The Acceptable Feminist

So, I ran into this image on facebook yesterday, and really all I have to say about it is:

Basically the image boils down to, “I like Feminists, but only if they know their place as dictated by the current problematic standards, are viewed by men as “fuckable”, and are quiet and apologetic. No, just no.

The implication that a “real” Feminist only tackles issues of “women living in disadvantaged areas of the globe” works to derail any critique of sexism here at home by essentially denying that it exists at all. It’s the same bullshit Feminists have been dealing with forever. This “Feminism light” that has been bandied around in pop culture recently doesn’t actually do anything to help Feminism as a legitimate socio-political, grassroots movement, because it’s only aim is to make women conform and fit into convenient little boxes where they can’t cause trouble.

Remember guys, you’re only a real Feminist if you’re pretty, white, allow other people to dictate what you should do with your own body, and let others dictate what rape is.

The thing with any movement committed to fostering change is that it isn’t convenient, or pretty, and it doesn’t smile when you tell it to. My Feminism will not be dictated to me, and I don’t care if that upsets anybody.

Tools of the Trade

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted this image to her Facebook page, along with a quip about how it looks like a still from a Wes Anderson movie. All in all, it was received well, except by one person, who wrote, “Yeah, not so funny when you think about how many people he’s (his council) purposely starved to death.” Of course, this individual could be totally right. Maybe we shouldn’t be laughing about it. Maybe we were wrong to make light of this dictatorship.

I thought about it as I was falling asleep, and I decided that we weren’t wrong at all. We weren’t wrong because what is the last thing Kim Jong Un allows the North Koreans to do? Laugh at him.

The worst thing for these despots is to be reduced to a joke.

I don’t know, maybe the privilege of being born a white westerner has me looking at this all wrong, but I honestly believe that one of the best tools for subversion is humour.