Favourite Feminists or Female Polical/Social Activists

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I have been critical about some feminist ideas/school. However which feminists do you like, which other female activists do you like?

I have a number off the top of my head:

Mary Beard. She seems like a cool person. I'm more interested in her knowledge of the classics and history. Love her programs. I don't have comprehensive knowledge of her feminist ideas, however generally she is fairly reasonable.

Probably the most persuasive interview she did was a a piece on the politics of persuasion, on Newsnight. I really liked the whole piece, it resonated with me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31128840

Malala Yousafzai she was very brave at a young age and her dedication to women's education.

Aung San Suu Kyi for her dedication towards democracy at the expense of her freedom.

Christina Hoff Summers she is a voice of reason, in the mad word academia and campus activism. Her stance on choice and empirical feminism is commendable.

Erin Pizzey for opening the first refuge for domestic violence.

Margaret Sanger/Mabel Sine Wadsworth I was wondering whether to put Sanger. I don't agree with her views on Eugenics, however there are some finer points on the subject, I also have to consider that the understanding genetics was more primitive, and part of the motivation was to reduce suffering. Sanger was the pioneer of birth control, Wadsworth embodied modern family planing, and sex education.

Christina Hoff Summers. She is what a feminist should be and I wish she was my mother. I know that sounds creepy lol.

Sarah Grimke, Angelina Grimke, Carrie Nation, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Carrie Nation had quite the hammer!

How about Mary Wollstonecraft?

Amy Sequenzia - Autism activist. Since my becoming non verbal she has already meant even more to me.

The AnMish - Danish Aspergers Vlogger. Worked for Tony Attwood in his clinic for a time.

Carly Fleishmann - Mulitimedia Autism activist who was thought to be hopeless until her she was a teenager. She and her dad have won a Christopher Award for the book "Carly's Voice".

I thought you were non-verbal because of physical reasons.

Are you non-verbal because of autism reasons, too?

Camille Paglia is often enlightening (not always, but often). Her latest piece:

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/19/camille ... ald_trump/

Marie Curie.

i started the list and realized it was getting really long-winded so these are just a few i thought of.
i tried to go with some less obvious ones.

chimamanda ngozi adichi, nigerian author of books exposing sexism and racism and nigerian culture. my favorite by her is the thing around your neck, which is a collection of short stories detailing the experience of nigerian women and marriage. also an excellent public speaker. one of her ted talks

yreina cervantez, chicana muralist and painter who was the first to depict historically accurate politically active women on a mural instead of as a visual metaphor for women in politics and society framed by male dominated interests, which was the traditional (and only) imagery of women in mexican mural painting during the revolution. (see the new democracy by david alfaro siqueiros and distributing arms by diego rivera). muralism was also considered a male only pursuit in mexico until 1945 when female painter maria izquierdo was commissioned to paint a mural for the federal government building, but then diego rivera and david alfaro siqueiros claimed she "lacked the necessary experience" and "does not have the right to take over functions that do not pertain to her". her commission was revoked during her preparations. so a simple mural is actually a really big deal and i'm into it.

elena r. gutiérrez and liza fuentes, researchers and authors of population control by sterilization: the cases of puerto rican and mexican-origin women in the united states
this article is also interesting because it reveals the simultaneous contrast between the predominantly white feminist demand for reproductive rights (including the right to abortion) and the predominantly nonwhite feminist demand for the right to have children.

gayle rubin, pattern-oriented (yes!), sex positive queer theorist. and on that note, barbara gittings, one of the first women to protest the US federal government's discrimination of homosexuals and convince people that homosexuality isn't a mental illness. among other things. this is getting long.

riot grrrl, 90s feminist punk movement. i'm not really into the sound but these women are badass. indeed they were mostly focused on white, middle-class women and there was some anti-trans womyn only s**t going on with a few of them which i definitely don't agree with, but the reason why i'm including them as a group in the list is because of the overall effect they created by disrupting the punk scene's men's club and claiming creative space for women. (and to be real, the middle-class white thing was not completely their fault because its a systemic problem of oppression when success comes from the top down.)

rebecca solnit, author of the essay men explain things to me, which i think has the perfect mix of story-telling and statistics for a fulfilling read. it also is kind of humorous which is impressive given the somber subject matter. it is obviously biased and has a somewhat hostile attitude but she presents a solid argument and interesting questions to consider.

and finally, my best friend's mother and all-around inspiring woman who is super involved political and social activism and usually doing something to raise awareness about current issues. she also runs the kitchen operations for the local women and children's shelter, and teaches residents how to grow food, cook, and work in a professional kitchen setting. she was the one who first got me into participating in demonstrations and protests for women's rights when i was younger when she brought my friend and i along with her on a take back the night march.

by the way, great topic idea. i'm glad to see something positive about feminism on WP.

No problem.

I'm actually highly critical of the movement, or at least the direction it has gone of late.

As a fellow long winded person don't worry about it.

Nell McCafferty is an Irish journalist, playwright, civil rights campaigner and feminist. In 1971 she was one leader in a group that took the "contraceptive train" from the North across the border to the Republic of Ireland laden with condoms and contraceptives, to challenge the ban on contraception. (Contraception was illegal in Ireland from 1935 until 1980) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_McCafferty

Mary Robinson: first female President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997. She altered the traditional presidential role, by actively using the position to create change, she was the first serving Irish president to visit the United Kingdom and meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. She also served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and was the first Commissioner to visit Tibet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson

Constance Markievicz: A politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. The first woman elected to the British House of Commons and one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position (Minister for Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922) W.B. Yeats, the Irish poet wrote a poem for her and her sister 'In Memory Of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz'. She died in 1927 having given away the last of her wealth, in a public ward "among the poor where she wanted to be" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz

oh i know lol
i think there is a lot to be critical about as well.
but there is also a lot of negativity and misconceptions about the movement, especially because of its current disposition.

personally, and especially as a woman, i feel as though i have to consider myself a feminist no matter how messy it is to navigate, because if i didn't i would be denying the significance of all the hard work women have put into and continue to add to the movement, and what they have given to me. i would also be denying the core tenant of feminism and therefore civil rights movements in general--social, political, and economic equality (not sameness, which is a common misconception of what equality means). at that point i feel i would have to shut up, stop participating in politics, give away control over my own reproduction, etc. maybe i'm too stuck in history and semantics, but giving it up is just not an option i could handle. and its a sad current state of affairs so being reminded of some of the more positive contributions is a nice reprieve.

Yuri Kochiyama is on the front page of Google today, I think that's pretty cool.

I was under the impression that the women's suffrage movement before the Pankhursts referred to themselves as Suffragist rather than, Suffragette and when contempory especially the socialist ones differentiated themselves. Arguably the Suffragettes were less universal/egalitarian to start with. However I'm not sure if the terminology is cut and dry. Pre-Pankhurts Suffragists are overlooked.