Emma Watson changed the face of feminism when she made her now-famous speech at the UN, championing for the He for She Campaign last year. In an 11-minute speech, Watson contributed to the changing public opinion of feminists, challenging the conception that the feminist movement consisted solely of radical, bra-burning, man-hating, lesbian women.
Women are still most notably seen as the proponents for the feminist movement, but the large misconceptions of the meaning of feminism often drive men away from embracing it as well. To be clear, feminism is the fight for equality among the sexes, advocating for equal rights for men and women. The HeforShe Campaign stresses the importance of the idea that “gender equality is not only a women’s issue, it is a human rights issue,” whose advancement is just as dependent on the participation and support of men as it is on women.
The question of how to be a feminist endures, though. It is often easy to overlook misunderstand the concept of feminism or mindlessly participate in many of the gender roles that hinder feminism’s efforts, but for both men and women who don’t know much about what it means to be a feminist, here are some starting points:
Know that feminism is not about taking men down.
One of the biggest misconceptions about feminism is that it is a movement against men and that it aims to undermine men in favor of women. This is not the case. Feminism is, more than anything, about equality and ensuring that men and women have equal opportunities available for them. The misconception that feminism is anti-men is a tool to undermine its efforts, so don’t buy in.
Understand that gender roles have adverse effects on feminism.
Traditional gender roles are so engrained in our society that we often do not realize they are there. Everything from the clothes we wear and the way we interact with each other has largely been determined by gender roles our society readily embraces. Feminism, in its efforts to achieve equality for both men and women, encourages both men and women to challenge these roles. This requires men to be conscious of the gender roles they participate in as well. Perpetuating the ideas that women are inferior to men in any sense hinder feminism, even if the intention isn’t that. In order to stop the practice of reinforcing gender stereotypes, we need to become more aware of them. Even encouraging the stereotype that women belong doing housework or that men are better suited to be the breadwinners of a family is problematic and barring for both men and women. We are often unaware of the consequences of this, but thinking before speaking can have more of an impact than you realize.
Feminism is in everyone’s best interest.
Feminism has the potential to benefit not only women in their quest for equal rights, but also everyone else it touches. Matt Damon, quoted on the HeforShe website, stresses the importance of women and their skills in solving problems the world currently faces: “It is an objective fact that, if you want to solve some of these huge, kind of bigger problems of extreme poverty, you have to include women. They’re the ones who will get it done.” Women have been condemned for often being too emotional or sympathetic, but as Damon recognizes, these things allow women to be more capable of solving some of the most pressing problems our world faces today. In this case, perspective is the most important thing: we need to stop viewing women’s skills as inferior and instead acknowledge their potential benefit to everyone in society.
You can learn more about the HeforShe campaign and join in at HeforShe.org.