These days, it seems like more and more people identify as feminists. Yet, somehow, it also seems like more people identify as anti-feminist. That's to be expected, the bigger the force, the bigger the retaliation. But so many of these feminist haters are women, and that's where it gets weird — how could so many women be in opposition against a movement created to help them?
The main reason for this is a lack of understanding of the definition of feminism. Feminism is the belief in equality between sexes, and the effort in furthering women's rights in order to reach that equality. However, many people take this as synonymous to misandry, or the belief that women are superior to men — the opposite of misogyny. And this fundamental misunderstanding leads to a lot of arguments against feminism.
The first is that people who are against feminism say it because they aren't man-haters, but this is irrelevant to the definition of feminism. While there are extreme feminists who do say they hate men, those people are the minority, like any extremist group is.
Another reason people deviate from identifying as feminists is the belief that women already have it good. There are some who believe that, because of things like chivalry, women actually have it better than men. They believe that since women got the right to vote, they are equal, as if suffrage is the sole identifier of equality.
All of these arguments fail to account for the current needs for feminism. It is not a fad that ceased to be useful after women achieved the right to vote.
One big feminist issue in the U.S. right now is the wage gap. The term refers to the fact that, on average, women in the U.S. make 79 percent of what men make. The problem expands when you break things down by race — Hispanic or Latina women make 54 percent of what white men make. The issue doesn't just affect women, either. White and Asian men make more than anyone on average each year. The wage gap is an issue that goes beyond feminism — the only people who aren't harmed by the wage gap are white men, and that's only if they're also straight, cisgendered and able-bodied. Needless to say, feminist issues go beyond just furthering women. Intersectional feminism seeks to put all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race or ability on a level playing field.
The argument that women are already in a good place fails to realize that there are women in countries that aren't the U.S. where the inequalities are much more pronounced. In places where women are denied an education, where young girls are forced into marriage as soon as they hit puberty, or where girls are punished for being raped, feminism can have a huge impact on the quality of life. Saying that women and men are already equal is a selfish, Ameri-centric way of thinking that refuses to think globally.
Furthermore, feminism is no longer about trying to prove that women can do the same things men can do. It's about embracing and empowering women for all that they are - whether they choose to be feminine, or if they're more masculine, or if they decide that instead of being a woman, they're actually a man. In the past, feminism has been about distancing women from femininity, saying that women can be strong. But that distinction just insinuates that for a woman to be strong, she must be like a man. A sex worker is a just as strong as a lawyer; a beauty queen is just as strong as marine; a nurse is just as strong as a doctor. Feminism is not about pitting one set of women against each other; it's about all women linking arms and taking a stand to make the world better for all of us.
Feminism is not a dirty word. It is not a mechanism for women to eliminate men. It is the way women attempt to make up for the thousands of years they were forced into silence, obedience, and slavery. It is a way to help those women who are still abused day in and day out. It is how generations of women are fighting back against the institutionalized system of oppression forced on them from day one.
