"there's nothing inherently wrong with the word," said gandy, invoking dame rebecca west's famous assertion, "i ... have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; i only know that people call me a feminist whenever i express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."

unsurprisingly, gandy has had countless encounters with women and men who open up a conversation by saying, "i'm not a feminist," and then go on to espouse feminist ideals. "it's like, 'do you have a belief in the political and social equality of women?' yeah? then you're a feminist," she said.

......

rowe-finkbeiner, author of the book "the f word," said that van deven's attitude is typical of broader political and linguistic patterns. "in the history of social movements, many of the people who are most impacted by negative connotations of a word are the ones who take that word back," she said. rowe-finkbeiner pointed out that women have already done this with "bitch" -- as in popular "stitch and bitch" knitting circles and "bitch-n-swap" clothing swaps. it's a phenomenon similar to a gay re-appropriation of "queer," or african-american usage of "nigger."
-the f word, salon article-