Feminism seems to get a bad name for itself for no good reason. Before you decide to ignore all feminists as “man haters” read this list of things you need to understand.
- Feminism is really diverse
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Many types of women identify under the label of feminist. They have different opinions on policy, important issues, and how the movement should function. Just because you see some feminists working under one belief, doesn’t mean all feminists are the same. For example, there are pro-life and pro-choice feminists.
- Feminists don’t hate men
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As stated earlier, feminists are not completly unified. Just because some talk about how they dislike men doesn’t mean all women feel that way. And a lot of the women who say “I hate men” don’t actually mean that. What they mean is that they hate how some men treat them or how society treats men and women differently.
- Feminists want equality of oppurtunity
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We don’t want handouts. We don’t want to be given jobs to fill a quota or simply to make a company look better. We just want the same opportunities that men have and that includes the possibility of failure.
- We don’t want to be men
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Feminists like being women; they just don’t like how women are treated. We don’t feel the need to look or act like men but rather want to be respected like men.
- We want feminity to be seen as valid
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Many movies and books try to present strong female protagonists as very masculine. In reality, liking pink, wearing skirts, and doing your make-up doesn’t make a person weak. Women can be strong and powerful while embracing feminity.
- Men’s issues are addressed by feminism
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A lot of arguements against feminism point out problems that men face in society. I’ve never met a person that said men had everything easy, but most feminists agree that men’s problems would improve if women were treated as partners and men didn’t have the pressure of being “manly” or providing for the family.
- We are forced to be loud and annoying when we’re being ignored
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The idea of the angry feminist is popular around the internet. While most feminists don’t start screaming at the drop of a hate, many feminists do get fed up with how things are going. We’re tired of being scared to walk home alone, tired of supporting friends through sexual assault cases that go nowhere, and we’re tired of being treated as if our opinions aren’t important.
- Just because other women have it worse, doesn’t mean our problems should be ignored
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Feminists understand that women around the world face many challenges to various degrees. Women in New York have more rights than women in Iran, but that doesn’t mean that women in New York don’t face discrimination and sexism. Feminists support women around the world. We pick our battles, large or small, because every step of procress is a step in the right direction.