There's a big post on feministing.org about the perception of "feminism" at Saint Mary's women's college.
Writer Samhita quotes the following, at length:
Junior Erin Kotelnicki is one Saint Mary's woman who refuses to identify herself as a feminist. For Kotelnicki, 'feminist' is synonymous with extremist.
"I feel that feminism is a very extreme term," Kotelnicki said. "It is one thing to be a very powerful woman but being a feminist is a totally different thing. A feminist is almost an extremist in women's rights."
While she largely generally supports women's rights, Kotelnicki said she cannot classify herself as a feminist because her views about women's rights are somewhat conservative.
"I would consider my views not to be submissive but instead more traditional," Kotelnicki said. "I believe that women should have just as many rights as men but I am more traditional in the way that I believe a man should take care of his wife and his children. I feel that this idea clashes with feminism.
Let me quickly note that in general, something about the frequent use of the term "framing" makes me queasy. It's not that Lakoff's work isn't important. It is. And it's not that public figures shouldn't be careful about their word choice and consider the subtle baggage and implications that certain phrases carry with with them. They should. It's just that I've heard far too many people take all that stuff too literally, almost to the point of comedy. And more to the point, talking about framing, at length and in public, is counterproductive. Ask Al Gore how helpful it is to have internal discussions about presentation spilled over into the public view. In other words, the type of thinking that is encouraged in Lakoff's work is important, but the amount of Op-Ed ink that got spilled on it, re: The Future Of The Democratic Party, was a drag.
That said, if there's ever been a case of contested, misunderstood, and misrepresented language, the term "Feminism" is it. Clearly, the term (which Answers.com defines as: Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes), has taken a beating over the years. I quite happily call myself a feminist. From these plainly modern views has somehow grown an association so strange that a young woman would go to lengths to actively distance herself from it, interesting saying that "feminist is almost as extremist as women's rights." I've always believed strongly that in America, the position of equal rights is never an extremist one.
Feminism has been seriously and rigorously attacked over the years. It is frequently painted as representative of the excesses of the 1960s and conflated with the perceived decline of "traditional values" and at times even good old fashioned romance. Groups like the ardently right-wing Independent Women's Forum do their best to convince people that the rise of feminism has led to the end of chivalry and a joyless young adult world devoid of dating, or anyone buying anyone else flowers, ever, under any circumstances. To me, this not only falsely characterizes the real world, it also draws patently false comparisons and arrives at an absurd conclusion. It is however, not an entirely uncommon misperception, at least where the term "feminism" is concerned, if not it's meaning, as defined above.
As Ms. Kotelnicki of Saint Mary's makes clear--as far as her views represent commonly held ones, which I believe that they do--the discussion of equal rights between the sexes quickly devolves into the idea that talking about them too loudly will lead to some sort of social deviance or the breakdown of the family unit. To me, that fear seems entirely misplaced.
