So, I'm driving along listening to the BBC, and there's about to be a panel discussion on the question "Does feminism have a P.R. problem?"
They spend a couple of minutes introducing the women on the panel and talking about their qualifications and after all this introductory pumping up, the moderator puts the question flat out to the first woman....and....she....says:
"I've got a real problem with the term 'feminism'....."She goes on to advocate for "womanism," apparently as a means of escape from the P.R. problem feminism has.
I could not tell the ages of these women because it was radio, but given their credentials they could not have been extremely young---professors, elected officials, heads of NGOS, etc.
Why do I give a hoot? Because I have daughters and granddaughters. I don't worry about my wife except for not wanting her to lose any legal status, because our relationship is between the two of us.
The other reason I give a hoot is that I think a lot of the policies I care about make the country as a whole better off.
Equal access to education and the professions.
Equal pay for equal work.
Equal access to the levers of power over war and peace, the value of money, trade policy, environmental policy.
I don't think men should have the final say on women's reproductive choices.
I don't think women should be put in jail for prostitution.
I think men beating up women is a bigger public policy problem than women beating up men.
I don't think nursing mothers should have to hide for fear of offending people. If anybody's offended by a nursing mother, it's their problem.
I think that when government makes a policy with a differential impact on women as women then that policy should serve a compelling government interest and be narrowly tailored to vindicate that interest. And vice versa.
That means if we ever get conscription again, women have to register for the draft.
Now, I think this set of policy preferences kind of logically sticks together. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm perfectly willing to argue about each one separately.
If they do stick together, I guess I'm not too concerned what they are called.
Except that, as a student of history, I like to see credit given where it is due. Most of the earliest expressions of what I've adopted as my policy preferences came from people who called themselves "feminists" at a time when the label could be very inconvenient.
That's all. I understand that what other people identify with is not my call to make. If it were my call, I'd give credit where it is due.