Is it time for feminists to ditch the label feminist? Women’s studies professor Abigail Rine is among those struggling with that question. She argues that conversations about feminist issues are often held up by discussions about the label itself, and its negative connotations in particular. Meanwhile, some are trying to replace the word patriarchy with kyriarchy, from the Greek for “lord” or “master” (as in Kyrie Eleison, or “Lord, have mercy” since matters of discrimination don’t just fall along gender lines. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Feminist Label”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
A recent poll found that 82% of Americans believe that women should have social, political, and economic equality.
But only 20% of those same respondents said that they’d actually call themselves a feminist.
So what’s going on here? It turns out that some feminists, in fact, are now wondering if it’s time to ditch the label feminist.
And that really surprised me. But there’s an arresting essay on this topic online by Abigail Rine. And she’s a professor at George Fox University in Oregon. And she has two advanced degrees in feminist studies. But even she is increasingly ambivalent about the word.
She says that if you call yourself a feminist, a lot of people get immediately defensive, and then you spend half the conversation trying to put them at ease and saying some of my best friends are men, you know, I’m married to one, whatever.
And so much so that this term feminist actually gets in the way of the information that she’s trying to impart.
And so she talks about how feminism has a branding problem, and she asks the question, why are we hell-bent on salvaging the label?
We talk on the show all the time about language changing and words evolving, and this feels like an instance where a word might be evolving right under our feet.
And indeed, if you’re talking to other feminists, there’s no problem with saying it.
But it seems to me that increasingly feminists, many feminists, are having to do some kind of code switching.
It’s a loaded term then, you’re saying now, right?
People assume that you’re an evil man-hater if you say feminist?
Well, I think that’s an interesting question.
What are people assuming if you say that?
Why did they immediately have to go on the defensive?
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, when I was coming of age, I thought that that was a great word for describing problems that were coming to light, that people were beginning to talk about.
So it was a little more neutral then.
Yeah.
And I think that people have co-opted the term, commentators have used it to box it in and make it mean one small thing.
So does the author of the piece suggest alternatives?
She just suggests not even using the term.
Oh, I see.
And it’s interesting.
There’s another term that’s starting to float around, at least in the academic world.
It’s kiriarchy, K-Y-R-I, archy.
And it comes from a Greek word that means Lord or master, like kiri-eleison, you know, Lord have mercy.
And some people are beginning to use the word curiarchy as opposed to patriarchy.
They’re saying that the analysis of patriarchy is too narrow, that there are all kinds of oppression,
And that curiarchy reflects the fact that there are more things to be fought against than just gender discrimination.
There’s racial discrimination and other kinds.
And they’re all interwoven.
Yeah, yeah.
And for example, part of it has to do with the fact that feminism got so identified with white women
As opposed to women of color as well.
And so kiriarchy is a term that people are starting to use,
Just starting to use.
It was coined by an academic, so we’ll see where it goes.
But to reflect the fact that there are all different kinds of oppression,
And if you’re a white heterosexual woman,
Then you’re in a position of privilege as opposed to certain other people.
Right.
Wow, wow, that’s quite an unpacking there.
Heavy duty stuff, right?
Yeah, heavy duty stuff.
We’re going to link to that article.
There are a number of conversations already underway on our Facebook page and our Facebook group about this article.
Yeah.
And we’d love to hear what you have to say about it as well.
Yeah, I’m torn.
What’s the author’s name?
Her name is Abigail Ryan.
And I have to say I’m really torn about this because I happen to like the term a lot.
But she makes some very good points there.
So look for that on our website.
You can reach us if you’ve got questions or comments about this or anything at all related to language at 877-929-9673.
Or email us words@waywordradio.org.
