I was shocked and honestly a little horrified to open up the Odyssey and see that the majority of the top articles were about women opposing feminism. This past weekend I spent the day surrounded by thousands of others — not just women but men and children — at the Women’s March. They all, like me, were there to speak out for their rights and demand equality and justice.
It was so empowering for me seeing so many people all in agreement about one essential thing — we are all human beings who deserve equal rights and opportunities.
How do these women not see it that way?
Reading through, I saw that the premise of all of these articles is the same — females (to me, a much more clinical and non-inclusive label than "women") and males are essentially different and not equal, so why are these feminists even bothering? Science (not to mention God) tells us we are different so it’s time these silly feminists stop making a huge fuss!
To me, that argument is insane. We live in a developed country where physical strength and size does not determine social standing or opportunity. It seems as silly to me to restrict opportunities for women because of gender as it would be to create height or weight restriction for jobs.
These “ females” continue by assuring the reader that they think women are strong and smart — or in the words of one author, “Sure, I think boys are stupid and that I'm probably better than 90% of the male population” (Who’s the misandrist now?). Somehow, though, they feel the need to follow up with a glaring ‘but’.
Look, I can admit that I am not religious at all. I don’t want to disrespect someone’s beliefs — even if to me they seem outdated. If you believe men should be the head of the family, go for it! That is so far from the point of feminism, though.
To me, the epitome of feminism is choice and opportunity. If you want to be a soccer mom or a housewife, more power to you! If self-proclaimed feminist tries to tell you that you’re wrong, they are doing something wrong, not you.
But — and it’s a big but — the point is that those should never be your only options. Feminism is about having all the rights and opportunities that men have so that you can choose to be a doctor or scientist or CEO or a stay at home mom!
The forms of feminism that came before today have given it a bad name sometimes, I will concede that. They have accomplished a huge amount, but there is still a lot left. Our society has reached a point where we accept women wanting jobs that were traditionally reserved for men or taking on strong, masculine qualities. We still have far to go with accepting women and men taking on traditionally feminine roles instead of shaming them for accepting their femininity.
I think it’s important to mention how gender-related issues affect different populations very differently. I can’t help but wonder — have the women writing these articles ever personally faced these issues? They all seem to talk about husbands or boyfriends, so I am going to assume that they are not LGTBQIA+ — a population that experiences much higher rates of sexual assault, rape, and violence.
And while it is an oversimplification of the wage gap to say how women make less for every dollar a man makes, that gap is real and even larger if you are black, Hispanic, or Latino. It’s much easier to see the problems in modern feminism when you are part of the group that has already benefited the most from it.
I’m sure I haven’t convinced the authors of anything. As one said, “It seems like every time people in my classes find this out, they assume I don’t understand what we’re talking about. They try to explain it to me. I know what you’re saying. I just don’t agree.” Still, as a girl who daily feels empowered and passionate about feminism and the strong women I see doing amazing work around me, I can’t help but try.
