KA-BOOM!

   That's the sound of my temper when I read this in Feministing. 

   I can barely pop off an angry rant about this.

   The fact of the matter is that the line between activist/artist/writer/worker/ordinary person is not so cut and dry.  Richards is a feminist activist AND she is a professional writer AND a person who chose selective reduction for personal reasons.  None of these invalidate any of these other facts.

   As Jessica at  Feministing points out, this is a deliberate attempt to invalidate Richards's experience; the implication is that because she is a feminist activist that she doesn't experience things like "real" women do.  The ugly fact of the matter is that by choosing  to tell your story about anything that society wants women to shut up about, you are automatically an activist.  Had they dug up a "real" woman (one who made a choice as if she lived in a vaccum, unaffected by feminism), that woman would have still become a feminist activist for speaking out. 
   Make no mistake, the word "feminist" is an insult because the very act of a woman being honest and speaking out is inflammatory.