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skumar's picture

"living life as a feminist"

Emily,

   You say that someone calling you a "man-hater" will not "keep you from living [your] life as a feminist." If you do not mind me asking, how exactly do you, as a feminist, live?

 By answering this question, aren't you giving me a definition of "what it is to live like a feminist" ? This gets me back to my point about "voting/chosing like a feminist." Is not chosing in a specific, feminist way or living in a distinct, feminist way just another way to define feminism?

I am getting the sense that feminists do not want to give feminism a definition. I think one cannot rely on the ambiguity of feminism to resist distinguishing feminism. I get that feminists don't define or characterize or give titles or generalize so to resist the "male definition process," but I think not defining, not characterisizing, not giving titles is 'a feminist way' to do things. Isn't 'the feminist way' to live (as you say) and to vote (as Anne says) a way of defining what it is to live and what it is to vote as a feminist? There are certain things feminists do or certain things feminists don't do...so, how is that not just another form of a definition?

 

 

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