We’re told that feminism is about equality, plain and simple. But Jessa Crispin, author of the new book Why I’m Not A Feminist, brings a few other definitions to the table:

Feminism is:

A fight to allow women to participate equally in the oppression of the powerless and the poor;

A method of shaming and silencing anyone who disagrees with you; and

A bland reworked brand of soda, focus group tested for universal palatability and inoffensiveness.

Brutal.

For International Women’s Day, March 8, we asked her exactly what she meant.

Why have you decided you’re not a feminist?

I feel like the word has been so misused by marketing people, by pop stars… I don’t know that the word means anything anymore.

What did it mean to you when you first became a feminist?

To me it meant an understanding that no human being on the planet held more value than any other human being. And that was regardless of gender, regardless of race. That you couldn’t work only in your own interest as a woman, you had to create a world that would be better for everybody, that would allow for true equality.

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Whatsapp Jessa Crispin, author of Why I'm Not A Feminist and Sarah McVeigh

What do you think it means when Beyonce, or Barack Obama or even our Prime Minister says that they are a feminist?

I think that they are trying to get something. Beyonce wants to sell records, Barack Obama wants votes. Beyonce - or Taylor Swift is also a good example - they don’t necessarily live their lives by any moral standard. They are capitalists, trying to sell a product. Right now, for whatever reason, if you call yourself a feminist or if you call a product feminist, if you put feminist on a t-shirt, that’s a way to sell it.

You wrote an article recently about how instead of asking ‘are you a feminist?’ you should ask a few other questions. What are some of those questions?

If they are hiring women in their staff, if they are collaborating with women of if they are just collaborating with men. If they are collaborating with women, do they pay their female collaborators as much as they pay their male collaborators? These are the actual things that should matter to feminists, it shouldn’t just be ‘oh look at me and all of my wealth’.

What’s wrong with self empowerment?

It just creates a culture that is so focused on the individual and so focused on selfishness and greed, rather than structural changes. If we focus on self empowerment it doesn’t help create subsidised childcare, it doesn't help create social networks that have been pushed back by right wing governments around the world. Those are the things that actually matter. If you’re only focused on yourself and getting ahead then you are not thinking about how you can make the world better for all women.

We talk a lot about the gains women have made in the last few decades - representation in politics, some gains in business - do you see those as the goals of feminism?

That’s a very pro-women agenda - the idea that we need to have parity in government and business. But unless there is the political ideology of feminism that these women or men are forwarding than it seems like a cosmetic change.

Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you’re looking out for women, especially not in a self empowerment culture where your own focus is supposed to be on your self.

I don’t believe that women are naturally more compassionate or generous - part of that is [based on] a lie that men told us in order to keep us at home with the children. It’s convenient for us to think that we’re more nurturing or caring or compassionate because that means that we think just by entering society, or entering politics, or entering the workplace that we are making that workplace more compassionate, more nurturing and that is absolutely false. I think it’s a bad idea for us to carry around the idea that we’re somehow better.

And therefore not question ourselves?

Yes, if you look at society, society has a lot of women in it and it doesn’t seem to be getting any more compassionate or caring.

Do you think we’re measuring success in the wrong way then, or in too narrow a way?

Feminism has taken on too many of the patriarchal values of selfishness, competition, money, power. When we talk about how feminism is working we look at how much money do they have, how many higher degrees do they have, how many women are working in high levels of corporate culture. These are the markers of patriarchal success, they shouldn’t be our markers of feminist success.

What should it be then?

I think it should be how are things going for women? How is our society working for women? Issues that are very important to us like income inequality, social welfare systems, reproductive and other health care. These are the things that are important to women, and to men.

I think that we can’t just be sidetracked by power just because power happens to feel really good.

You criticise online outrage culture where someone says something offensive or stupid and there’s a big pile on and maybe someone gets fired. What do you see as the problem with that kind of culture?

It feels good, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. I don’t think this is a good mindset where you have to be perfect all the time - where you always have to use the right language, where you’re not allowed to slip up or make a mistake. A lot of times people are losing their jobs over outrage culture... and I think this is a weird place for us to be in where we’re going after people’s ability to make a living just because somebody tells a bad joke or uses the wrong language. It’s very unforgiving.

There was a famous case in Australia a couple of years ago where a really well known writer Clementine Ford wrote to somebody’s boss and said ‘this man has been calling me a slut online’ and he lost his job. She said that that’s really about taking responsibility for your own actions - what do you say to that?

You have to understand who has the power in that situation. Is she the victim? I don’t know that I would classify her as that. She has a lot of power. So she has the power to ruin this person’s life because he’s angry online. I don’t think that should be the consequence.

Clementine Ford fights like a girl “When I tweet about firing all men into the sun with a cannon, that is clearly a joke."

What do you think should be the consequence when men continue to use language like that?

There has to be some sort of standard of decency but the consequences should not be this kind of shunning or losing the job. There should be a conversation but it shouldn’t be so drastic and disproportionate.

The other argument is that people will then learn that it’s not OK to do that, and it will therefore weed out misogyny. But you argue it won’t weed out misogyny at all.

If you create a culture of fear on this level it doesn’t mean that suddenly all these angry, angry men are happy pro-feminist loving people, it just means they get better at disguising it.

Do you want feminism to be nicer?

I don’t understand why we’ve decided we have to ditch compassion to move forward.

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Whatsapp 'Nasty woman and proud' banner on display at the Sydney women's march.

Did you march in the Women’s Marches?

I need an idea to march. This was a big ‘no’. There wasn’t a vision of the future that came out of the Women’s March. We’re saying ‘no’ to this, but what are we saying ‘yes’ to?

That’s part of my problem with feminism at the moment - this refusal to look at other ways to structure our society, to envision a new culture. It’s very much focused on the self - on what we don’t want, rather than what we do want. [It’s] this kind of idea that we’re going to enter society rather than reform it, when it seems so obviously in need of reforming.

If you want to hear more from Jessa Crispin, tune into Hack at 5.30 for our International Women’s Day Special. Or if you're too late, catch our podcast.