Mapping Feminism

Very video verité, Lisa Robinson's Mapping Feminism takes the camera onto the UC-Berkeley campus sidewalks to ask the question of both female and male: "are you a feminist, and what does that mean?" With less than 16% of college women identifying themselves as "feminists," the answers here are anything but clearcut. The word "feminism" itself has become extremely fuzzy, ranging in usage as a description for people interested in equal rights for women, on the one hand, all the way over to people whose idea of progress is taking garden shears (preferably rusty) to male genitalia. Ergo, for many who are interested in furthering women's rights, the word "feminism" has become too extremist. This confusion--as the more astute interviewees point out--is very counter-productive. Mapping Feminism carries no major revelations: the interviewees simply deliver their off-the-cuff responses, which range from the thoughtful to the regurgitated. Still, this would be a good discussion starter for university and larger public library collections. (R. Pitman)