Feminism. Just saying the word seems to result in an array of fairly negative responses from debate and confusion to cringing and repulsion. Why is this?
You see, feminism has unfortunately (and unfairly) become synonymous with “man-hating.” Society has been conditioned to fear feminism because it is believed to be beneficial only to women and oppressive to men. But the people that believe this to be fact have not based any of their opinion on fact. Let’s try to understand this better and take it down to an elementary level to look up the dictionary definition of the word.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of feminism is as follows: “The theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes; the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” When you read that, you find yourself coming to the realization that feminism is merely another way of saying gender equality, not the radical, bra-burning movement you thought it was. This is not a movement rooted in women attempting to establish themselves as the dominant sex, but a movement simply rooted in the desire for equal rights among the sexes.
And when we say equality among the sexes, we mean it.
While it is called feminism, don’t think that men don’t stand to benefit from it too. The reason it’s called feminism is because women have been the systematically oppressed gender between the two, but men haven’t been entirely unaffected. In fact, feminism and its acceptance would be immensely beneficial for men alongside women. With society’s current gender roles being as they are, there is a lot of pressure put on guys to be “real men.” They are expected to be the breadwinners and decision makers as well as rough and tough, emotionless masculine “manly” men. If a man does show his emotions or exhibit traits traditionally associated with women, he’s considered weak and effeminate, which for some confusing reason is looked down upon. Through feminism, all the sexes (binary and non-binary) would be able to exist among each other as they please without the fear of being labeled such things as “gay” or “butch” or “bitch” unjustly.
Now, it’s 2015, and a lot has changed for the better for women and gender equality as a whole. But the fact that this is still a widely discussed topic shows that while we have come a long way we still have a long way to go. Equality laws put in place have been the first step, but this discussion still needs to be had because while laws help, they don’t fix everything and they can’t change the way people think. Change happens on an individual level, not a systematic one. This is why it is important to educate yourself and others on the issue as well as be a model for feminism, whether you’re female or male. Feminism is not a scary thing or an attack on the patriarchy that will blow up in your face; it’s fighting the good fight for rights that as human beings we are deserving of.
So when someone asks if you’re a feminist, what will you say?
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