So Violet thinks us younger feminists are too elitist in who we allow to call themselves feminists. And Renee gets whinged at constantly for proudly proclaiming she’s not a feminist (for damn good reasons, I might add).

And the whole thing pisses me off.

See I haven’t been a feminist as long as Violet, since I wasn’t born until 1975. But I have been a feminist since I first noticed how different girls are treated from boys, so since my brother was born in 1977. I’ve never cringed from the label, not even as a teenager. But the truth of the matter is, feminism leaves a whole fuckload of us out in the cold. Not feminism the philosophy, but feminism in practice. Breaking a glass ceiling doesn’t mean a damn thing to a pink collar secretary trapped in a dead end career because the hours make daycare possible. Abortion access is great but for poor women and brown women we need to stop being treated like thieves and lepers because we had the audacity to breed. And w00t w00t, it’s way easier to get a divorce, but now we get custody of the kids and no real child support collection. Progress people, at least now we don’t have to be lawfully wedded to the deadbeats forever.

Perhaps us younger feminist are peeved about people like Sarah Palin calling themselves feminists because Oh shiny let’s go contort our principles even further to bring these ladies into the feminism fold while continuing to leave out those of us who’ve agreed with the philosophy all along.

But again, I don’t give a flying fuck what label you use. Do you believe in bodily autonomy (in all forms), social justice, economic justice and all those fundamental feminismy things. YAY! Call yourself Late to Dinner, we still agree on what’s important. If, however, you think that abortion is wrongity wrong or that Welfare should be abolished then you can call yourself Gloria Steinem Jr. and I’m still going to think you’re a giant tool(of the patriarchy).

It ain’t what you call yourself. It’s what you do that counts.*

*This exact same argument can be applied to progressives/fauxgressives, btw. You can’t be progressive while giving big corporations/banksters/insurance companies hand jobs for campaign dough.

(I actually adore Violet, but this whole “who is a feminist” shit has been going on way too long. Violet’s post just gave me a ranting off point.)