My feminist perspective

As with so many huge changes in societal thought and practice, there are subtleties that go way deeper than the major-but-superficial things we fight so strongly for. Often, the alteration of those subtleties has to do with truly letting go of the underlying fundamental premise, instead of just fighting for the opposite outcome within that premise.

Take the Slutwalk movement, essentially characterized by this eloquent phrase:

"Why do we teach women how not to dress instead of men how not to rape?"

For me it this idea has become something much more profound about reclaiming the concept of what it means for a woman to be a "slut": as it stands, that word is often used to describe a woman who either has a lot of sex with different partners, or, heaven forbid, is open about the fact that she enjoys it. The idea of reclaiming this concept means altering the fundamental culturally-upheld dichotomy between a woman's and a man's "acceptable" sexual thoughts, desires, and behaviors. If being a "slut" means that I am secure and accepting of my inherent sexual nature and allow myself to pursue my own desires *without shame*, then yes please.

But the key is that it also be without belligerence or bitterness against the culture that spawned that word in the first place. Because as long as you continue to push against something, you continue to acknowledge its existence. You continue to give it structure. The act of pushing against something gives it the fuel to keep pushing back. But if you instead simply step aside and let it fall... if you stop believing it has power... then suddenly it doesn't.

So the feminist movement, to me, isn't about claiming equality, it's about claiming femininity. It's about insisting not that we're equal, because we're not and that's part of the beautiful balance of nature, but that we are all exactly what we are and we have the right to accept true reality.

This post was inspired by this article on a woman's right to react. (And thanks to a few aikido practices for part of that lesson.)