Am I a feminist

To start this dialogue I would like to make it clear that this isn't the sort of question I would usually ask myself and it only came to mind whilst reading a couple of news articles over the last couple of days. I would not usually associate myself with the term feminist because for me it has too many connotations of hairy armpits and bra burning on bonfire night. When asked previously about the equality issue I have usually scoffed at the suggestion of inequality in the workplace, as I have witnessed too many examples of woman promoted or hired into positions beyond their ability as a direct result of their willingness to shorten their skirts and display their assets. As one Managing Director that I know is quoted as saying in his defence, 'but she gives the best blow jobs in the country'. But for that, as men, we cannot blame the women involved, but the stupidity of the men doing the promoting.

Back to the article that I was reading. It was about a Cambridge undergraduate who came under sexist fire whilst debating at the Glasgow University Union. Heckled with 'shame woman' and 'what does a woman know anyway'. On further investigation she found that she was the subject of a chat room discussing her 'rape potential'. The further this woman researched, the more she found that this was not a one off experience but something that has become expected by many woman and an endemic within many areas of society. As I read the article I found myself getting angry on her behalf, not only because of the fact that I get a little riled when I see someone being treated unfairly, but also because the primitive attitudes being expressed are not the expressions of the lower echelons of society as you would expect, but from supposed intelligent men. Educated men who are theoretically the future leaders and decision makes of our country. These are the same intelligent men who when confronted will say, 'but I was only joking'. A joke only goes so far and how many times is a joke repeated before it becomes the expression of the real man.

As I said, I was getting quite angry about this whole situation when I moved onto another article. An article about a woman who had become paralysed from the chest down and yet contary to popular opinion she still enjoyed sex. As enlightening as this was about this aspect of the life of a paraplegic, there was a sentence in there that in the light of the previous discussion really confused me. She was discussing the Paralympics last year and the fellow disabled people that she met that enjoyed healthy relationships and family. And I quote 'And, oh happy day, the mens style magazine FHM was finally able to objectify some disabled women'.

So where does this leave me and the rest of the decent men who feel indignation on behalf of the women that are minimalised. Do those disabled women feel less that normal unless they are objectified too? Whatever other women have they want as well, even if it is not necessarily a good thing?

Am I a feminist? I don't know. All I know is that I don't like seeing people treated unfairly, male or female, and as long as we continue to debate the merits of either gender we are in a way admitting inequality.