This is disheartening: Shailene Woodley, when asked by TIME if she considers herself a feminist, replied, "No, because I love men, and I think the idea of 'raise women to power, take the men away from the power' is never going to work out because you need balance." Interesting, because I have a dictionary right here, and it defines "feminism" as "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities." Isn't "equality" kind of the same thing as "balance"? It's Shailene's prerogative not to identify as a feminist if she doesn't want to, but she should at least find out what it really means before spreading misinformation to her many young fans.
She continued, "With myself, I'm very in touch with my masculine side. And I'm 50 percent feminine and 50 percent masculine, same as I think a lot of us are. And I think that is important to note. And also I think that if men went down and women rose to power, that wouldn't work either. We have to have a fine balance." There's that word "balance" again. She keeps using that word. I do not think it means what she thinks it means.
Shailene kept going: "My biggest thing is really sisterhood more than feminism. I don't know how we as women expect men to respect us because we don't even seem to respect each other. There's so much jealousy, so much comparison and envy. And, 'This girl did this to me and that girl did that to me.' And it's just so silly and heartbreaking in a way." Yes, that is silly. But you know who is passionate about women respecting women? Feminists.
She then cites The Other Woman as a good example of a film that shows women creating a "sisterhood" and helping each other. In case you haven't seen The Other Woman, it's a movie about women banding together to bring down a man, and then taking his money and power for themselves. Isn't that, like, the opposite of what Shailene just said about the importance of balance? Is this real life?
Also of note: The Other Woman, despite having three female leads and Nicki Minaj, fails to pass the Bechdel test because none of the women speak to each other about anything other than men. That's sisterhood, ladies and gentlemen.
[via Us Weekly
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