Fighting For the Word

In response to Avery - full post here

"Ism"s, as you pointed out, can sometimes change in meaning, or at least connotation. I think some people neglect to realize this and therefore end up identifying with terms that are perhaps out-dated. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can cause large amounts of confusion.

For example, A person who identifies with Catholicism under the accepted definition and connotation of the 1200s would be very different from a person who identifies with Catholicism in the 2000s. I imagine this same thing is what you are talking about with regards to feminism. There are probably many people who would gladly identify (perhaps with an intersection to other genders' rights) with the original connotation of feminism, but due to keeping up with the various definitions of feminism have decided to avoid the label entirely, with the hope of avoiding being perceived as a radical feminist, and not causing the women's rights movement harm. Additionally there are people who due to lack of knowledge about the new connotation related to radical feminists, still adopt the label of feminism.

This, I think, leads to an interesting battle for the use of a word; it is difficult to win back a word once it has been tainted with negativity. Though I suppose it work the opposite way too; it may be equally as difficult to regain a negative connotation once the word has been tainted with positiveness, as seen with the word queer.

And it is difficult, of course, to give up on the word and search for a new one, because the new word would need to regain followers and so on - it's like starting a new movement.