Hey everybody, what have you been up to? Me? Well I've been climbing mountains. And very
scared because I'm very afraid of heights.
Thanks to everybody who commented on last Ask Cristen video. And while there were lots
of comments about straight guys and lesbians there were also a lot of comments about spiders.
I mentioned killing a spider and it freaked a lot of y'all out. One Russian user whose
Russian user name I can't pronounce because I don't speak Russian so goods or at all said,
'Crazy how its just A-OK to kill spiders on the spot just because you're "grossed out".
Yet if most anything else is killed, it's considered heinous.' My favorite part of that
comment is how 'grossed out' is in quotes as if to challenge the sincerity of my level
of being grossed out at a spider. It's sincere. Soph lj said, 'Why do people have to kill
spiders? D:'. I never want to see a screenshot of that. There were also a number of not-so-humorous
comments from a lot of women but also guys as well regarding people who hit on them so
much and so persistently that they don't take no for an answer. I'm still kind of processing
everything folks had to say about that and I want to talk about it in maybe next week's
Ask Cristen. If you have any comments or experiences or questions on that topic you want me to
include, let me know in the comments below but in the meantime, let's talk about this
week's Ask Cristen question which is one that I've received from both men and women alike.
'Can you do a video on what feminists believe?' and 'Can feminists be guys?' No, no, this
is a girls only club, I don't want you. My favorite color's pink, I like horses and chocolates.
Let's break this down into three questions. First question, where did the term feminism
come from anyway? The English term feminism actually derives from the french word feminisme
which was coined in 1837 by a French philosopher named Charles Fourier who looked around and
said eh huh huh, women have zero rights and maybe a way to improve society would be oh
I don't know, give them more rights. According to the Oxford English dictionary the English
word feminism then appears a little bit later on in 1895 but it really doesn't come into
mainstream use until the 1960s and 70s when ironically second-wave feminists decided to
adopt it because women's libbers had become such a polarizing term. Which brings us to
our second and perhaps more important question what does feminism mean? Feminism is a pretty
cut and dry term that simply refers to believing in the political, social and economic equality
of the sexes. If you think that men and women should get equal pay for doing the same work,
men and women should be able to walk down the street and enjoy a sense of safety, that
men and women should have equal amounts of autonomy over their own bodies in general
then hey, that's what feminism is all about. It also extends into equality racially speaking,
ability speaking, ethnicity speaking. Feminism essentially is saying okay, we might have
all these different kinds of labels but when it comes to the rights that we are granted
it should apply equally across the board. Which brings me to the third and final question
of well can men be feminists? Yeah. There are some self-identified feminists who say
you know what I'm really not comfortable with men claiming to be feminists but I don't think
that that's okay. As soon as we start saying hey you know what, you're not invited to the
party, then it becomes really easy to say no, not you either. We need as many people
advocating for and living a life that embodies equality and social justice as much as we
can. Men yes absolutely you can be feminists. It's not just me who thinks so either I tweeted
this out to my @MomStuffPodcast followers and this is what the ladies had to say. Paperarmour
says, 'Belief in gender equality does not depend on the believer's gender expression.'
Katie Speirs says, 'Does a bear poop in the woods?' TheErinpala says, 'Yes they can! Insert
picture of Rosie the Riveter.' Ella Smith says, 'How about a yes sir?' I want to hear
from you, what do you think about this issue of guys being feminist? Are there any feminists
guys out there? Let me know in the comments below, let's start a conversation. By conversation
I'm not referring to all the trolls I'm sure who are reliably crafting hilariously biting
comments about how I'm secretly a man with a penis and I'm a feminazi a harpy shrew who
wants to kill all the men out there. I just did the commenting work for you trolls. Don't
forget to ask me your questions so I can give you some feminist answers.