Illustration by Suzy X
Whether you call yourself a feminist or whether you prefer not to label yourself but still believe in equality for both men and women, you are a feminist. It’s not a dirty word and it does more good than harm, so why are people so afraid of it? It’s fairly simple.
The majority of people who oppose feminism generally do so because they don’t understand what the word means. The feminist stereotype is hardly appealing and representative, and so the cause is grossly misunderstood. Feminism is simply a belief. It’s the belief that anything a man can do without getting called out for, a woman should be able to do too. A belief that a woman should be able to wear a certain outfit without having to feel like a slag (another word I hate) and if she does become victim to a sexual assault, she shouldn’t expect to be blamed for the crime just because she’s a woman. As great as boobs and vaginas are, we aren’t just a pair of tits on legs and we aren’t there for the primary function of titillating men. Surprising, I know.
If you now understand what feminism is and still don’t believe in it, then I suggest you piss off.
Whilst you yourself may have never thought “I am a feminist”, you might be. You don’t have to label yourself as a feminist to be an ally of feminism. The thing I do have a problem with however is a person who comes out and says “I’m not a feminist…but that doesn’t make me a misogynist”.
Let’s be honest. While you don’t have to call yourself a feminist and you don’t have to actively identity with the cause, if you agree with the ideology that women are allowed to have a voice and fight back against prejudices towards them, then you are a feminist. If, however, you specifically say that you aren’t a feminist then in short, you’re saying that you’re against the notion that women and men should be on equal terms. You’re essentially saying that you still believe that women should be the “weaker sex”; that women don’t deserve to have equal pay wages to men; that a woman shouldn't get a choice in how she presents herself. You don’t believe that a woman should be able to stand up and say “I’m not an object. I’m a person, and I get to control what I do and what happens to me” and I think there's something fundamentally wrong with that.
If you think that feminism is an “overreaction” and that we “need to harp down” then you are a prime example of why feminism exists, and needs to exist. Purely the notion of some people thinking that women fighting against misogyny is not necessary shows just how deeply embedded misogyny is in our society. Those who have said to me that “things aren’t as bad as they used to be” and that I should “calm down” are missing the point entirely. Take for example, the Topman t-shirt fiasco. A couple of shirts with slogans degrading women. The thing that staggered me about the whole situation was the amount of people saying that it was an overreaction, purely demonstrating that misogyny is so blase these days that we are almost called out if we have a problem with it, and that essentially, we are expected to just sit down and take abuse because we are women, and because, I guess, we are used to it. But because we are used to people constantly undermining us and objectifying us, does it mean we have to put up with it? Of course it fucking doesn’t. It’s not the 1950s anymore and there isn’t as much obvious sexism, but it hasn’t gone away. It’s just subtle. Some of you might not even notice something was sexist unless it was pointed out to you. It makes it harder to fight back against. It’s hard to say “this has serious misogynistic undertones” without people moaning at you for picking at details, for making “a big deal out of nothing”.
So do you still think feminism is extreme? If you are against feminism, you are against women and you are against equality. You don’t have to be a woman to be a feminist. If you treat women as an equal rather than an object who has to submit to your desires then there are benefits for all of us, not just women. The rewards are endless.
Have a think.
Are you a feminist?
As a feminist then should you also campaign for the liberation of men?
ReplyDeleteThat said - the issue that some women have with the term (and not necessarily the movement as you pointed out) is that many modern 'feminists' believe in total integration of gender roles and are often misandric and elitist.
I fully believe in equal civil and legal rights for women and men but also believe in the rights of an individual.
If my mum wants to retire early and look after the home while my step dad continues to earn for the house why should a feminist woman have anything to say about that?
It is the gender feminist branch of the modern movement which has surpassed the original intention of equity and equality and now focuses solely on preferential treatment women.
Firstly, I'm not campaigning for the liberation of men because men are already liberated. In the same way that I don't campaign for "straight pride" events or "white history month", it isn't necessary. I am completely for gender equality and am in no way misandric but saying I want the liberation of women does not mean want the oppression of men to achieve it. That would be completely counter-productive. I'm aware that misandry very much exists but it's on a totally different scale to misogyny. I agree that women shouldn't get preferential treatment but in terms of equality we are way far behind men so we surely have a bigger struggle to gain equality than men do? I'd be interested to know your view on the women-only spaces at places like the labour party conference too.
ReplyDeleteIt is completely about the rights of an individual, you are correct. Feminism is about freeing women from oppression so they know that they can do what they want without having people or society as a whole pointing at them and going "don't do that, do this". If you say that X is bad and try and counter the problem by telling all women to do Y as a retaliation to it - e.g. leg shaving being seen as "anti-feminist", therefore telling all women to not shave their legs - you're still as controlling over women as you were in the first place.
Feminism isn't saying that all women have to abide by a certain set of rules, it's simply telling them that if they're being given a set of rules to abide by which may repress them purely because they are women and seen as subordinates, then they should be allowed to tell the person giving them the rules to fuck off. It's literally just letting women know that they're allowed a say in what they do with their lives. If your mum wants to retire early and look after the home then a woman feminist shouldn't have anything to say about that. If it's her choice then that's great. It's no aboutt saying women shouldn't be housewives, or clean, or bake, or be "feminine", it's just saying that they shouldn't have to do if they don't want to. It's all about choice and women knowing that they should do something because they want to, and not because they feel that they have to do something to satisfy others or qualify as being a "woman". Basically we shouldn't feel like we have to abide by certain gender stereotypes in the same way that men shouldn't, only as a gender we ultimately get more stick for not abiding to gender stereotypes.