Teh One Who Knocks
11-14-2014, 12:38 PM
BY Corinne Lestch - NY Daily News
http://i.imgur.com/f5ATlGfl.jpg
The times have changed — or have they?
In its fourth annual “word banishment poll,” Time magazine has proposed getting rid of the word “feminist,” arguing that the label is too easily thrown around by celebrities.
“You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party?” wrote Katy Steinmetz. “Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.”
The sometimes-controversial moniker was stuck between hollow words like “basic,” “bossy,” “obvi” and “bae.”
Other outlets took issue with the magazine’s take on a defining movement in history — though Steinmetz made sure to note that the storied publication wasn’t against feminism itself.
“For many self-identified feminists, the label isn’t just tossed around lightly,” Jenny Kutner wrote in Salon. “Rather, it serves as a crucial indicator to others that one believes in equality. It’s a tie to a larger, invaluable movement, which even Time concedes, we still very much need.”
A tweet from Planned Parenthood read, “TIME thinks the word 'feminist' should be banned? We think reductive attacks on feminism should be banned. #justsayin.”
http://i.imgur.com/aRkQ9kC.png
And Jezebel issued a blistering attack on the reasoning behind including “feminist” in the list of words that should be banned from the English language.
"Yes, why does everyone have to talk about feminism?” wrote Anna Merlan. “Why can’t we all just be feminists quietly? At home? Only very late at night when everybody’s sleeping? Or like in our teeny tiniest voices? Or in a soundproof hyperbaric chamber, maybe, where it won’t, like, bother anybody?”
This isn’t the first time the news weekly, founded in 1923, has come under fire for its stance on feminism.
A 1998 cover blared “Is Feminism Dead?” with photos depicting the evolution of feminism, from Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem to fictional television character Ally McBeal, who was always searching for romantic love in the show of the same name.
Critics of the article — including Erica Jong, who is credited with prompting another wave of feminism with her 1973 book “Fear of Flying” — blasted it then for misrepresenting the movement.
“When will this kind of flimsy reasoning and intellectually vacuous reporting stop posing as cultural commentary?” Jong wrote in the New York Observer. “And when, oh when, will all the ink-stained wretches at Time (and elsewhere) let up on retrograde stories that accuse women of ‘self-obsession’? ‘Self-obsession’ is code for women concentrating on women when we ought to, of course, be concentrating on men.”
A Time representative didn't immediately respond to the Daily News' request for comment.
http://i.imgur.com/f5ATlGfl.jpg
The times have changed — or have they?
In its fourth annual “word banishment poll,” Time magazine has proposed getting rid of the word “feminist,” arguing that the label is too easily thrown around by celebrities.
“You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party?” wrote Katy Steinmetz. “Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.”
The sometimes-controversial moniker was stuck between hollow words like “basic,” “bossy,” “obvi” and “bae.”
Other outlets took issue with the magazine’s take on a defining movement in history — though Steinmetz made sure to note that the storied publication wasn’t against feminism itself.
“For many self-identified feminists, the label isn’t just tossed around lightly,” Jenny Kutner wrote in Salon. “Rather, it serves as a crucial indicator to others that one believes in equality. It’s a tie to a larger, invaluable movement, which even Time concedes, we still very much need.”
A tweet from Planned Parenthood read, “TIME thinks the word 'feminist' should be banned? We think reductive attacks on feminism should be banned. #justsayin.”
http://i.imgur.com/aRkQ9kC.png
And Jezebel issued a blistering attack on the reasoning behind including “feminist” in the list of words that should be banned from the English language.
"Yes, why does everyone have to talk about feminism?” wrote Anna Merlan. “Why can’t we all just be feminists quietly? At home? Only very late at night when everybody’s sleeping? Or like in our teeny tiniest voices? Or in a soundproof hyperbaric chamber, maybe, where it won’t, like, bother anybody?”
This isn’t the first time the news weekly, founded in 1923, has come under fire for its stance on feminism.
A 1998 cover blared “Is Feminism Dead?” with photos depicting the evolution of feminism, from Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem to fictional television character Ally McBeal, who was always searching for romantic love in the show of the same name.
Critics of the article — including Erica Jong, who is credited with prompting another wave of feminism with her 1973 book “Fear of Flying” — blasted it then for misrepresenting the movement.
“When will this kind of flimsy reasoning and intellectually vacuous reporting stop posing as cultural commentary?” Jong wrote in the New York Observer. “And when, oh when, will all the ink-stained wretches at Time (and elsewhere) let up on retrograde stories that accuse women of ‘self-obsession’? ‘Self-obsession’ is code for women concentrating on women when we ought to, of course, be concentrating on men.”
A Time representative didn't immediately respond to the Daily News' request for comment.