Before expanding on her views on modern feminism, writer and journalist Laura Kennedy warns listeners of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast that what she’s about to say might raise “their hackles” somewhat.
And that’s because she no longer identifies with the label of feminist. Speaking to podcast presenter Róisín Ingle, Kennedy argues that the term has “become meaningless” and is “not pragmatically useful.”
This realisation about feminism came to Kennedy while working in a “female-dominated industry, which was the beauty industry.” The women she worked with, “all of whom identified as feminists,” lived in ways that seemed in contrast with their progressive views on the movement.
In her new book, Some of Our Parts, Kennedy cites one example where women in the beauty industry feature plus-size models in magazines or publicly describe fat activism as empowering, “but when I meet them at work events, they’re always on a diet or stressing about fitting into the tiny clothing samples that brands send them to court favour. Nobody eats the bread that sits in the centre of the table.”
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It wasn’t just the women Kennedy worked with whose views on feminism seemed confusing; it was the celebrities she interviewed too. When she asked the question “What does feminism mean to you?” she was mostly given the same bland response over and over again: “Feminism means to be kind.”
“There was a period when things got really hot in the gender conversation, and it was a dodgy place to make a public comment… I was like, are publicists telling you to say this to protect you from this dangerous area of culture?”
For Kennedy, being a feminist wasn’t making much sense anymore. “When someone tells me they’re a feminist, they could mean a bunch of things. They might be gender critical, they might be a radical feminist, they might be a socialist feminist, they might be for equality of outcome or of opportunity. There’s a million different things it might mean, and for that reason, it doesn’t mean anything,” she says.
“So essentially, for me, I don’t say I’m a feminist anymore, because it doesn’t immediately communicate what my belief system is to the person I’m talking with.”
‘Feminist’ is just one of the labels that Kennedy analyses in Some of Our Parts. The book is part memoir, part exploration of identity, told through the many labels that shape our lives. Other labels Kennedy associates with include ‘Irish,’ ‘neurodiverse,’ and ‘poor’—though she argues these only tell part of a more nuanced story.
In this wide-ranging conversation, the author also reflects on her upbringing in Limerick, her mental health struggles, and her late autism diagnosis. You can listen back to their discussion in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Some of Our Parts by Laura Kennedy is out now.
