Over the last few days I have gotten quite a few messages from people, mostly women, who read my last article ‘The Choice Between Raising A Family And Raising A Picket Sign Doesn’t Exist, Stop Pretending It Does’. Some of the responses have been overwhelmingly positive, to those people I thank you, but to the others, I want to address you-so listen up because I’m talking to you.
These negative messages ranged from calling me a ‘feminazi’, to saying I am a ‘feminist bitch’, to messages telling me to stop playing victim because women are no longer oppressed and feminism isn’t needed anymore.
One particular message really caught my interest, partly because it was the best written of the group, but also the contents stood apart because this woman was making an actual point rather than just insulting me. Here is a snippet of that message:
“I wanted to comment on your post directly but your privacy settings won’t let me so I thought I would message you. Your article was interesting but it was missing the point in my opinion because we don’t need feminists or marches anymore. Men and women are equal I feel that I have the same rights as my husband does. I make good money more than my husband makes or my brother makes. I don’t feel I have ever been treated less as a woman and I think that should be talked about more.”
So I have a question for all women that think like this, all women against feminism: Why do you think you are special?
I am really happy for you that you do not experience discrimination in your daily life, truly I am. I am thrilled you haven’t experienced pay inequality, that you do not feel negatively affected by the Pink Tax, that reproductive freedom (including acquisition of birth control) is not something that plagues you, that it doesn’t bother you that we are ranked 104th in the world for female representation in government, or that one in four women have been sexually assaulted, but you are not the only person that matters.
So I ask again: Why do you think you are special? Just because you do not experience these things, just because you, as an individual, do not feel that you are negatively affected, does not mean that other women in this country don’t experience these things. If you look at statistics you will quickly find that you not experiencing these things, while a blessing, is not the norm.
You will find with a quick google search that women are still negatively impacted by the pay gap, that the Pink Tax is real, that many women do not have access to birth control, that our government is overwhelming male, and again that one in four women in the United States of America has been sexually assaulted.
These problems are real, and you dismissing them because you do not experience them does not make them any less real. Why do you feel that you need to tell women not to fight for what they believe in? Why do you feel that just because you do not experience discrimination you have the need, or rather the right, to tell people who do experience these things not to fight?
Why do you think you are special?
