The word "féminisme" was first coined by the French philosopher, Charles Fourier, in 1837, it appeared in Great Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910. It was first published in the Oxford English Dictionary for "feminist" in 1852, and then, "feminism" in 1895, demonstrating how this word has been used for centuries.
It seems like as time has gone by, the word “Feminism” has developed an increasingly negative stereotype in society. While doing research for this article by simply Google-ing, “Feminists are…” I found that the suggested words to complete the sentence were all insults.
Growing up, I too thought that Feminism was nothing but a bunch of old bitter woman complaining about their ex-husbands and talking about how awful men are. However, as I continued to mature and educate myself,I began to realize that that wasn’t what it’s about at all.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the definition of feminism is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” Something I’m pretty sure the sane majority would agree with. However, when the word feminism is associated with the definition, the response can typically be an eye roll, a scoff, or a rude comment.
When talking with peers and friends, I began to notice something strange also along the same lines. When discussing careers or what’s going on in the world, it seemed like the majority of those I talked to where on board with gender equality. However, as time has gone by I've begun to realize there has been a trend starting amongst young women. For example, when talking to a friend about dream jobs she said something like this, “I’m worried when I get older that I won’t be able to achieve as much as my male counterparts, but I’m not like a feminist or anything but it’s still unfair.” Interesting, because in the first half of her statement it described pretty much exactly the dictionary definition of feminism, however when the word, feminism, was actually used it was as if she uttered a curse word and was embarrassed about other people hearing.
I’ll be the first one to admit it; I too struggle with calling myself a feminist. There have been so many years of stereotyping that has made that word into so many different things than what it really is. It’s become embarrassing to say it. I fear that if I was to call myself a feminist I would be looked upon as unattractive to the opposite sex, too strong of a personality, crazy, and a man-hater.
But, it’s time for these stereotypes to be torn down.
First things first, to all those woman that call themselves “feminists,” although they hate men and think they better than them, sorry honey, but you aren’t a feminist. You’re a man - hater. As a feminist, you shouldn’t believe you are better than any one, but rather equal. Although your intentions might have been primarily good, you have set us back so far and created such a stigma, which is literally doing the opposite of what you intended to do in the first place. Shame on you.
Number two. Stop putting things like “Feminist” in your bio on Instagram and Twitter and expect something to come out of it. Bios should be used for discussing unique things about yourself, for example, your sorority, the sport you play, your university, your religion, your S.O’s name, etc. These things are all personal and only involve a certain number of people, not the whole world. If you really want feminism to be a successful universal idea, putting it in a place where things that are exclusionary go is just going to give the idea that it’s some "club" or a "trend" that only a certain amount of people can be a part of. You wouldn’t put “human being” in your bio because that isn’t anything unique. Same goes for feminism, if you want it to become a universally accepted idea then, stop treating it like it's something "different" or "trendy."
Third. Represent that you support feminism through your hard work, actions, and words. Not through a tweet or a status update. There’s nothing more of a downer than getting on to a social media website and seeing a huge cyber argument occur because someone tweeted something that you disagreed with. For lack of better words, it's annoying and you are just continuing to feed into the negative stereotypes for feminism.
Fourth. Chill out. Lol, seriously just calm down. You’re going to get literally nowhere with your verbal pitchforks and torches aiming right for every man who has ever done you wrong. Remember that for every man who has done a woman wrong, there is a man somewhere who has been done wrong by a woman. So, acting like every man is awful and misogynistic is just going to make a lot of people angry, and insult both men and women. If we truly want equality, we need to work together with men in order to establish a mutual respect regardless of gender but rather on the principle of hard work and our actions.
Although posting this article is something that I know will get lots of eye rolls from feminists and non-feminists alike, I felt as though it was something that needed to be said. You can say you are a feminist and that doesn’t mean you are ugly, sexist, annoying, etc. You don’t have to be a non-Christian, a democrat, or a liberal to be a feminist. You don’t have to even be a woman to be a feminist. The only thing that a feminist should be is an advocate for the equal representation of genders in society, economically, politically, and socially.
It’s time that we fight the stigma (both men and women). So that women (and men) will never feel inadequate, discouraged, or limited by the barricades that society has built up for so many years.
Do it for our grandmothers, our mothers, our sisters, and our cousins. For our friends, our teachers, our co-workers, and our daughters. For ourselves.
It’s time to wreck some stereotypes.
