Maisie Williams thinks you should stop using the word feminist & this is why
Game of Thrones actress speaks out
Feminism. It's a tricky issue. Obviously all right-thinking men are in favour of equality, but one wrong word, or loose phrase and a pack of incredibly angry people can soon be attacking you for reinforcing the patriarchy.
18-year-old Game of Thrones actress (or should it be actor?) Maisie Williams has spoken of her beliefs about the language of equality, and she makes a simple, but highly compelling argument.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she explained that, instead of giving people who believe in equality a label, we should label those that don't instead.
“You are either a normal person or a sexist,” she states.
“I got asked in one of my first interviews: “Is Arya a feminist?” I didn’t even know what a feminist was. And then someone explained it to me. And I remember thinking, “Isn’t that just like everyone?” And then I realised everyone is not a feminist, unfortunately. But I also feel like we should stop calling feminists “feminists” and just start calling people who aren’t feminist “sexist” - and then everyone else is just a human.”
She then went on to explain how she has sometimes fallen foul of using the wrong words when tackling the subject.
“I sometimes really worry about speaking up about feminist subjects out of fear of being bashed by women on social media. And there’s something not right there. Yeah, sometimes it’s men too. But there are women who are just nasty. I’m trying to do the best I can. I got a voice. I believe in equality and I know I have more power than the average person to reach people. And I just get petrified in case people are rude.”
What do you think? Should we stop using the word 'feminist'? Or is it still necessary in order to promote the cause? After all, positive discrimination has proved extremely useful on many occasions when tackling both sexism and racism.
Let us know below.
(Image: Rex)
