Characteristics Of Zombie Feminism

As with any social movement, feminism has supporters and opposers. After speaking with several friends and family members, I found a broad spectrum of stances within this group. When I asked, “what does feminism mean to you? And do you consider yourself a feminist?”, none of the answers truly surprised me since it seemed to reflect morals and values. Both of my parents responded by explaining that feminism is the belief that all genders deserve equal treatment and stated they consider themselves feminists. One of my female friends responded essentially the same way and added “of course I am a feminist! Why wouldn’t I wanted to be treated equally?” A male friend of mine described it as women complaining about unfair treatment and did not …show more content…
One of my female friends who talked about it this way used the terms “radical, man hating and unnecessary”. She identified with supporting equality but would not embrace the identity of a feminist which I believe is a result of her social media use. In my opinion, her time spent on the internet has caused her to judge feminism as only anger that blows up on social media and not the purpose behind it. As Andrea Lowgren said, “many women who reject the label primarily oppose two related characteristics associated with feminism: man-hating and unattractiveness”. My friend definitely fears falling into the stereotype of a feminist because she stores a lot of their pride in how others view her. The promotion of these stereotypes on social media has cast an ugly depiction of feminism to the public. The other negative stance I encountered came from a male friend of mine who is very immature and unexposed. As a straight white male, he often does not realize his privileges. As written in “Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting There Is?” by Lisa Nakamura, personal advantages become invisible when immersed in life. So typically, those who fit in a dominant category do not realize or care that others have a disadvantage. This friend I spoke to is an ideal example of someone who takes privileges for granted and blames others that do not …show more content…
As one of my friends who does not consider herself a feminist said, “feminism is used to back up man hating and not allowing chivalry” which relates to Judith Lorber’s idea that process, stratification and structure assign specific tasks to specific people based on a label of gender. An individual then becomes lost in an institution since they are primarily thought of as a gender and not a person. So labeling men’s actions as chivalrous continues the perception that if men go above and beyond to act kindly it is manly and incredible, but if women do the same it is less praised. This intertwines with Allan Johnson’s writing about patriarchy and how everyone participates in this corrupt structure by blaming “the system” and not taking responsibility. By automatically ranking men above women in political and personal ways, individuals are shaped to classify by gender. It is valuable to find people who genuinely find patriarchy foolish and value women to the same standard. These are people who do not just pick the path of least resistance and instead deal with social roots that start and escalate these