10-28-2015, 01:46 PM -
(10-28-2015, 10:35 AM)Donald Dank Wrote: Good post and I agree, only thing I would add is that I don't believe a tampon tax campaign is the best use of this energy. It seems that real feminist causes have fallen away and been replaced with quick hit campaigns to get attention rather than work for any substantive change.
Things are more equal now than they've ever been, and of course there is still progress to be made but that's not what I take away from these 3rd wave campaigns and twitter hashtag causes.
I do think there's a place for that kind of campaign, although I'd agree that they should be part of a bigger picture. It's about changing mindsets more generally: we live in a male-dominated society and often sexism is completely unconscious, so drawing attention to the small issues women face is worthwhile, in my opinion. You need to change all of the small things to be able to tackle the big ones. The issue with a lot of those taking part in Twitter campaigns (and this point could be extended beyond feminism to any form of political activism) is to what extent the majority of those taking part are actually engaged beyond hitting that RT button. To that extent, while on one hand you could argue that any form of engagement is better than no engagement (and in general I'd agree) it can be counterproductive in that people look at it and assume that it's all there is to feminism.