Any movement whose members implicitly or explicitly force you to look, act, dress, and/or behave in a very specific way is simply projected insecurity at its best and just another form of fundamentalism at its worst. Abercrombie & Fitch, deadheads, goths, preps, Orthodox Jews, gangstas, feminists (as the type Ms. Thompson describes)...I could go on and on. You are all easily identifiable by your uniform. Yes, might as well call it that, since not following the proscribed dress code is evidently grounds for getting kicked out.

I am putting the entire planet on notice: Get the f*** over yourselves. Try building bridges instead of walls. Emma Thompson is a feminist whether she shaves her head or chooses to look absolutely stunning, whether she's reciting Shakespeare or playing a frumpy nanny. But first she's herself, and that, in my opinion, is all that matters. Sorry, if having my own mind prevents me from joining your club, I'll get over it somehow.

It's kind of silly to blame feminism because you're embarrassed about your old wardrobe.

In 10 years, we'll all be embarrassed about the kinds of clothes we're wearing right now ... and in 15 years, they'll be recycled back into style and we'll wish we had hung onto them!

Emma Thompson doesn't appear to have said that "feminism made her dowdy". Only the headline says that. I'm sure you can find a lot of women from the 60's and 70's who thought that they had to achieve a certain look to be a feminist. Luckily, feminists have come a long way from that era of thinking (although there are a lot of anti-feminists who refuse to acknowledge that). I'm glad that Emma is happy with her current sleek and sexy self, but if she's pretending that she's no longer influenced by her peer group (Hollywood now, instead of feminists) she's still got her well-coiffed head in the sand.

My body developed very young, and it developed, should we say, dramatically. I had a difficult time dealing with the sudden onslaught of male attention. Being a young feminist, I resented being seen primarily as a sexual being, and I dressed in baggy clothers and thriftstore tee-shirts to protect myself. When I think back on that, I don't feel like I was dowdy, I feel like I was showing those around me that there was more to me than my budding figure. If it weren't for feminism, I think I would have felt a lot more pressure to embrace the sexual attention as the only relevant kind for a young lady to recieve. Feminism, and the choice to dress as I chose for me, gave me the opportunity to figure out who I was without the world telling me first. Once I figured out, I gave up the baggy garb.