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Comment by smegel | Hacker News Reader

Questioning feminism has become like questioning religion in the dark ages.

Let's hope more people like her continue to speak out against these persecutions.

When a good idea (e.g., equitable treatment of people) gets branded with a label (e.g., feminism), it opens the door for fools to start identifying with the label. By their mass, they change its meaning over time, then vilify anyone who doesn’t self-identify with the label—even those who believe in the original idea.

There are a few possible remedies here. One is to vehemently deny that these people are feminists, and recapture the label. Another is to not identify as anything, and just follow the ideas—but it’s hard for most people to be that egoless.

> When a good idea (e.g., equitable treatment of people) gets branded with a label (e.g., feminism),

Feminism isn't just a "good idea". It has a lot of baggage about what that exactly means that not every reasonable person is going to agree with (such as equal opportunity vs. equal outcomes), and the underlying theories and ways to achieve whatever they are trying to achieve.

Saying that feminism is just a "good idea" is kind of like putting all political ideas and movements into one soup as "good ideas" if their ultimate goals are well-meaning. It just so happens that feminism has an ideological monopoly on gender matters... but that doesn't mean that Feminism==gender matters.

I agree. I didn’t say feminism is a good idea. I said equitable treatment of people is a good idea, and that feminism is a label with baggage, exactly as you’re saying.

Did you even read the article? The author self-identifies as a feminist. Your implication that this is about feminism vs not-feminism is simplistic and missing the point.

Well, broadly speaking feminists tend to agree with these Title IX "inquisitions". Her declaring to be a feminist doesn't really mean that feminists tend to agree with her.

It is hard to say what feminists broadly speaking think when we do not have a survey of self-identified feminists in front of us.

I agree, that's just the conclusion from my personal observations. It would be nice to have more research on this.

Hello. I am one survey point for you. I believe women should have equal political and social rights, which makes me a feminist.

I massively disagree with the general thrust of these "inquisitions" as discussed in the article, although the original Title IX, if I understand it, was meant to be about equalising opportunity[1] and not about whatever this is all about.

[1] "The principal objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sex discrimination in education programs", from http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/cor/coord/titleix.php

> I am one survey point for you. I believe women should have equal political and social rights, which makes me a feminist.

I also believe women should have equal political and social rights, yet I'm not at all a feminist.

Perhaps we are using different definitions. I'm using this one, and similarly in other dictionaries:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feminism

So by the dictionary definition, you are a feminist (and, of course, based on your advocacy of social and political rights for women, I and anybody else using a dictionary would describe you as a feminist, no matter how much you insist that you're not).

What definition are you using that means that you're not, and what's the source of that definition? It's not really fair for you to be using a different definition without saying so in advance.

I reject the feminist narrative of history, the feminist view of gender and the feminist idea of patriarchy. Basically the majority of the social critique that is the backbone of feminism. I'm also deeply suspicious of the notion that feminism as a movement is interested in equality and not power.

Being called feminist because I believe in social and political equality is like being called a Christian because I think heaven sounds like a wonderful place. But IMHO if you don't believe in Jesus you're not a Christian and if you don't believe in the feminist social critique you're not a feminist.

I have never heard of an -ism that people don't personally choose to identify with, and instead other people dictate that they are part of against their will.

Why are we arguing about whether the author is feminist when we really should be arguing if she's a true Scotsman.

Did you? That didn't save her at all, which she was surprised about.

Worth reading: http://www.thenation.com/article/178140/feminisms-toxic-twit...

Self identification is even worse: it is seen (by those who do something like this) as an attempt to hide behind feminism to stab it in the back.

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