What does it mean to be a birth activist?
Luckily, I know many women who are great activists. I have to admit I’ve had a couple of women tell me that they didn’t feel like they were activists. They felt that the word was too strong.
an especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause, esp. a political cause.
Hmmm, doesn’t sound too strong to me, but I understand, in a sense, what they mean. When asked what activists did, many came up with picketing, or going door to door. While I certainly haven’t had the opportunity to do either of those, I think that is largely because the Internet has changed activism, hopefully for the better, if not easier. Many women said that they see themselves more ad advocates:
a person who writes or speaks in support of a cause or person.
So does the different between activist and advocate have to do with passion? What are your thoughts on the differences between advocacy and activism? How do you identify yourself?
I meant to say when I think of advocacy I THINK That…I left out the “I think” in the sentence. 
Yikes, and I meant to say advocates wouldn’t take action to the extent an ACTIVIST would, not an advocate. UGH typo’s!
Conceptually, I think the difference between activist and advocate is mostly a matter of approach or tone.
When I hear activist, I think passionate – in other words, activists have unabashed emotional involvement in a cause.
Advocate, on the other hand, has an inference of logic/reasoning. When I hear advocate, I think of people who are good at debate and speech, who can see all sides of a situation and present them fully.
Pure concept aside, reality is, many of us are both emotionally involved in and reasonably able to speak for our cause.
That being said, I’ll step on my soapbox a moment…
Cory Young wrote an article for Susun Weed’s e-zine entitled The Science of Mother Love, and writes, “Because our culture does not sufficiently value interpersonal relationships, the mother/child bond is not recognized and supported as it could be.”
This issue, of how our culture downplays the role of emotions, ties-in to all ideas that are emotionally-imbued – such as activism. I think that’s why sometimes people are dismissive of those who label themselves as activists.
When I think of Advocacy that there is less of a responsibility to take action. Please don’t get me wrong, I do believe advocates take action, but not the extent an advocate would. For instance, an advocate would spread the word about a breastfeeding sit-in, blog about it, help other seek it out, but may not participate in it personally. An activist is the person who set it up, organized it, participates in it, and is probably the first person talking to any media that would listen about it. I don’t, however feel one is more passionate than the other. I just think the passion motivates people in different ways. Of course, this all just my humble opinion.