Grandmother part 3: The face of feminism

This is part 3 of my 3 part series on my two grandmother interviews.

This post is about something very interesting that both my grandmothers alluded to, and which was also mentioned in The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf.

I asked Kevin is she considered herself a feminist. She responded with "No I wouldn't." She said that, although she believes in equality and most of the feminist agenda she did not want to be painted with that brush. She said that feminist were un-lady-like, bad people and generally awful "creatures" and that she didn't want to be that. She said that "I was beautiful, and successful, and I never wanted to be called a feminist to hurt my image". I find it incredibly interesting that a progressive, forward thinking, working woman did not want to be a feminist. Wolf points out the media turning the feminists into a bad thing. Nina said the same thing, that feminists artists were seen as "bitchy, complaining women" and that she could never consider herself a feminist. It's very interesting that the media was so successful. She also laughed when I asked her the question, "But I married a man... I'm not a lesbian". I was confused at first until I realised that she thought feminist meant lesbian.