Feminism 101

Feminism is a movement which seeks respect and equality for women both under law and culturally.

Although improvements have been made, particularly in the last 50-100 years, women do not yet have full respect and equality. Overall, our society still has a systematic bias against women.

Feminists come in all shapes, sizes, colours, and genders. (Yes, men can be feminists.) There is likewise a wide range of political thought and ways of expressing feminism. Not all feminists think alike, but if you support the idea of respect and equality for women, then you are a feminist.

Background reading

The Geek Feminism wiki does not generally cover introductory feminist topics. Therefore, if you're not familiar with feminism, we recommend you follow some of these links to learn about feminism and help us avoid Feminism 101 discussions.

• Feminism on Wikipedia (general background and history)
• Yes, you are a feminist "if you believe in, support, look fondly on, hope for, and/or work towards equality of the sexes, you are a feminist." (An excellent blog post from Tomato Nation.)
• Finally a Feminism 101 Blog describing common concepts, political positions and misconceptions about feminism. Discussions between women about issues are sometimes interrupted by men who want to have issues broken down and explained from the beginning, which can derail the conversation. This page is designed to be the place to have those elementary discussions instead.
• “Check my what?” On privilege and what we can do about it

Men who are interested in geek feminism or in supporting women in geek communities may particularly like to check out our list of Resources for men.

Concepts

The following pages on this wiki explain important feminist concepts and terms that you might encounter.

Essential concepts

• Privilege
• Sexism
• Misogyny

Other concepts

• Accountability
• Agency
• Confirmation bias
• Gender and sex
• Gender binary
• Internalized sexism
• Intersectionality
• Lived experience
• Male gaze
• Nothing about us without us
• Objectification
• Othering
• Rape culture
• Reverse sexism
• Victim blaming

Geek feminism terms

The above concepts are used fairly widely in feminist discussion. There are also some terms, laws, anecdotes and similar surrounding geek feminism and online feminist discussion, less widely known and often of more recent coinage, which you may find useful to know:

• Bechdel test
• Bingo cards
• Feminist cookie
• Grunch
• Hive vagina
• Moff's law
• Privilege checklists
• Unicorn Law

Other jargon lists:

• Hoyden About Town
• Finally Feminism 101