How do highly conscious people feel about feminism?

[Liz Caitlin]

Hi everyone! My name is Liz and I’ve been reading articles on Steve’s site for about a year now.

I’m very curious to hear what you all think about women’s roles in our current society. To give you a bit of background, I used to be a HARDCORE feminist in high school – stopped shaving for a summer, read The Beauty Myth and The Female Eunuch and all that – until I noticed that some of the beliefs associated with all that were disempowering to me. I’ve been much happier since I let some of them go.

There are still a lot of issues out there, however – such as the extreme focus that is still placed on women’s appearances, the fact that even women who work do the majority of household work in most homes, and the double standard that STILL exists when it comes to women’s sexuality versus men’s. Things are a lot better than they used to be and I’m happy to be alive at this point in history versus earlier periods, but I still think there are problems to be solved.

So as I said, I’m curious…what do you guys think about this?

[Plays With Life]

Howdy ho, Liz.

I think the double standard about sex can be a little limiting.

The rest of it I haven't had much experience with. In my family, it was normally the guys who did all the household chores.

[spirit4711]

Hi Liz and welcome to the forum!

Originally Posted by Liz Caitlin

So as I said, I’m curious…what do you guys think about this?

Is that a Freudian slip?

Personally I believe everyone is best off realizing their own potential - male or female is not relevant. It's more about accepting oneself.

There was a time I considered myself feminist (yes, guys can be feminist too) but that changed since I decided that groups are not so interesting - I'm more interested in individual points of view. Plus, the whining side (both of feminists and anti-feminists) became too victim-like for me.

[seeker5]

I've seen mixed views of it. I think it's awesome that women seek out their own roles. For some that means having a full career. For some that means being a housewife. For some it means doing all the chores, and for some that means doing none of the chores.

I've seen my own family member discriminated in the workplace because they were women and that irritates the hell out of me. But I've also seen traditional roles used against me in order to try to get more work out of me...by other women in my family and outside of my family.

In the end, I think what matters most is that women, and men, seek to live their lives consciously by what they naturally aligned much more with rather than try to define themselves by a broader spectrum that society, or counter-society roles dictate.

[Brutha]

There two levels:
The personal:
I think that it's generally not productivity to explain owns failures with excuse about belonging to a given group.
There are woman who are successful just as well as woman who aren't.
There are woman who do the majority of household work and there are woman who aren't.
It's your responsibility to decide what you want to be. Resistance isn't the path to happiness. Creating your own reality is.
Power is there to be claimed by the person who's willing to take responsibility.

Then there's the political level:
It should be a goal to elected some women into a board when qualified woman exist that can fill the role and not have it all men.
Judging women for having sex is something that should be fought.
The same goes for men getting judged for being soft.

[Liz Caitlin]

Thanks for the warm welcome, spirit!

Originally Posted by spirit4711

Is that a Freudian slip?


There was a time I considered myself feminist (yes, guys can be feminist too) but that changed since I decided that groups are not so interesting - I'm more interested in individual points of view. Plus, the whining side (both of feminists and anti-feminists) became too victim-like for me.

Lol to the Freudian slip thing! Also I agree - I don't find it empowering to consider myself a victim OR to whine about my life - I'd rather change it. And also kudos to what Brutha said - you have to create your own reality. Statistics say women do more of the house-keeping, but I know that particular statistic will never play any role in my reality, where I expect any partner I have to do his fair share of household chores. I've never had any complaints so far. For example, I love cooking, so the times when do eat in - we tend to eat out more often than not, but when we do - I cook, and then he does the dishes, which works because I HATE dishes!

I knew I could count on some thought-provoking responses here. Looking forward to playing in these forums more