The Sydney Feminists

“You don’t LOOK like a feminist”. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard this particular adage. Mostly it comes from men, but you might be surprised how often it comes from other women. The most recent occurrence got me thinking - in this day and age, what exactly does a feminist look like? Feminism and conventional femininity have long had a tenuous relationship and for good reason. During the second wave of feminism in the 1960s, women largely rejected “traditional” femininity. Such a reaction was understandable given the restrictive morals governing women’s behaviour in the decades prior. These morals continued the age-old trend of placing high value on rigid standards of personal appearance. What a woman looked like was more important than who she was and what she was capable of.   Feminism, quite rightly, reacted strongly to these standards, resulting in the much-pared-down fashion styles of the sixties and seventies. With the rise of third-wav...

If you've spent enough time in feminist circles and enough time engaging with allies, you are practically guaranteed to have heard the term "not all men!" If you had an automatic eye-roll reaction, I'll understand, and if not I'll explain. It's the sentiment consistently expressed by men in the face of stories about problematic male behaviour. Not all men, they will say. Not all men are rapists. Not all men are misogynists. Not all men are violent. All of these sentiments are true. But the expression itself is toxic - and I for one will no longer engage with anyone who employs this diversionary tactic any longer. The reason is simple: it's not rhetoric that signals someone is a legitimate ally, it's a logical fallacy designed to derail an important conversation back to a topic they feel is more deserving - namely, men's problems. You might remember something similar in the #alllivesmatter response to the Black Lives Matter movement. There it was ...