The term feminism is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. More plainly put, it’s basically the movement of equality of males and females, by advocating for women’s rights.
This movement began in the late 1800’s in order to help women achieve equality in a patriarchal world. Feminism reflects the history of women being disenfranchised and silenced for generations. It represents the movement that was created to try and raise women and gender minority groups, not above, but on par with men, more specifically white men.
Nonetheless, feminism is more than just that, it’s inclusive. It’s not pro-women, but rather pro-human. It’s not just about combating the patriarchy, but rather has evolved to fight the entire kyriarchy. The kyriarchy is a hierarchical social system that is constructed by the oppression, submission and domination of marginalized groups, like women, non-binary people, and racial and ethnic groups. So basically, it’s advocating for many groups all at once.
However, in our society, the word feminism has taken a dark turn. Today, feminism has become a dirty word. Recently, social media and social rhetoric has been filled with 3 kinds of people: the feminists, the anti-feminists and the faux-feminists.
The feminists are those that stay true to the movement that began hundreds of years ago. The anti-feminists are just those that oppose the entire notion of feminism entirely. Lastly, the faux-feminist are those that have basically put their middle fingers up to the entire world, figuratively and quite literally, with their really sour attitude. The faux-feminists are the people that describe themselves as feminists, because they are prominent on social media with their strong views that usually seem “man-hating”. These are the people that the media talks about when they talk about feminism. These are the “anti-men women who are full of irrational rage”. These people tend to belittle others rather than empowering them. So, on behalf of them, I want to say I’m sorry if their brashness has ever made you feel less of a woman or a bad human being. These people aren’t feminists, instead they are people using this movement and tarnishing it by just being jerks. Their movement isn’t feminism.
However, many people do believe that faux-feminists are actual feminists and their antics are feminism; so they get turned off by this entire movement. The term has honestly been tarnished. The reason behind this is because the real feminists are not as loud as them to say “feminism is about inclusivity, so stop hating on men!” We allow the fauxs to takeover with their own agenda.
Nonetheless, I do understand and respect people in expressing themselves to promote feminism by not wearing makeup, or wearing a lot of it or not shaving, or just doing what they want to do to contribute to the cause. As long as it’s constructive and empowering to you and those around you, more power to you! However, demeaning others to uplift women, is just wrong.
Nowadays, many people that believe in feminist movement are opting to use the term “equalist” or “egalitarian” to distinguish themselves from the fauxs and this honestly just makes me roll my eyes. When people have an issue with the word “feminism”, they actually passively disguising the fact that they are uncomfortable with the movement itself. These people claim that because feminism has “fem” in it, it is pro-women, whereas they are pro-equal, thus cannot identify with it. However, this change in titles is less about political correctness, and more so a way for them not to identify with the term at all. As I stated earlier, feminism is not about pro-women, but just advocating for women’s right. Frankly, using these two new terms just covers up the fact that some people are uneasy with the idea of furthering women’s rights so in other words, they are opposed to feminism itself.
Changing how feminists are defined is to basically back down and erase all the progress women have made throughout history. If we begin to say, “fine, whatever, we are equalists now” we are allowing people to conclude that feminism is a dirty word, thus should be redefined. We are saying that there was something wrong with it, when there never was. We are allowing people to discredit women and reject the existence of misogyny. The entire movement of feminism has existed for centuries and it is the embodiment of women’s rights. If we change its name, we basically rewrite history. This is similar to people foolishly thinking “black lives matter” should be “all lives matter”. We are not saying that one deserves more privilege, but that a certain group of people need a reallocation of resources and attention to be equalized with the other.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know that men have their fair-share of issues despite their privilege. They still suffer in silence when it comes to body shaming, the definition of masculinity, suppressing emotions, being tough, strong and emotionless because anything less than that is being “less of a man”. However, if you look at history, it’s pretty clear that men have been in power since what seems like the beginning of time. Women are still fighting for access over their own reproductive health care. The movement of feminism isn’t denouncing male issues. In fact, it’s trying to break the stereotypes males face as well. Thus, feminism strives to include everyone, whether they be male, female or non-binary peoples.
Personally, I think I have always been a feminist. To be completely honest, I was born into a privileged household. My faith preaches equality of the sexes and despite my ethnic background (which has a tendency to be unequal), these issues didn’t apply to me. Although I grew up in a family of all guys, I never saw any disparities between any of us. So to me, the concepts of sexism or misogyny weren’t real. My family enforced equality because at the end of the day, we are all human; I never really felt the pressure of being lesser than a man till later on. As I got older and began to understand life as something other than the four walls of my home, I began to realize that men and women were in fact not equal. This was absurd to me. How can all humans not be equal? Because of their biology? That’s just stupid. And you know what, it really is just that. Our genitalia basically defines our rights and freedoms. Its honestly ridiculous.
Personally, it just doesn’t make any sense to me of why everyone isn’t a feminist. As a woman I definitely believe that I am equal to a man. I mean, how could you not? If anyone thinks that women and men are equal and they deserve equal opportunities, they are automatically a feminist as that is literally the definition of the term. To me there have always been 3 rationalizations that I have on why people renounce this label: one, because they are ignorant and actually believed that women are lesser than men; two, because they are consumed by old stereotypes; and lastly, because you were put off by the term due to a handful of so-called “feminists”, which I define as faux-feminists. Pat Robertson, a Southern Baptist minister and media mogul, described feminist movement as “encouraging women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians” and it couldn’t be further from the truth. I actually laugh when I read that statement, how is he being serious?
At the end of the day, it’s exhausting having to explain the definition of feminism. However, I promise for all women, men, non-binary people, marginalized people, frankly all humans in general, that I will be louder than the anti and fauxs. I promise to work alongside my fellow feminist humans to focus on destroying the kyriarchy and make this world a better and equal place for our future generations. I, along with others, will continuously prove that feminism is not a dirty word and is meant for everybody regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, or socioeconomic status. Feminism is inclusive.
*Disclaimer: Featured image is not mine. Retrieved here.