The dirty “f” word. Most people are afraid to say it, much less associate themselves with it.
That’s right, the f word- feminist.
“Oh god, please tell me you’re not a feminist! Don’t you hate men and grow your leg hair out?”
Okay, no. We need to set some things straight on feminism:
- (Most) don’t think women are superior to men (we just think we’re equal!)
- We don’t hate men (we just hate that you have more rights than us.)
- Not all of us skip shaving our legs (for those that do, more power to you! I would look like a wooly mammoth, so I’m going to keep my razors.)
Okay, now that we have those three common myths out of the way, it’s time to declare it: I am a feminist, and I don’t care who knows it! And I’m sick of people thinking feminists are some crazy, pea-sized-brain maniacs who want to demolish men and have women rule the world. Listen, that’s not our agenda, I promise. We just want equality for everyone.
That sounds simple, but unfortunately it’s not. Too often I hear things like “women are already equal” or “what more can you want, you already won the right to vote”.
What more can I want? How about the full dollar?
Look, we’ve come a long way from the 1800’s, but there’s still major room for improvement. First of all, women are still making 78 cents to every dollar a man makes. Not only that, if you’re a woman minority, it’s worse! African American women make 64 cents to every dollar a man makes, while Latina women earn 56 cents. In a lifetime, the average male will have earned a million more than a Latina woman. That is absolutely unacceptable. Just because I wear a bra doesn’t mean I’m incapable of teaching a class or diagnosing a patient, and the fact that it’s 2016 and women are thought of as “less qualified” makes me sick.
If you’re a woman and you are hoping to have that C.E.O., GOOD LUCK! In the U.S., there’s more C.E.O’s named John than there are women C.E.O’s altogether.
Another disappointing fact is that women make up only 18.3% of Congress. Women only have a “share of voice” (women representatives in Congress, corporate boards, etc.) is 15%. Wow.
The sickening part is that when I posted this fact on my Facebook profile, someone told me women don’t belong in Congress because we have periods, and can’t make rational decisions when it’s “that time of the month.”
Having my period means I’m not going to feel guilty about that second chocolate bar, not that I’m going to nuke a whole country just because. But that’s the mindset many people STILL share: that women are incapable of things because they’re irrational, emotional, and overall under-qualified.
On top of all this, women are more likely to experience violence then men. The U.N. reported 70% of women will experience some type of violence during their lifetime, and if you’re in the military, you have a 50% chance of experiencing rape and harassment from colleagues, as told by a report from the Pentagon.
Like that bottle of perfume you bought last week? What about that body wash that smells like flowers? Do you enjoy that pink pen? If so, you’re paying up to four times more for these products than a man would. A simple side-by-side comparison from online websites will prove this one to be true.
And let’s not forget about victim blaming. Heard of Leslie Rasmussen? She actually wrote the judge who convicted Brock Turner a letter stating Turner should not have his life ruined for “a girl who doesn’t remember anything.” Rasmussen then went on to imply that rapists don’t cause rape, campuses that promote drinking do. Go ahead and have yourself a seat, Leslie.
In third world countries, women are killed if they are raped. The official term is shame killing, and it happens when a woman is thought to have brought dishonor on her family. In Pakistan alone, 1,096 honor killings of women were reported last year. If a woman is raped, she is thought of as “unclean” by her family and society, and therefore the family will kill the woman in order to bring honor back into the family. And in not-so-shocking news, this is completely legal in a handful of countries.
There are feminists who are extreme and think the world should be completely run by women, but there’s also extreme Conservatives and extreme pie-eating contests. You will always find those extreme people in any belief system. For the most part, feminists just want women and minorities to be seen as equal to men.
I’m not a feminazi, I just want equality.
