The Secret Feminists
No, they aren’t the paramilitary arm of Feminism – who gather together in furtive cells, ready to inflict acts of terror in the name of gender equality.
I was disappointed, too 
Secret feminists are the girls and women and maybe even a few men all around us who for one reason or another choose not to publicly identify as feminist. They don’t even trot out that old, “I’m not a feminist but” cliche. 
Why would anyone be a feminist and not be willing to identify as such?
There’s the stigmatisation, of course. The daft idea that feminists are man hating old ratbags (I admit to the ratbag part but I am rather fond of men) who don’t know how to enjoy themselves. They are somehow supposed to be against pleasure in any form, to have no sense of humour, and especially be against sex.
That’s one reason.
Then there’s the risk of it being held against them in the workplace. A feminist employee could be a trouble maker, cause all kinds of problems if one of the firm’s directors should accidentally grope her, or she discovers that she is underpaid compared to male employees, or she might not be prepared to do business in a lap dancing club.
And there’s the risk that the boys won’t like her. This is another, more personal variation on the killjoy reason.
I have to admit that I was surprised that there is so much secret feminism that it’s actually being talked about – a friend just sent me an article from a magazine.
Then I realised it’s the best argument I’ve ever heard about why we still need feminism. More conclusively than anything else, more than all the statistics that can be provided that show the absence of women in positions of power in corporations and government, that show how the world over women still do the majority of the work in exchange for a much lower share of the wealth, this fear of being seen as feminist tells us something deeply worrying about our society.
If here in the west we are reluctant feminists – here, where we are plainly so much better off than women in Afghanistan who are denied education, than women in Saudi Arabia who are denied basic everyday freedoms, than women whose genitals are mutilated in the name of tradition, and who are subjugated for religious reasons – if here in the west women are still ashamed to call themselves feminist – which ONLY means, for heaven’s sake that they consider women to be every bit as valuable as men – then how can feminism have gone too far?
No more excuses. No more “I’m not a feminist” but. No more worrying about being identified as some kind of killjoy extremist.
The real wonder is why so few of the world’s women are radical lesbian separatist feminists.
Rant over.
Until next time.
Image Credit – Vanessa Aisha Coleman, Amplify your voice
Sarah Arrow Reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
From Morag:
We women seem to think we don’t deserve to be treated equally, so we’re just incredibly grateful for what we do have and incredibly anxious not to rock the boat.
The freedoms we take for granted now are amazing. I bought my house in France in 1990 on my own and my elderly French friends were astonished that I was even able to get a mortgage. They assumed it was illegal! It had never actually occurred to me that there would even be an issue (and there wasn’t).
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