I absolutely love it when public figures come out and say they aren’t “feminists” and don’t align with the movement. Except, like, I really, really don’t. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinion–and a lot of the arguments against identifying as a feminist are usually semantic–but it also boggles my mind.
Sadly, one of our own, Sarah Jessica Parker, recently said just as much in a recent interview with Marie Claire. She pretty much said how she believe in equality, but she’s tired of the “separation” that feminism apparently causes:
“I am not a feminist. I don’t think I qualify. I believe in women and I believe in equality, but I think there is so much that needs to be done that I don’t even want to separate it anymore. I’m so tired of separation. I just want people to be treated equally.
I would like all of that nonsense to end. I would like women to get paid for the value of their contributions, not by old-fashioned ideas about gender.”
So, why does this actually matter? It matters because Parker has many advantages, privileges, and opportunities other women don’t have–and because she has tremendous influence, what she says actually does influence others. Young girls and women should feel valued–and supported by a sisterhood of women, which is what feminism is–and in rejecting that, she’s rejecting the idea that women are entitled to fight for themselves, because institutional powers (who have largely been men) have not.
Plus, look at it this way, if Obama thinks it’s important to teach his daughters that being a feminist is important, for any gender, then it’s probably not just a “phrase” that doesn’t mean anything. And considering she’s a mom, we’d hope she’d want to teach her kids that.
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