Feminism is a word that still scares and intimidates many people. Often, people assume that associating themselves with that word is automatically a statement to the world that they hate men and think only women are of value. Well, that is a false belief. Feminism is the idea that women and men should be equal. That means not that one is more important or better than the other, but that both men and women are of equal value and capable of achieving the same things. The fact that, in present day society, there are still people who refuse to use “feminist” to describe themselves is absolutely mind-blowing. Why would a woman not want to be paid the same amount as her male counterparts? Why would a man stand for the mistreatment of women simply so that he could have it just a little easier? Are we that intimidating? Is he afraid of a challenge? Or are we too afraid to give ourselves a place at the table that we not only deserve, but have a fundamental right to occupy. These are the questions that should be asked when we think it is easier to state ‘I am not a feminist.’ Because in saying those five little words, that one short phrase, we are discounting every right that women currently have because of the battles that women before us have fought so that we would not have to. We often forget that the rights we have were not always viewed as rights that women should have. That is a shame, and what is more shameful still is that we have so much more to fight for and there are still people, both men and women, who do not want to fight for women’s rights. That is not acceptable. This largely has to do with the fact that the dialogue landscape often distorts the true meaning of feminism. For that reason, here are a few videos that will hopefully clear the meaning of the word up a bit, so that no one is scared to use it anymore.
1. Emma Watson’s HeForShe speech at the United Nations. This is the speech that moved the world, and it is still incredibly relevant three years later.
2. Anne Hathway’s address to the United Nations on International Women’s Day. She spoke of the importance of paid parental leave, and yes this is also an important topic when it comes to feminism because, again, it is important to treat both men and women equally. This speech captures that idea well.
3. Meghan Markle’s speech about the importance of equality and the effect one person could have with just a little bit of determination and passion.
4. Just scroll a bit to play this video of Australian high school boys stating why feminism is important; they speak as if they were women, stating what experiences they think they would have had as women. It is incredible to watch them come up with the reasons they use in this video. Watching it makes it so obvious how much of an issue equality still is in present-day society.
5. This more recent video of Emma Watson explaining the obvious after facing heavy criticism for posing for a photograph… Come on, people!
Picture from Huffington Post