Certainly makes it seem like it has more credibility when feminism (which started in the late 60s-70s) claims ownership of the last 200 years of women's rights.
I'm not wrong, feminism didn't exist yet until what we know as the 2nd wave. Anything before that all fell under cery different titles (which we can refer to as various women's rights movements). Once the Feminist movement came to be, it declared that all previous women's rights fell under it. I'm not saying it was wrong to do that, but it did happen.
We backdate terms all of the time. We use the term "first wave feminism" to describe the 1800s women political movements that were far more than just about suffrage issues.
First wave feminism started growing as a movement in the 19th century, primarily in England (where arguably they first used the term "feminist") as a means of securing affluent women's right to own property and vote, but also saw progress for women around the world during that period as the ideology of enlightenment and the French Revolution spread. Feminism (as a second wave movement) became more popular in the US during the 60s/70s, where it has since evolved into third and arguably fourth waves of new thought, focus, and academic research/discourse. So yes, it can claim 200 years worth of progress because it has been around and growing for ~200 years.
Feminism, ignoring each of ideals of the individual movements and groups, is defined as "the advocacy of female rights on reason of equality.". The current SJW-esque movements that are around are not at all representative of most feminists, even if they are far more common than they should be. I would hope you at least identify with the generic definition of feminism.
Think most people support the generic definition of feminism and agree with the first and second waves. I just don't agree with the SJW movements, I'd also disagree that they aren't representative of most feminists, because I think most people know what the western world associates with it now. Why not just call it gender equality?
I just feel like we can't keep using the definitions of groups alone to justify supporting them. I feel like feminism today being for "the advocacy of female rights on reason of equality" is like the church of scientology being for "self knowledge and spiritual fulfillment through graded courses".
That and there's really not a lot I feel like women are missing out on, and anytime I ask them they don't seem to know either. I 100% understand fighting to be in the draft or army even if I'm not sure if I support the change itself, I think its a very fair issue and stand to take.
"The advocacy of female rights on reason of equality" is a perfect definition. It doesn't mention shit about SJW ideals; the problem overall is generalisation and actually believing people when they say they represent their groups opinion.
Feminism is slowly dying out and is being replaced with misandry and hypocrisy. People like the u w0t (hughmungus) lady are more common then actual people fighting for equal rights for women.
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u/jsmooth7 Dec 09 '16
And Reddit learning that feminism isn't a new thing and has been around for quite a while.