Not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, but "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" t-shirts are great to wear ironically.

Especially if you have an unruly beard and crazy eyes.

LISA LOEB! Aw, I love her. I most definitely know EVERY word to Stay.

ahh I saw this the other day and I love it! I love everyone thats in it... America Ferrera is awesome, Lisa Loeb of course... I enjoy that Kate Walsh said she's a feminist that has good sex... and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to see Larry David! It's awesome that in a culture where so many people follow celebrity trends, more celebrities (men and women of all backgrounds) are getting involved. :)

Great video!

And I thought it was funny that Ani DiFranco's music was playing. How perfect..(and funny, to me).

Hey, cool video.

But I didn't see America Ferrera in there. Did you mean her costar on Ugly Betty, Ana Ortiz? She plays Hilda, Betty's sister, and she shows up a bunch of times in the clip.

Also, the guy from Season 1 of the L-Word? He's Eric Mabius, and also stars on Ugly Betty.

Me = Feminist

Me =! Humanist

Awww, warm fuzzies. I also didn't see America Ferrera, though some of those faces flashed by pretty fast so I might have missed her. I know she does identify as a feminist, though.

It's a little off track.... But I'm so happy just have to share.

During a dinner party conversation the other night my boyfriend, new to the idea of feminism, stated that Tina Fey was the most attractive woman on TV.

Mission accomplished.

America Ferrara is about :32 in and says, pointing to herself, "This is what a feminist looks like."

OMG ALLISON JANNEY. My love for this woman springs eternal. C.J. would be proud.

1. Feminism isn't humanism. Feminism is fucking feminism. Equating feminism with humanism is actually a popular antifeminist argument which is often used to discredit feminism and question the need for its existence.

2. There are plenty of radical women who think men can't be feminists. Have we declared them no longer a part of the feminist majority? Do they not get to vote at the conventions?

3. What the fuck is with spending half of the fucking commercial reassuring everybody that you're the kind of feminist who wear short skirts and makeup and shaves? Shouldn't these women be rubbing two brain cells together and coming up with something like:

"I only wear makeup/shave when I have to for my job and I think it's totally oppressive that you shitheads aren't going to take my feminism seriously until I talk about how traditionally girly I am."

I mean, doesn't telling everybody that we're feminists but they shouldn't feel threatened by us because we don't actually act like it kind of miss the point?

I hate to break it to you ladies, but feminism doesn't mean that you do whatever the fuck you were going to do anyway and declare it a fucking revolutionary activity that you put on a fucking miniskirt. As Twisty has said, there is more at stake here than the right to bleach your asshole.

4. The video rolls lots of b-footage of suffragettes and women in burkhas, because it's apparently really bad when women aren't to be seen in public or vote.

But you know what, the very thin women with gobs of makeup, expensive hairdos, and more-than-occasional instances of plastic surgery who make appearances on this video aren't exactly paragons of fucking empowerment either.

And the fact that we are so convinced they are is exactly why it's so dangerous to declare feminism's mission somehow accomplished, as what's-her-face does when she implies that it can, like, go away in fifty years. Because our cultural amnesia and ethnocentrism causes us to overlook the ways in which not just Americans of generations past and people in other countries are anti-feminist. We are still virulently antifeminist as a culture. We still need this movement. The work is not nearly over.

This video is really just not all that bright or helpful or productive, and I really wish you hadn't posted it. I'd go so far as to say that it's an anti-feminist's wet dream come true in that it redefines feminism to be harmless and ineffectual and to embody some vague idea/sentimental buzzwords of equality while eschewing any concrete steps towards women's liberation since those might actually rock the boat.

Humanism is one of the popular English translations of Homaranismo, so I'm not fond of using it as a feminism equivilent. Both are good ideas, but still.

I am a human being, and I believe that there are only human ideals and ideals linked to the country of origin; every ideal which brings hatred among peoples and entails the power of one ethnicity over another I believe it to be human egoism, which sooner or later must disappear and to which disappearance I must contribute according to my possibilities.
I believe that every peoples are equally part of humankind, and I value every person only according to his personal values and actions, and not according to his/her origin. Every offense or persecutions of people because they belong to a different ethnicity, with a different language or religion, I regard it as a barbarity.
I believe that every country does not belong to a particular group of people, but equally to every people who live in it, regardless of their language or religion; the mixing of the country’s interests with those of one or another group of people, language or religion I regard it as reminiscence of barbarian times, when there was only the right of fist and sword.
I believe that in his/her own family life each person has the natural and indisputable right to speak whatever language or dialect he/she wants and to confess whatever religion he/she wants; nevertheless, when communicating with people from other origins he/she must, when it is possible, aim to use a neutral language and to live according to neutral religious principles. Every attempt of a person to impose his/her language or religion to other people when it is not absolutely necessary, I regard it as a barbarity.

(Homaranismo)

yoooou saaaaaaaaaay I only hear what I want to don't listen hard don't pay attention to the distance that you're running to anyone anywhere I don't understand if you really care I'm only hearing negative no no no baaaaaaaaaad so I turn the radio on I turn the radio up and this woman was singing my song lover's in lover and the other's run away lover is crying 'cause the other won't stay

OK, I'm all better now.

And no, I didn't turn the song on OR go look the lyrics up. That's all from memory. Boo-ya.

Sera, I agree with you. I was extremely bothered by the reassurance-seeking undertone.

Just for the record, my "mission accomplished" was a personal one, as the message of feminism really clicked with my partner for the first time.

Believe me, it feels to me like we're on "Mission Impossible" when we're one step away from Barbie declaring herself a feminist.

Yes! What is it about the incredible power that Lisa Loeb's "Stay" has over women in their 20s? Is it because we were impressionable young teens when we saw Reality Bites, and this song just stuck? Or is it just really catchy? I'm going to have to investigate this.

Sera, you make a lot of good points. I just wonder why you take this video as evidence that somehow the more radical branch of feminism isn't acceptable. I think what the video shows is that it isn't the ONLY brand of feminism that is acceptable.

Yeah, the video of the warm-fuzzy, make-up-is-ok attitude toward feminism. I saw it as a celebrity themed video in response to a celebrity obsessed world. It IS ok to wear short skirts and shave your legs and demand equality. It's not the only way to be a feminist (CERTAINLY NOT!), but it's a way in which people who listen to and give weight to celebrities can approach it.

Should we ignore that because it's not radical enough?

I don't feel that anyone suggested wearing a miniskirt was revolutionary. I think they suggested it was ok. Plus, no one in the video hung a "Mission Accomplished" banner or declared the age of feminism over. I get it if this video didn't speak to you or to how you understand feminism. But it speaks to how some people (and some feministing readers, to be sure) understand feminism. And I think that's worthwhile.

I don't have a problem with the video, especially if the intended audience is younger people (high school/college)or people who don't know that much about feminism.

I could imagine it being played in a "Philosophy of Sex and Gender" class, like the one I was in a few years ago.

I think it is trying to refute stereotypes about feminism, like that feminists are man hating, don't shave or wear "feminine" clothes, which I don't see as a bad thing.

I like this video better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTLDb-flVNE

And I thought it was funny that Ani DiFranco's music was playing. How perfect..(and funny, to me).

I was wondering if I was the only one who caught that.

I enjoyed this video, and thought it was great for addressing some of the stereotypes that many think feminism is. It did raise a few question marks, but I still think it's informative.

acranom, i pretty much agree with everything you said. sera did make some good points... i dont think we should water down feminism so that its less radical and therefore more tolerable to society as a whole.. but i also think we shouldnt dismiss this just because its not radical enough. there are many ways to be feminist... and there is a difference between saying "i wear short skirts and makeup and i am a feminist" and saying "i wear short skirts and makeup BECAUSE i am a feminist." many confuse the two... i personally am the former (though i dont do that stuff THAT often)... but sometimes people see others who are the latter and confuse them with the authentic feminists, and i can understand why sera has a problem with that.

Aw, I love Lisa Loeb.

Does this speak for the radical feminist? No.

Is it trying to? No.

But for people who still equate feminism with bra burning and man-hating (and nothing else) this ad could really spark something. It could gets someone new interested and excited. Some persons who really need feminism in their lives. I know that this would have really spoken to me when I was 13.

So yeah I agree with Sera that "feminism doesn't mean that you do whatever the fuck you were going to do anyway and declare it a fucking revolutionary activity "

But I don''t think this clip is trying to say that. I think this clip was trying to shed some light to people outside of feminist communities about feminism. It's saying, "You can do it too."

Don't have much to say either way about this video, but responding to Sera: "...very thin women with gobs of makeup, expensive hairdos, and more-than-occasional instances of plastic surgery who make appearances on this video aren't exactly paragons of fucking empowerment either."

Without getting into whether cosmetics, etc., are anti-feminist or not, saying that "very thin women" can't be empowered is ridiculous and pretty offensive. Not every thin woman is thin because she's trying to be, or because she's told she should be. Some women are naturally pretty small the same way some are naturally larger. They don't need to be attacked... and they don't need to beat themselves up trying to gain weight in order to be feminists!