roxanegay:

Today, I am done with women bending over backwards to disavow feminism. I’ve been done with this for a while but I am EXTRA done today.

I mean, ladies, do whatever you want and be whatever you want and be however you want and believe whatever you want but stop saying, “I’m not a feminist, but,” and then proceed to list everything that has been borne of the feminist movement. You don’t get to have that cake and eat it too. Wipe that frosting off your face.

How many different ways can a successful, highly visible woman declare to anyone who will listen that she is not a feminist?

Let’s take a look.

Former French First Lady Carla Bruni said, ”There are pioneers who paved the way for us. I am not a feminist activist at all. On the contrary I am a true bourgeoise. I love family life and doing the same thing every day,” and ”In my generation we don’t need to be feminist.”

How nice for her. Feminists, I guess, do not love family life. They fucking hate it. They spit on it!

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo said, “I don’t think that I would consider myself a feminist. I think that I certainly believe in equal rights, I believe that women are just as capable, if not more so in a lot of different dimensions, but I don’t, I think, have, sort of, the militant drive and the sort of, the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that. And I think it’s too bad, but I do think that feminism has become in many ways a more negative word. You know, there are amazing opportunities all over the world for women, and I think that there is more good that comes out of positive energy around that than negative energy.”

Feminists are full of negative energy, mostly because of the word, got it.

Lady Gaga said, “I am not a feminist. I hail men. I love men. I celebrate American male culture.”

Feminists hate men, obviously.  

Katy Perry said, “I am not a feminist, but I do believe in the strength of women.”

Who even knows what this means.

Taylor Swift is not a feminist. Instead, she thinks, “I don’t really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have. I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life.”

Feminism is guys versus girls… moving right along.  

Artist Marina Abramovic is not a feminist nor is actress Melissa Leo.

I have addressed this elsewhere.

Designer Vivienne Westwood is not a feminist but that’s just because she’s rich. She said, explaining why she’s not a feminist, “Another reason is because I live in the privileged world and I would never accept the idea that somehow I am a victim of society. Just by being born a woman.”

Feminism is for poor people!

Madonna is not a feminist, she’s a humanist. 

We are the world.  

Demi More is not a feminist. She said, “”I am a great supporter of women, but I have never really thought of myself as a feminist, probably more of a humanist because I feel like that’s really where we need to be.”

We are the world. 

Dame Stephanie Shirley, a British philanthropist, said, “I am not a feminist but I have always fought for women.”

I don’t know.  

We could do this all night.

There are, literally, thousands upon thousands of blog posts across the Internet from women declaring why they are not feminists, doing their damndest to distance themselves from the feminist scourge, the scarlet F. 

Guess what? Good for you. You’re not a feminist. Fine. Stop talking about it. Stop reveling in your ignorance about what feminism is, does, and has done. Ignore the reality that feminism makes your success possible and gives you the platform from which you disavow the history that put you there. It’s all good.