Overview:
- Feminism is messy. Yet it is all about being comfortable with the chaos.
- Modern Feminism is fluid, unlike textbook definitions or internet gimmicks.
- Freedom is the agency to choose and feminism aims to empower that. Elite feminism is frankly boring. Judge less ,empower more is the new mantra.
- Whose feminism is it? Let women decide, skip the saviour complex and accept self-doubt as growth.
Embrace the Chaos
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone say, “Feminism is having an identity crisis.”
My knee-jerk instinct is always total, immediate denial. I instantly want to reject the whole idea. But here is the quiet truth: every single time, I hear this statement. I stop & think to myself, maybe they are not entirely wrong. It does sound like an outside attack, but didn’t I just entertain the doubt that yes, the movement is in chaos.
This denial ended when I finally read Sindhu Rajasekaran’s work. She didn’t offer a clean-cut vision of perfect activism; she offered something far more real and, frankly, unnerving. That’s when my perspective finally changed. She forced me to sit with that uncomfortable truth I had been trying to avoid. Yes, the movement is in a state of identity crisis. We like to believe that a world-changing movement must be neat and united, but Rajasekaran shows the opposite. And she seems perfectly comfortable with that reality.
Feminism: Internet Edition
The real source of this confusion is the massive shift from the old-school, traditional theory to today’s fluid post-feminism. Back then, women used to learn feminism from structured programs or textbooks. Which felt more solid and defined since it came from an authority. Now, it’s sprawling all over the internet. Women get inspired from different places like online blogs, forums, and social media on feminist ideas. And then start using them as micro-feminist acts in their daily lives. This shift that is happening is what we call post-feminism. This evolution of the term from feminism to post feminism is not a rigid concept; it’s living, fluid, constantly being reshaped by every woman who interacts with it.
Hence , the meaning of feminism shifts constantly in metamorphoses (physical form) & praxis (practice), becoming exclusive to each woman. Every small, everyday act of resistance, whether it’s through building their self-worth in their homes or online activism. Every single woman is reshaping feminism for herself which plays a vital role in challenging the patriarchy. If some see this as an identity crisis, they’re engaging with the movement superficially rather than critically. We need to understand that feminism must change with the story of each woman today.
Ditch the Elite Club
I remember last summer, I was hanging out with a couple of friends at a beach. It was a much needed catch-up. But when I look back at the day, more than the catch up, one question stands out. One of our mutual friends casually said something along the lines of “Fatima, why are you forcing yourself to cover up with a hijab when Muqadsa is in a swimsuit? I mean, since we both share the same belief system, that question does make sense, right? This simple, casual question perfectly captures the individual battlegrounds this movement has become. That friend, of course, did not intend to offend anyone, yet the statement highlights something very critical. These experiences show us how biased feminist critics view feminism through their narrow lens. Without understanding the diverse ways women experience freedom and life.
We often fall for the idea that a woman wearing a burqa is experiencing oppression and a woman wearing a swimsuit signals liberation. That is a huge mistake. Feminism was never about measuring freedom through the amount of clothing one has on their body. Nor by the way, how closely someone fits a particular ideal. Feminism in its true form is about women exercising their own agency. The freedom to choose what empowerment means for them personally.
Given that, every woman’s life is shaped by her background, which is unique in social and cultural aspects, such as her race, religion, caste, class, sexuality, and so on. This determines the kind of opportunities and struggles she faces. Every single woman expresses herself in her own way; some challenge the traditional norms while others might find strength within them.
However, by any means it would not be correct to say that one feminism is better than the other one. Feminism isn’t something that can look the same for everyone. If it is then feminism risks becoming elitist and intolerant. Women should not be expected to prove that they are the “right kind” of feminist to belong to. Fluid postfeminism challenges this policing of women’s choices.
Whose Movement Is It Anyways?
Another thing critics often say is that women can’t be trusted in deciding what empowerment means for them (classic mansplaining), for what if they make “wrong” or “backward” choices? Here, Sindhu asks whose Feminism Is It Anyway? It’s women’s! So should those very women be the ones who choose what feminism means to them? It’s funny how we use “intersectionality” as a buzzword to sound progressive and informed. But if we don’t actually use it in real life, it becomes just another fancy word.
Conclusion:
Feminism is among the few ideological spaces that are self-critical. Yet bogus feminists and critics still choose to call female subjectivity an identity crisis. Sindhu reflects that questioning and being self-critical is the only way of expanding the movement.
Women who are living in the postfeminist phase are more honest about that contradiction and the messiness in the movement. So if you are someone who is having an identity crisis about what it is that feminism is? Well, you are on the right path. Keep questioning yourself. Always let the women’s reality speak more volume to what the acadamics have to say about us. The moment we stop criticizing our movement is the moment we stop growing. And if being self-critical is like having an identity crisis, oh, how I love having an identity crisis.
