In Time magazine’s annual “Word Banishment Poll,” the term “feminist” was the most popular word voters wished to remove from our vocabulary in 2015.What are feminists doing wrong? Why do most of us say “yes” to equality, but “no” to the label of “feminist”?
On one hand, there are loud supporters for “Women Against Feminism.” In this campaign, women of all ages used signs with bold black letters to proclaim they “don’t need feminism,” that “feminists blame men and society for women’s shortcomings” and that “if every man is a potential rapist, so is every woman.”Yet, if we highlight some major injustices against women that occurred this past year, maybe we’ll realize we all need a proper dose of feminism going into 2015. Let’s review.
Those illegal pictures never went away.Back in late August, hackers leaked private celebrity photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Anna Kendrick, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West on the Internet. The hackers were hailed as heroes by some perverse Redditers. Others still faulted the celebrities for not having stronger security against attacks like these.
Accusations of rape and sexual assault occurred across college campuses, including UF.The UF campus was shaken to its core when four sexual assault cases occurred in a matter of two weeks. These attacks occurred right after a Columbia University student received backlash for carrying her mattress around to protest her rapist. In nearly all of these cases, women were blamed for being the victim by certain Internet commenters and in casual conversation. Even now, in light of the controversial University of Virginia rape accusations, it’s evident that further discussion is needed on consent and victim blaming.
There were YouTube scandals in which popular video personalities were accused of taking advantage of fans.Sometimes it’s hard to be in a position of power and do the right thing. Apparently, having a niche audience of young, female fans gave certain YouTubers this distorted sense of power. Starting in September (though accusations had been made before this), several YouTube stars such as Sam Pepper, Alex Day, Gregory Jackson and more were called out by fans for inappropriate behavior and coercion into unwanted sexual acts.
#Gamergate happened, and it is still happening.It started off innocently enough: Consumers wanted to shed light on video game journalists who were getting paid to write positive reviews of certain games. What began as an exposé of truth for the consumer morphed into a monster that bashed and threatened multiple females in the gaming industry and beyond. One targeted woman was Anita Sarkeesian, who fled her home after an email threatened her for posting videos about negative depictions of females in video games. Luckily, people like Alanah Pearce cleverly fought back; Pearce forwarded rape threats from boys she received on Facebook to the boys’ mothers, and the reactions were quite awesome.
What can we take away from this? Is feminism just a social construct to blame men in a society that is truly equal? If this is how modern feminism is perceived, further dialogue must take place. In looking at a year of injustice for many women, it’s hard for me to believe we are truly equal. The word does not need to be changed, but the attitudes surrounding it do. So let’s stop treating feminist ideas as taboo; instead, let’s encourage discussion from both men and women so that 2015 is a better year for us all.
Photo credit:www.theatlantic.com