Re: feminism

[fox@panix.com (Lou Fox)]

Once and for all, I am going to try and explain my opinion.
First there are some points that I believe need clarifying...
A) Kate lives in England. Even though I am a dedicated American feminist, 
I do not know much about feminism in the UK, aside from the beginning 
1800's stuff. For all we (and I'm speaking about everyone who has an 
opinion here) know, Kate could have taken a dislike to an aspect of 
feminism in the UK that is inconsistent with either the mainstream 
feminism there or with the mainstream  of US feminism. Has she ever said 
what exactly it is about feminism she dislikes? Is she dismissing the 
whole movement or some point in particular? 
 
: according to jennifer's definition (anyone who paints, writes, etc.
: what it is really like to be a woman), alice walker is afeminist. why, then,
: does alice walker insist on the label 'womanist,' as in, 'womanist is to
: feminist as purple is to (some other less wonderful color i forgot what and i
: don't have 'in search of our mother's gardens' in front of me, sorry)'?
B)I think the Alice walker and Kate Bush analogy is a bit sketchy. I 
believe that Kate Bush and many other women and men have a rather skewed 
idea about feminism and this leads them to shy away from the word. 
Feminism gets a bum rap in the media, as do so many other ideologies and 
lifestyles that are outside of the accepted norm. As for Alice Walker, I 
believe she likes to use the word "humanist" because she has other 
aspects of her personality, other than feminism that she believes are the 
most important. I also don't believe Alice Walker would vehemently 
disavow being a feminist nor would she take great offense at being called 
one, like some of the people on this board have done when I suggested 
that Kate would be one. 
As for the Rush analogy, let's suppose there was an author who wrote 
about social policy from a very conservative view point, acted 
conservative, spoke about conservatism, etc. but did not want to be 
called a conservative. Would it then be wrong for this person to be 
embraced by conservatives or to be said to be doing conservative work?  

: i think thi s is a very amierian (an all the worst senses of the word) type of
: thing to say/do. eyerything here is so damned ideological!
I don't think that ideological diversity is a particularly American 
issue, although maybe resistence to it is. God knows that most european 
countries have tons more political parties and groups than the US.

: in other words, if the only kind of people you can stand are people exactly
: like yourself, stay at home. alone.
My dear, I like all kinds of people and I enjoy going out with people who 
have differing opinions from mine own and discussing these differences. I 
like to debate the merits of feminism with people who have intelligent 
opinions that are contrary to mine. If you have been following my 
discussions you would see that I welcomed the chance to hash out ideas 
with people who don't agree with me. Don't tell me to stay home alone. 
That's a bit nasty, don't you think? And not at all in the spirit of Kate 
Bush.

Jennifer 

If you want to further discuss or disparage, please do so by e-mail, 
unless it has to do directly with Kate, so as not to bother the rest of 
the readers