I point to this must-read diary by IndyLib on BMT:

FEMINISM.

I say that particular F Word around folks I don't yet know very well and I get a wide range of emotional reactions, everything from delight to disgust. The men usually get nervous; even the liberal men. Many of the women are instantly on guard. They seem to be wondering: am I one of those "angry feminists" they've heard about or am I going to be "normal"; am I going to be upset if they're not feminists; am I going to be hyper-critical of their life choices; am I going to be a sanctimonious prick; am I going to try to recruit them. And really, only that last fear is valid. ;)

It's important to begin any introductory sort of conversation about feminism with some acknowledgement of the history of oppression of women, even though by now most people are more or less familiar with it. There's always someone who isn't. Briefly, then:

Women have historically been denied the right to own property because we've been considered to be property. Women have spent millennia as the legal property of men, being raped, sold/traded like a commodity, beaten, and/or killed by the men who've owned them. This legacy lingers. In fact, Tennessee only got around to making it illegal for a man to rape his wife under all circumstances earlier this year, which was the result of feminist work. (As of last year there was something like 15 states where spousal rape was a lesser crime than other rape. LAST YEAR. 2004.) Women have been categorically denied education -- an educated woman can fight back -- and in some cultures today it's still a punishable offense to teach a female to read. We were denied the right to vote here in the US until 1920, we've been denied the right to work to support ourselves and our children, and we've been forced into prostitution or unwanted marriages to support ourselves and our children. We've been denied the right to have equal custody of our children, and we've been denied the right to make decisions about our own reproductive processes, such as birth control use and abortion.

These grievous offenses represent only a fraction of the overall reasons why feminism has continued to emerge from the social fabric, time and again, over and over.

Read the whole thing.

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