Feminism in the present day is identified as an untouchable of sorts – you can be a self proclaimed bigot, you can openly support fascist forces, you can identify with a xenophobe – but you cannot be a feminist, for god’s sake. Feminism is a cringe-worthy term you can’t get yourself associated with at any cost. Whether you like it or not, you are a feminist if you believe in gender equality. It is as simple as that. No, feminists do not hate men, no we do not hate girls with nice legs and a tan. We are for equality between men and women and that’s it.
Here is trying to dispel some notions on which feminism is misunderstood,
- If they are for equality, why call it “feminism”?
Uh, this
and also this :
The word Feminism was coined by Charles Fourier in 1837, a French philosopher who advocated for the emancipation of women because he believed society treated them as slaves. We weren’t allowed to vote, own anything, or work a real job. Women were ruled by their fathers/household patriarch until they are married at which time they’d be under the rule of their husband. If a woman did not belong to male household, she was shunned by society and had very little means to make money, most of them unsavory. You know the idiom “rule of thumb”? That comes from a running joke that started in the 1600s, and was still around in Fourier’s time, that said it was okay for a man to beat with a stick as long as it wasn’t any thicker than his thumb.
The point of the word feminist and the feminist movement has never been to say that women are better than men. The point is that women have been given a lesser place in society for ages and we want to bring them up to an equal pedestal. The focus is on the feminine because that is what is pushed down. Men are belittled and called less of a man anytime they portray a trait associated with femininity. It’s called feminism and not equalism because the focus is on raising up, not tearing down. Calling it equalism would need the male things to come down, so that it could meet feminism in the middle. No guys, we wouldn’t need you to come down. We just need you to make a little room for us.
2. Feminism is all about male bashing
If we are holding a man accountable for a female getting molested or belittled or degraded, is it male bashing? We just want to hold the men of the society accountable for their actions. We live in an inherent unequal patriarchal society where a discriminatory attitude towards women is sort of a tradition. Unequal pay at work, unsafe public spaces and a danger of being abused forever lurking behind them – women have a lot to handle. We do not, in any case scenario, tag all men as rapists. But we definitely want the men who rape, molest and insult women to be called out, to be held accountable. A robust judicial mechanism in place could help that, but before that, a change in the mindsets is what we are looking at.
3. Feminists are over the top, overtly aggressive
We have Mr. Obama to say something on our behalf
Yes, we need a culture where it is okay for men to change diapers and women to speak out their mind on the internet without getting harassed or getting rape threats. If asking for a basic right to express oneself is going over the top, then we are talking to the wrong people.
4. Feminism promotes promiscuity, unacceptable sexual behavior
We believe a woman to be a bearer of her sexuality. We do not equate empowerment with cheating your male partner, but we can’t stand a society where different rules run for different genders. You are a stud if you are a guy sleeping with many women, but you are a slut if you are a girl and you do the same.
5. Feminists stand for trivial issues
Feminists have lost track of what they want to do for women. There are bigger issues to fight for, and not the right of women to go out and drink or a right to let the bra strap show. Actually, the big stems up from the small. Here is what we mean,
This is why, every time a woman is ogled at, is sexualized unnecessarily, is discriminated because of her, being a woman – it is an issue for feminists.
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