boards were updated with debate over whether her performance was truly a “feminist” movement. Some blamed her skin-exposing outfit, commenting that it was “contradicting to what she’s saying”, while some criticized it as a marketing tactic, questioning her understanding of the term . In September 2014, Emma Watson, as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, was applauded for her speech on gender equality and the launching of a campaign called “HeForShe”. While the public praised her activism, many young feminists opened online discussions, questioning the campaign’s validity. They believed that the campaign’s goal, to inform young boys and ask for gender equality, was flawed and diverted “attention to men”.

There is great debate over “celebritized” feminism, in which young feminists appreciate the growing popularity but criticize the manipulation of fame and misunderstanding of the core beliefs of feminism. As Hamad and Taylor noted, intersections of feminism and contemporary celebrity culture are “myriad, complicated, and contradictory”. While one does not necessarily benefit or harm the other, both use appropriate methods to utilize its medium and communicative differences. The controversy that always follows feminist publicity results in critics and young women recognizing that there is no “authentic feminism that exists beyond its celebrity manifestations”. There is definite increase in attention to feminism in mainstream media, yet young feminists remain skeptical of the media representation. For example, news forums and magazine articles have reportedly announced celebrities’ response to the self identification as a feminist. Figures such as Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, and Lady Gaga were noted to either shun away from the term or ambiguously answer without a determined motive or reason. Celebrity feminism is thus commonly believed as surface level feminism and is said to be turning into a “fashion” and trend in which stars use the publicity to their own career benefits and “articulate political positions” . As awareness of gender equality is increasing, celebrities are voicing their opinions, either due to sincere passion or for publicity and reputation, and explicitly stand in positions that can greatly influence the minds of the audience.

The intersection between feminism and celebrity culture, and its portrayal through media, has thus “shaped the kinds of feminism that come to publicly circulate”. Celebrity news, largely communicated through social media, creates current popular culture and the audience are keen to follow regardless of their personal stance. In her article, Keller discussed the “lack of education that girls and boys receive about feminism”, and how celebrity publicity replaces this gap. Media representations of self-professed feminist celebrities frequently contradict fundamental feminist ideologies, which evidently distort the public’s understanding . Literature examples, such as Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll or Tiptree’s science fiction The Girl Who Was Plugged In, illustrate this misrepresentation and confusion. Both works depict extreme societal expectations on women and appearance, as well as gender embodiment. The idealized female body in which both works portray are “results of celebrity endorsement and consumerism”.These embellished images of female bodies however are still reproduced by celebrities who claim to be feminists, belying their publicized opinions that women have the right to disregard sexual expectations and gender roles. Influences in which society and media have on the perspectives of the young audience are discussed, and this questions the ability of celebrities to “represent the complexities of contemporary feminist issues”. Through social networking and media representations, young women are expanding their knowledge by discussing the rise in celebrity feminism and interpreting the influences in which such publicity tactics can have on their, and the public’s feminist perspectives.

References

Radical Feminists: Femen, Pussy Riot, Feminazi

Hi, Should the article not cover radical groups such as Femen and Pussy Riot. After reading the article and the points covered above, I am somewhat surprised that people confuse feminism with radical feminism which these groups claim to be part. Then again I don´t know if people in America (which I assume is most writers) treat radical feminists and feminists as the same group, I will say here in Europe, they are treated different from each other, with feminists promoting equal rights for regardless of gender and radical feminists, who may be radical but most deffinitely are not feminists, but rather misandrists and promote the demonisation of all men and boys and are often found committing violent protests. is it possible that it is members of these groups that may have resulted in the term "Feminazi" been created and if so then should this term not be mentioned or added in the "see also" section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:8084:2580:2480:e8bf:3c63:1f7c:482b (talk • contribs)

You are the only person I know who thinks radical feminists are not feminists. So I don't hold much hope for your point of view being brought into the article. Binksternet (talk) 01:49, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Lol at "here in Europe, they are treated different from each other"... hell no. You don't know what people in the whole of Europe think. I, for example, am European, and I've never met anyone who separates radical and "moderate" feminists. Both parts of the movement are reviled now. But I would never say it's what WE HERE IN EUROPE THINK, because it's just what I've heard the majority of the people I've met say. Doesn't mean others don't think differently. Don't use a whole continent to support your position.84.42.224.20 (talk) 20:14, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

See also

The See also list in this article is way, way too long. It should probably be about 10 articles. Right now it's almost 50. Kaldari (talk) 17:18, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

I tend to agree. What if we trimmed back to:

• Antifeminism
• Feminism and equality
• Feminism in culture
• Feminist Studies
• Gender equality
• Index of feminism articles
• Masculism
• Radical Feminism
• Sexism

I'm just spitballing here. Other thoughts? -Starke Hathaway (talk) 18:38, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

Reasonable place to start. I'd probably replace "Radical Feminism" with a link to Feminist movements and ideologies. Hopefully that would avoid arguments about why one theory should be there over another. — Strongjam (talk) 18:54, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

I wouldn't object to that. -Starke Hathaway (talk) 19:02, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

Hearing no opposition, I've made the above change with Strongjam's helpful suggestion. -Starke Hathaway (talk) 15:25, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Who Stole Feminism? quote

Who Stole Feminism? by Christina Hoff Sommers pp. 320, is quoted as the source for the statement: "They [anti-feminist writers] argue that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women." But according to WorldCat (bottom-half of the page), 320 is the total number of pages in the book, and I can't find any similar quote by searching Google Preview. It appears to be the editor's own interpretation of source material. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 15:47, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

The summary of Sommers looks accurate to me; the solution, then, is to find WP:SECONDARY sources which analyze Sommers in this manner. There are lots of sources from which to choose! I made a partial list at Talk:Christina_Hoff_Sommers/Archive_5. One such source might be the book Antifeminism in the Academy in which a chapter by Professors Elaine Ginsberg and Sara Lennox is found: "Antifeminism in Scholarship and Publishing".[1]

Another source might be the 2008 doctoral dissertation by Kristi Lowenthal, Conservative Thought and the Equal Rights Amendment in Kansas. Binksternet (talk) 17:05, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Note that the March 2011 version of this article discusses misandry in in the context of men and masculinity. This bit was supported by three references not present today, references which are likely to be useful in fixing the problem you point out. Here they are:

• Feminism and women's rights worldwide, Volume 1 (page 5) Author: Michele A. Paludi Editor: Michele A. Paludi Edition: illustrated Publisher: ABC-CLIO, 2010 ISBN 0313375968, 9780313375965.
• Barbara Ryan, Identity politics in the women's movement, NYU Press, 2001, ISBN 0814774792, 9780814774793.
• 2 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 8 (1994-1995), Feminist Lawmaking and Historical Consciousness: Bringing the Past into the Future; Schneider, Elizabeth M.

Other sources which have been historically used in this article to support the the analysis of Paglia and Sommers are:

• Stacey, Judith (Summer 2000). "Is Academic Feminism an Oxymoron?". Signs. 25 (4): 1189–1194. "Feminisms at a Millennium" issue.
• Minnich, Elizabeth Kamarck (Spring 1998). "Review: 'Feminist Attacks on Feminisms: Patriarchy's Prodigal Daughters'". Feminist Studies. 24 (1): 159–175.

It appears that Sommers' book has been used for quite some time in this article to support a summary of her position. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing, considering that Sommers is not being misinterpreted. Binksternet (talk) 17:46, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi VF, that's not a quote that's a summary (as Binksternet said). It doesn't need a specific page reference since its a synopsis of the whole book. However, if you wanted to change the section to something else there's a good synopsis of Masculism and its reaction to feminism in 'Masculinism and the Antifeminist Countermovement' by Blaise and Dupis-Deri (p. 23). I'll post it here in case you can't get a hold of it:

Extended content

Masculinism focuses primarily on masculinity and the place of white heterosexual men in North American and European societies. Yet, it is concerned as well with the supposed ramifications of feminism and the alleged domination of women in both the public and private spheres. Indeed, a basic assumption of the spokesmen for masculinism is that women, women’s values in general and feminists in particular, dominate men and contemporary society at large. Men, seen as currently grappling with an ‘identity crisis’, are depicted as the victims of feminist struggles, which have resulted in the supplanting of patriarchy by matriarchy. This discourse is produced and disseminated in popular magazines (Faludi, 1992) and numerous books written by academics and freelance journalists (see, among others, Farrell, 2001; Sommers, 2001; Nathanson & Young, 2002, 2006; Hise, 2004; Parker, 2008; Synnott, 2009).

The full reference is MELISSA BLAIS & FRANCIS DUPUIS-DE´RI, 'Masculinism and the Antifeminist Countermovement' in Social Movement Studies,11:1 (January 2012), (21–39), p. 23. I hope this is useful. If I had more time to evaluate I'd add it myself but my WP time is very short these days--Cailil ^talk 13:03, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Criticism of Feminism

There is now an increasing amount of criticism of feminism. I think the criticism section should be expanded. The following criticism has been raised by various scholars, authors and as of October 2015, a search on youtube.com for the word "feminism" will yield results explaining their criticism. I would categorize the criticism as follow types:

1. Factual Criticism

Many of the arguments presented by feminist movement is now under heavy attack for factual inaccuracies. They include, Wage Gap, Rape Culture and the general claim that women are discriminated in education, workplace or in society at large.

2. False Equality and Misandry

Feminism assumes that equality is achieved by "making women equal to men". This results in selective bias where the question is only viewed from the female perspective without regards to impact on men, children or society at large. There is now a common phrase saying "women have rights and men have responsibilities". Thus, feminism is only equality in name but misandry in fact.

3. Harassment, Censorship and Abuse of Power

Feminism has been accused of harassing the people who oppose their views, including women. Feminism also demands censorship of views in conflict with feminist platform. The said harassment and censorship is achieved by using powers of government. Feminist argue that such powers are necessary to create safe space for women and for feminist values to take root. Critics argue this infantilizes women and disrespects the fundamental freedoms of others.

4. Words versus deeds

Feminists insist that feminism be judged by the dictionary definition of feminism. Critics argued that feminism should be judged by the action of feminists, as such actions, laws or policies came are enacted substantially the same as feminist scholars had envisioned.

5. Biology

Critics argue that feminism run counter to biology and natural selection. At a minimum, no amount of government legislation can alter the fact that only female humans can become pregnant and fertility decline with age. Women who choose to embrace motherhood simply makes sense for biological reasons. Policies to discourage traditional feminine virtues for the sake of waging rebellion itself may not be beneficial to women in the long run.

I think there are many valid and significant criticism against feminism and these should be brought to attention. If anyone is looking for sources, it comes from the likes of Christina Hoff Summers, Karen Straughan, Janice Fiamengo. All of them have spoken on these issues on campus and have their youtube channel. 104.247.228.124 (talk) 22:41, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Criticism of Feminism - New Article Proposal

I propose a standalone article on Criticism of Feminism.

There is currently an article called antifeminism, but the term antifeminism is usually used by feminists to described their opponents. Indeed, the article on antifeminism does not talk about the criticism of feminism. as of Oct 13, 2015, every quote from that article is actually from feminists themselves.

the article "antifeminism" does not criticize feminism. it is what feminism say in response to their critics. in otherwords, the antifeminism article is the "Criticism of Criticism of Feminism" 104.247.228.124 (talk) 01:18, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Feminist Conspiracy Theories

Should there not be a section on the commonly espoused conspiracy theories of feminists that men have kept them down throughout history?