Tuesday, August 21, 2007

No Bra Burning Here

I don't usually do these quiz things but this one made me think about some things. Here is my result on the quiz.

You Are 96% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man).
You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.


I once made my Mom very, very angry by referring to her as a feminist. She said something about never having burned her bra, etc. I was completed flummoxed. Mom didn't think she was a feminist? In the 60's she was the second female real estate broker in Texas. Real Estate is primarily a woman's field now, but it wasn't back then. She specialized in selling ranches in excess of 10,000 acres. She got a private pilots license so she could show people ranches from the air. She had her own business. She ran for public office. She was very feminine and put together. She volunteered as a juvenile probation officer. She told me stories about how as a window designer for a department store she made $300.00 a month. When she quit they hired a man to replace her, gave him $800.00 a month and an assistant. You get the idea.

So why is feminism such a dirty word? Here I always thought it meant believing that people should be treated the same and paid the same for the same work regardless of gender. I'm pretty sure that's basically the dictionary definition. I think I had that conversation with my Mom about twenty years ago. Has the negative perception of feminism changed? I wonder what younger women think about it.


BTW, if your quiz results show "less feminism" you get a different picture. You get a picture with no boxing gloves and a sexier look.

1 comment:

melanie brooks said...

I have been very interested in this as well. In July I was fortunate to attend the NOW conference when it was here in Michigan. Very enlightening!

Yeah, I think the word conjures up a lot of bra burning, man hating stuff for a lot of people. That's so old school, and was such a small percentage, from what I understand...

I have recently started using the word myself and learning a lot about what young women my age (I'm 33) are thinking about. Third Wave feminism fascinates me. I am reading a book now called The F word about this very subject!

I am going to add your blog to my blog roll..I am surprized I just found you now (saw you post on our Art Bead Scene)