What makes you a feminist?
Do you need to be have hair like Hilary Clinton?
A body like Marilyn Monroe?
A voice like Helen Zille?
Actually, none of these attributes is neccessary to being a feminist. What you DO need is self-respect and be prepared to embrace who you are as a woman. Take a lead in your own life.
There are many misconceptions about feminists. A common misconception is that feminist = lesbian. While it is a truism that many high profile feminists seem to have a bit of a tendency at least to "bat for the other side" (think Ellen de Generes, Rihanna, Sarah Palin, etc, etc), I'm sure there are many that don't, and such a view is, quite frankly, ignorant and prejudiced.
Now as I said, feminism is about embracing who you are as a woman. Therefore, I guess it is obvious that men can't be feminists, even if they may be feminist sympathisers. Sadly, many self-styled male "feminists" are not much more than neo-liberal men just trying to tell you what to do, as men always do. I thought feminism was about choice.
Should you disagree, they will immediately attempt to invalidate you. For example, I recently set up a facebook account in order to reply to a (quite charming) online dating advert, and immediately got criticised by all sorts of men for my choices. They then went as far as researching my facebook account (stalker alert!) and someone even went as far as claiming that I wasn't even female, ergo, my opinions are not valid. Thus, through character assassination (ad hominen fallacy, I might add) I was disenfranchised of my sense of self.
Basically, the online Taliban threw a Burkha over my head.
Some people would call me a gold-digger because I am prepared to enter into relationships where I might not be the dominant player financially, but I bring other things to the party (wink, wink!). Some people would call me all sorts of names for that, even say I am a you-know-what, but at the same time these "feminists" will be willing to legalise "sex work", and say that it is a valid way to earn a living.
Hypocritical, much?
Anyway, I really hope I didn't offend anyone, I just wanted to get this all off my chest.
I guess my point is that being a feminist is all about being all woman!!!
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