Just a gentle reminder that the common way of sneering at feminism (namely ridiculing feminists as ugly man-haters) is not about "today's woke millennials". It is a smear tactic that goes back to when women fought for basic voting rights. It has always been the standard response. 
There are a number of posters and postcards from the days of white woman's suffrage that echo the standard portrayal of female feminists that exist today. Feminists are ugly women who can't get a man. Feminists are women who just don't shut up. Urgh. Feminists.
These are not about feminists today. These posters are from the days of women's suffrage. I don't think many people today think that women shouldn't be allowed a vote. But back then, many people did. And their portrayals of women fighting for that right look very familiar.
Many posters claimed that the women's campaign was somehow anti-male. That suffragists wanted to empower women at the expense of men, and by allowing women the right to vote, men would be somehow be disempowered. This same claim is still made about feminism today.
Some claimed that by fighting for a woman's right to vote, suffragists were simply trying to upend the status quo for the heck of it. That their ultimate goal was to empower undeserving women over deserving men. This too, is a familiar sentiment today.
Not to mention accusations that by fighting for the right to vote, feminists were attacking women with "traditional values".
And yes -- some posters relied on humourising violence against the women who were fighting for the most basic political right of all; the right to vote. A cause which very few people alive today, even the most conservative of us, would disagree with.
There are three points I am trying to make in this long thread.
1. The portrayals of feminists made by those who disagree with them have not changed since the days of women's suffrage. Feminists will always be accused of being ugly and subversive to the status quo.
1. The portrayals of feminists made by those who disagree with them have not changed since the days of women's suffrage. Feminists will always be accused of being ugly and subversive to the status quo.
2. A gentle reminder that the only argument against women's suffrage was to ridicule feminists. That should have been a indicator that the cause they fought for was a worthy one. Yet today, THE EXACT SAME smearing remains the standard riposte against women's rights campaigners.
3. This campaign for women's right to vote was exclusively for whites. In fact, some suffragists were enraged that in some areas, black men received the vote before white women. Black women were ignored entirely. White feminism continues to exclude the voices of our sisters.
If people then were wrong to use these portrayals, perhaps people today can consider the possibility that they too, are wrong to do so.
If back then, women's right to vote was an unworthy cause, is there a chance that today's "unworthy" causes have more merit than you think?
If back then, women's right to vote was an unworthy cause, is there a chance that today's "unworthy" causes have more merit than you think?
Judith deserves awards for this gem
