I'm not sure if I'd exactly say I was a straight 'feminist'. I've been labeled as one before though, for making comments about things. I mean, it does bother me how the media portrays "women", and how we "should" be. It has affected me greatly in fact. I spent many nights crying myself to sleep when I was younger because I wasn't as pretty as all of the singers/models/movie stars, and I still am bothered by how society tells me I "should" look (aka Barbie, etc.). I was never a "chubby" kid or anything (I actually always had the problem of being too skinny
), but I have a little sister that is overweight, and I just feel so bad for her because I know how other kids are. I know that she feels so bad about how she looks because of all of the TV shows and magazines she reads, and how all of the pictures portray an ideal say pants size of 4, etc. She really is a very pretty girl, but she can't see through all of the media images, just as I couldn't, and I still have problems with.
Now it's all on how you take it. I know a lot of girls that say, "well if you don't like it, then don't look at it". For some it's easy, for others though, it's not.
I mean, it's just little things that bother me--like when I buy a car magazine, I get kind of tired looking at the girls...I mean, I buy a CAR magazine for CARS. And if I say anything about it, I get so much crap for it (because I hang out with 99% guys).
I don't walk around preaching or anything about things, I tend to hold most of my feelings on that subject inside.
I don't know...its kind of almost an extreme thing, like when people are asked about how they feel about feminism, they're usually on one extreme side or the other of the spectrum.