There are SO many misconceptions about feminism that I frequently don't even know where to start when people run their mouths. In fact, I could probably write a blog post every day for the next 3 years and still not tackle all of the issues. HOWEVER, here are a few I'd like to tackle right now.
1) Everything a woman does is empowering. No. Women live in the framework of our society and can be and are as anti-feminist as men. Women have lots and lots of eternalized misogyny and behave through this lens on the regular. Just because a woman makes a choice, it doesn't make it automatically feminist. Seriously. For more of my thoughts on this, see here.
2) Criticizing other women is always unfeminist. No. Oftentimes women hate on other women and it is toooootally anti-feminist. However, as I said above, women can make anti-feminist choices and do anti-feminist things. Therefore, if one woman is analyzing or discussing the problematic choices of another woman (her internalized misogyny, supporting of stereotypes, etc.) it is not anti-feminist to CALL THAT SHIT OUT. Calling out non-feminism, is feminist. Right? I'm not advocating for bullying, but it is totally fair to discuss the relative feminism of various choices.
3) Feminists who care about the depictions of women in movies, TV shows, etc. aren't handling "real" issues. No. The media is real. It is very real. It is what young girls consume on a daily basis. And, as someone who has worked in the girl services field for over 6 years, I can tell you that the "silly" things in the media (commercials, TV, movies) are what are most real to teen girls when they are most impressionable. There is so much to feminism, that there is no reason that some of us can't work on analyzing the small stuff. Come on.
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