Pop Feminism? Dude Feminism?

Ever since the general populace became aware that feminism is much more pluralistic and nuanced than the old stereotype of harridans with faces like blocked-up toilets complaining about how men are evil, we've had an explosion of different types of feminism. From the mildest liberal feminism to the most fiery and separatist radical feminism, some feminists even chuckle that there is a different type of feminism for every woman - much to the ire of those feminists who consider that watered-down lifestyle feminism (the idea that you can incorporate feminism into your life without radically changing your political views). Today feminist debates rage across the internet over the failings of various different types of feminism.

And I've got to say, I don't care very much.

You may accuse me of being too apathetic or apolitical thanks to my position of privilege. You may decide I'm an idiot or a moron (for which I wouldn't blame you). You may say I'm very anti-woman - in which case I shall examine my behaviour and try and change it to be more pro-woman. After all, aren't these debates vital to women's liberation?

I would argue that they're not. This is odd for me, because usually I question absolutely everything in my quest to find out about the universe. But from what I've seen, the debates involve a lot of posturing about who can be the best feminist, yet still tend to quietly ignore or silence the voices of oppressed and marginalised women. Sometimes it seems like a playground for privileged white women to compete for who can have the shiniest ideology rather than a concerted effort to weigh up the evidence and decide what to do about the issues facing people today - and that disappoints me. Despite my privilege, I don't want a feminism that's only about people like me. I don't want a feminism that caters and panders to me while throwing oppressed women under the proverbial bus.

Until I see more soul-searching and more determination to fight for all women, not just for white, cis, straight, wealthy, abled women, debates about how shiny your ideology is don't mean very much to me. If anything, they make me angry because instead of pulling together to stand up for women, we're still quibbling over whether you can be a good feminist and wear high heels.

There's another reason I don't care too much for all those debates: they give you a good idea of what people say, but not necessarily of what they do - which can be completely different. Having met several people with shiny ideologies who turned out to only care about themselves, and several other people with no defined ideology who would put their lives on the line for others, I've grown very cynical about different ideologies and prefer to judge people by their behaviour rather than their words. So how you identify yourself matters less to me than the way you treat others. And if you don't treat others well, the shiniest ideology in the world means very little.

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