Meg
Well-known Member
I wrote something else for my organization's online magazine. I'm posting it here as well. Hope you like it. 
Empowerment vs. Activism
Gloria Steinam said that the definition of feminism should be modified to “believing in equality of the sexes and doing something about it.” She has a point. Without “and doing something about it” most people are actually feminists. Most people do believe in equality of the sexes, but few are willing to really do anything about it. Unfortunately, using this modified definition, a lot of self-identified feminists aren’t really feminists at all.
Oh sure, a lot of these feminists think they are working toward equality, but what they are really doing is empowering themselves and others within their movement, but without moving things forward.
Now don’t get me wrong, empowerment is important. How can you possibly make change if you don’t believe yourself strong enough to do it? It would be pretty hard. So, empowerment within feminism is a good thing. The problem lies in the amount of empowerment versus actual activism.
A lot of feminist campaigns and programing come off as trying to get something done, but if one looks closer, they’ll find that simply isn’t true. In fact, sometimes the campaign hurts more than it helps.
A classic example is when last year Feminist Majority Foundation pushed forth the Flush Rush campaign with the intention of pressuring Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers to pull from his show: resulting in his show getting cancelled. FMF’s last update stated that forty-five advertisers pulled. This is the perfect example of feminists being counterproductive. Censorship is always wrong, and feminists trying to take away a person’s human right to say what they think is ridiculous.
However, FMF’s approach to the campaign was interesting. They made no attempt to use this as a recruitment tool. It was purely an empowerment thing.
Similarly, last summer saw an uproar over the rape jokes Daniel Tosh made during his stand-up performance. A woman heckled him over the jokes, which got her an offensive reply. The Internet exploded. Many people began petitioning Tosh’s show, Tosh.O, be removed from air. Again, feminists tried to censor someone who says offensive things. It is not helpful. In fact, campaigns like this only prove to make feminism look worse to outsiders.
In both cases, feminists walked away feeling empowered: like they did something really important. But did they? No.
Other examples are Slut Walks, picketing when there is not media coverage (one could argue how effective picketing at all is), and bake sales. Bake sales are the worst; especially when the people running the bake sale make little to no attempt to interact with people.
There are plenty of other examples of campaigns and programs that aim to empower over make change, but I’m not going to get into that now. However, hope is not all lost. Perfect examples of good ways to actually improve things are hosting events like Take Back the Night and The Vagina Monologues. As well as trying to improve the local community with better lighting and paths: things that act as deterrents to violence but also are a great help to people with disabilities. Supporting local clinics and educating people on the difference between places like Planned Parenthood and “pregnancy care centers” is also great. There needs to be more of things like that.
The easiest way to figure out if you’re a feminist more interested in empowerment or activism is to ask yourself this: “Do I, by myself or as part of a group participate in more activities that only really empower myself and people within my movement instead of activities that benefit society as a whole?” Think about that for a while. If you answered yes, then you need to re-evaluate your role in feminism.
Empowerment vs. Activism
Gloria Steinam said that the definition of feminism should be modified to “believing in equality of the sexes and doing something about it.” She has a point. Without “and doing something about it” most people are actually feminists. Most people do believe in equality of the sexes, but few are willing to really do anything about it. Unfortunately, using this modified definition, a lot of self-identified feminists aren’t really feminists at all.
Oh sure, a lot of these feminists think they are working toward equality, but what they are really doing is empowering themselves and others within their movement, but without moving things forward.
Now don’t get me wrong, empowerment is important. How can you possibly make change if you don’t believe yourself strong enough to do it? It would be pretty hard. So, empowerment within feminism is a good thing. The problem lies in the amount of empowerment versus actual activism.
A lot of feminist campaigns and programing come off as trying to get something done, but if one looks closer, they’ll find that simply isn’t true. In fact, sometimes the campaign hurts more than it helps.
A classic example is when last year Feminist Majority Foundation pushed forth the Flush Rush campaign with the intention of pressuring Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers to pull from his show: resulting in his show getting cancelled. FMF’s last update stated that forty-five advertisers pulled. This is the perfect example of feminists being counterproductive. Censorship is always wrong, and feminists trying to take away a person’s human right to say what they think is ridiculous.
However, FMF’s approach to the campaign was interesting. They made no attempt to use this as a recruitment tool. It was purely an empowerment thing.
Similarly, last summer saw an uproar over the rape jokes Daniel Tosh made during his stand-up performance. A woman heckled him over the jokes, which got her an offensive reply. The Internet exploded. Many people began petitioning Tosh’s show, Tosh.O, be removed from air. Again, feminists tried to censor someone who says offensive things. It is not helpful. In fact, campaigns like this only prove to make feminism look worse to outsiders.
In both cases, feminists walked away feeling empowered: like they did something really important. But did they? No.
Other examples are Slut Walks, picketing when there is not media coverage (one could argue how effective picketing at all is), and bake sales. Bake sales are the worst; especially when the people running the bake sale make little to no attempt to interact with people.
There are plenty of other examples of campaigns and programs that aim to empower over make change, but I’m not going to get into that now. However, hope is not all lost. Perfect examples of good ways to actually improve things are hosting events like Take Back the Night and The Vagina Monologues. As well as trying to improve the local community with better lighting and paths: things that act as deterrents to violence but also are a great help to people with disabilities. Supporting local clinics and educating people on the difference between places like Planned Parenthood and “pregnancy care centers” is also great. There needs to be more of things like that.
The easiest way to figure out if you’re a feminist more interested in empowerment or activism is to ask yourself this: “Do I, by myself or as part of a group participate in more activities that only really empower myself and people within my movement instead of activities that benefit society as a whole?” Think about that for a while. If you answered yes, then you need to re-evaluate your role in feminism.
