Am I a Feminist?

Yes. That's my answer although I think I will forever question. My understanding of feminism has come a very long way beginning with that first discussion with Professor Z (the better) at Poets about the different waves of feminism and what postmodernism means for us and then with the marvelous Professor N and his proof that you can learn about feminism from an "old" white man.

I'm not the most enlightened person on the planet, but God, I've come a long way.

In my class today, I talked about multicultural education/cultural diversity or as I had to explain to my class critical pedagogy & multicultural education. Oh it was a good day. We got to talk about hegemony, marginalization, assimilation, and deculturalization, all new words to them by the way.

We did a couple of activities from Paul Gorski's website the Multicultural Pavilion. One of the things we did was the Circles of My Multicultural Self to get them thinking about how they view themselves as we had discussed the different levels of culture from the concrete/superficial (food, clothing, music) to the abstract/deep (beliefs, values, traditions). At the bottom, it asks you to:

Name a stereotype associated with one of the groups with which you identify that is not consistent with who you are. Fill in the following sentence:

I am (a/an) _____________________ but I am NOT (a/an)_____________________.

Then, it gives this example:

I am a Christian, but I am NOT a radical right Republican.

Which, incidentally, has been mine for a long time although I use the label "Christian" a little loosely now. To my surprise, mine changed today. One of the students said: "I am a female, but I'm not a feminist." When I got back to myself, I talked about why "female" was one of my satellite circles and how much being a female meant to me. It was also my "Share a story about a time it was especially painful to be identified with one of your identifiers or descriptors" because of a time in traffic school where the officer attempted to make all females in the class feel like they were there because they were inferior drivers. (Prick!) Then I felt it my duty to explain why people often misunderstand what feminism is really about. I then changed my stereotype association to:

I am a feminist, but I am NOT a feminazi.

And yes, I know the term "feminazi" is a terrible word coined by a suck-ass person.

Here's why some may think I'm not a feminist:

-I don't mind if a man does all my car maintenance and I never learn how.
-I prefer to say to a man, "You do the yard work and maintenance and I'll do the housework."
-I'd love to stay home with my children if that opportunity ever arises. (Although if married, I would also be open to working while my husband stayed home.)
All of these, however, are personal preferences and not personal beliefs of how things should be. I love being female, and I love female things.

Here's why I believe I am very much a feminist:

-I believe men and women should be equal but not necessarily the same.
-I believe everyone should have the same rights and opportunities.
-I believe the above includes same-sex couples.
-I believe people have been discriminated against and are still being discriminated against based on race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, therefore, it's vital that we continue to think critically to eliminate biases within ourselves so that we can act in a way that brings about change.