As this film explains there are many stereotypes of feminist as man hating, bra burning lesbians. I too have from time to time believe that some of these stereotypes, for example I used to ask my self “You always hear about man hating lesbians, where are all the women hating gay guys”
My definition of feminism is simply to call it a movement. Like any movement it started with a certain set of core beliefs that where promoted by its followers. From time to time (like any movement) there are schism and splits, hardliners and revisionists. However I believe the reason feminism gain the negative stereotypes it did was because there were a few “bad apples” in the movement. These “bad apples” where probably influenced more by their personal struggles with men (be they justified or unjustified) then their desire to advance freedom and justice for women. These bad apples are also the ones whose are portrayed by the media, since they show feminism in a negative light, and showing things in a negative light is big bucks) despite the fact that they represent a small minority of feminist.
I don't think feminism is in a decline per-say, I do think it is not as popular as it once was, but that is more the fault of the media portrayal of it.
It is hard to decide whether I am a feminist or not, I do not have many female friends (or at least ones I would feel comfortable talking to them about such issues) so its hard to talk to someone about this issue to learn more about it. I do think women should be given all the equal legal rights and responsibilities of men and vice a versa. I have to learn more about it and not really on a hour long movie (which was poorly narrated and had some minor factual inaccuracies), so I hope to learn more through this class.
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