Feminism by definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” Another definition from the same site reads “organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.”
These two definitions present two very different ideas: one is merely explaining what the word feminism means while the other is insinuating that there is some sort of action taking place within the word. Dictionaries such as Merriam Webster must be objective in their definitions and must show no opinion for the greater good of the people. Meaning that they can’t give their opinion on whether a word or definition is good or bad and it can leave many questions to be answered.
Feminism is one of the trickier words because it may incite a sense of pride, happiness, and love or it might incite frustration, exhaustion, and anger. But what do people really think about feminism and is it a good or a bad thing for both men and women to learn about our practice in?
A poll on Debate.org answers that very question. The poll itself asks “Is feminism good for women AND men?” It’s not exactly the question asked in the previous paragraph, but it is sort of taking sides in this situation. The poll has a turn out of 25 percent saying that feminism is good for both men and women while 75 percent say it is bad for both men and women.
Reasons people said yes include “it promotes an even playing field,” “The patriarchy is flawed” and “we want EQUALITY FOR ALL.” While the reasons people said no include “Feminism aims to dismantle the family,” “you are immediately creating a divide which separates the genders” and “we have been seeing a much larger amount of divorces and Family schisms.”
Another poll by the Washington Post asked: “Do you consider yourself to be a strong feminist, a feminist, not a feminist or an anti-feminist?” About 50 percent of men and 30 percent of women said that they were not a feminist which is the middle ground for the poll. 43 percent of women said they were just a regular feminist opposed to a strong feminist and 23 percent of men said the same thing. The poll also adds that “Women in different age groups identify themselves as a feminist (strong feminist and feminist) differently.”
The same poll gave the participants a list of words to describe the word “feminism” or “feminist” and they asked them if the word they were given describes feminism. The three words that were given were “outdated,” “angry” and “empowering.” 70 percent agreed that the word “empowering” described the word feminism while 30 percent said yes to “outdated” and 43 percent said yes to “angry.”
The people of the Washington Post poll are pretty divided when it comes to the words “feminism” and “feminist” being good or bad words. Debate.org’s poll, however, leans more toward a negative connotation when it comes to the two words.
Based on these two polls it is clear that people are still divided between the feminist movement and the words themselves. Since the movement is picking up speed and more and more people are getting involved, there is bound to be more debates in the future of whether it is a good movement. Until then people need to keep asking questions to come to a peaceful conclusion.
