Recently, there have been a lot of anti-feminism articles trending. These articles make me extremely angry, not only because women are embarrassing themselves, but also because the definition of feminism is clearly misunderstood.
The media only shows the bad sides of feminism. If you Google search the word, "feminist," you will find a bunch of absurd photos of angsty women who are upset at the world. In reality, a picture of a feminist could be just a regular lady.
A feminist doesn't have to be a woman wearing a pink shirt screaming that she feels personally attacked by a man every five seconds. The pure, simple idea of feminism is that men and women should be equal. That's it. It is difficult for me to think that there are actually women out there who do not believe they should be considered equal to men.
And I understand that some people believe that we are already equal, but that is far from the case, and I am here to discuss why men and women still are NOT equal, and that we need feminists.
Let's start off with the most debated topic. There is currently a war on birth control, and it is becoming more expensive and difficult for women to get birth control. Birth control is not only a contraceptive, but it also comes with a lot of health benefits for women. It can help lower the risk for certain cancers, it can help with PCOS, and it can help with acne and hair growth. Our easy access to birth control is slowly being taken away, and it is beyond ridiculous that others are so concerned with something that used to be so simple.
There's also the abortion argument, which I'm only going to touch on. If others are going to force a woman to have a child, then the father of the child should not have the option to run away. Enough said.
Aside from those two heavily debated topics, there are more concrete issues that remain ongoing. Women are still being paid on average only 80 percent of what men earn. A woman gets paid 80,000 dollars a year for doing the same exact job that a man gets paid 100,000 dollars a year for. And this is just an average, depending on the state. Some states are as high as 89 percent, while others are as low as 70 percent.
"One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives." Of those female sexual assaults, only 37 percent are reported to the police. Why? Because women are scared, or they don't believe their voices will be heard. Often, sexual assault is taken beyond lightly. Let's not forget the famous Brock Turner who only spent three months in jail for brutally raping an innocent woman. His father had the audacity to believe that three months were too harsh of a punishment.
Just recently, in the Larry Nassar case, a man finally was given an aproperiate punnishment for sexually assaulting 156 women. Although this case probably only blew up due to the popularity of the women and the amount of people involved in the case, it is still a start. Many cases are often waved away as if sexual assault is no big deal, and for once it is being taken seriously. Let's keep our fingers crossed that at least one thing is heading in the right direction for women.
If you are a woman reading this, I really hope that you can consider yourself a feminist. You don't have to prance through the streets covered in glitter holing protest signs, but you should at least believe that we should be treated equally.
