I’m having a hard time caring what pro-choice “feminists” think:
Leaving aside the undefined and rather pretentious notion of authenticity, “pro-life feminism” makes no sense. Feminism is about equality, about a woman’s right to make her own choices in life, including whether to continue a pregnancy. Without that right, women lose control over their lives. Women who run on a platform that includes denying other women the right to choose how many children they will have or whether they have any are not feminists. They can call themselves whatever they want — pro-family, anti-tax, small government — but not feminists. Feminism means more than individual success in the workplace or in politics. Feminism is also about more than reproductive rights, but it most certainly includes that.
Janet Bagnall will feel good about the fact that I don’t call myself a feminist, no. That’s because the feminists I’ve met who strongly self-identified as such are some of the most bitter, ill-informed, out of touch, boring, whining, unhappy lot of old women I’ve ever met.
Just so we’re clear on why I’m not one.
by 
Yes, there certainly are a lot of not-so-attractive types in there. Poor Gloria Steinem, 76, wrinkled and still yakking about abortion. You would think her life could have been about so much more.
I identify very much as a feminist so this makes my blood boil.
Women who run on a platform that includes denying other women the right to choose how many children they will have or whether they have any are not feminists.
That’s not what being against abortion means! In my book you are completely free to use whatever family planning device you want – up to and including tubal ligation/vasectomy – as long as you don’t destroy a life that has already been created.
I’m saying this as someone who has never been pregnant and most likely never will. That’s my choice – killing a fetus isn’t.
Maybe I’m a big ol’ softy, but I can’t but help feel sorry for these women. In every field of thought, there come changes and times when the old is replaced by the new, as new information and revelations are constantly being uncovered. We see this in academia and science all the time. It’s only natural that it happens in feminism too.
“Feminism is about equality” and that’s about the only thing that Janet Bagnall gets right about feminism. With time, feminism has come to mean abortion rights but that’s not what it is about really. Radical feminism (“radical” as in “to the root”) is a philosophy about the patriarchal roots of inequality between men and women. In other words, it is a lens used to analyze social and political organization, NOT a defined set of ideology as Janet Bagnall suggests (IF you are a feminist, THEN you must be pro-abortion).
Accordingly (and I am sure that most people calling themselves feminists would set their hair on fire reading this), it is possible and intellectually honest to analyze abortion through a radical feminist lens. Doing this exposes the roots of abortion and the need to make women “the same as men” (ironically, what Janet Bagnall faults with Republicain candidates) as yet another sign of patriarchal authority. I won’t get into it here but I’ll take on Janet Bagnall on this any day (but we all know where those challenges end…)
unhappy lot of old women I’ve ever met
You got it right there. Are there any radical feminists under 50? 45?
Oh my goodness, I feel bleeding and battered here! Stop the love! “bitter, ill-informed, out of touch, boring, whining, unhappy lot of old women I’ve ever met.” Not exactly how I would describe myself, yet Andrea has met me several times before… As for being under 45, well, check. But since I have published a feminist analysis of c-section on maternal request, I guess I must be counted among the unhappy bunch…
That’s funny: it reminds me of growing-up half French and half Canadian. Everybody laughed at my accent. Calling yourself — as I do — both pro-life and feminist gets you insults all around. Fun!
Bagnall complains “Without that right, women lose control over their lives.” How is this an equality issue? We all lose control over our lives all the time, for thousands of different reasons. That’s very much part of what life is. People these days have embraced this weird idea that every aspect of their life should follow a plan. Believing that is bound to make you think the world’s out to get you.
Veronique, please don’t feel battered. I thought this might get a response out of you, given that we are on opposing sides of the “take back feminism” debate. I waver sometimes, too. But on the day of this post, clearly I didn’t.
I do think you are too nice, funny, spunky and cool to be a feminist. Also under 45. Reconsider your positioning? Clearly you don’t fit the prototype and They (those old-school hardliners) don’t want you.