Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian novelist and feminism activist, is most famously known among our generation as the woman featured in Beyoncé’s song “***Flawless.” Adichie expresses the eloquently spoken and, unfortunately, true statement:
“We say to girls: you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you will threaten the man.”
She expresses this idea with the intent that women are being raised based on aspirations of marriage, competition among one another for the attention of man, and that through gender we are being given aspirations rather than being allowed to pursue our own.
A feminist is no longer considered an ambitious, resolute man or woman seeking the equality of rights for both sexes, but is attributed with derogatory misconceptions such as all feminists hate men, are unhygienic, humorless, and angry. We are considered the women who are too loud, too outspoken, and too political. We discuss “crude” topics and we “attack men.” Most would prefer it to be called “equalism” because feminism is just a little too rough around the edges; however, no one seems to understand the truth of the 21st century feminist movement.
It is not a hatred of the opposite sex; it is a belief in the equality of rights for both men and women. We do not hate men, we just refuse to change the conversation of equality simply because someone feels that we, as women, need to make feminism more pleasing for those who oppose us. It is not a marginalization of any sort, it is a search, a fight for receiving the equal rights that the Constitution calls for and what our feminist predecessors accomplished in 1920 when women were granted the right to vote.
If we, as feminists, are looking to break the gender barriers set up for centuries then why should we be combated? We are not extremists wanting to destroy the free world by way of women’s rights. Why should we change our ideals and ourselves because people disagree with our stance? Yes, we get angry but getting angry can lead to a positive change. We are often dubbed “humorless” and “bitter” because we refute insensitive, cruel comments, such as rape and sexual assault jokes. We are told to “lighten up,” but the things we see and hear don’t seem like topics to be taken lightly. It is not that we are bitter and, like everyone else, we do in fact find things funny. We can be over-the-top, loud, and ambitious because as women who have had the rights our ancestors did not have, we are ready to have it all.
Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist, wrote, “We’ve had to fight to vote, to work outside the home, to work in environments free of sexual harassment, to attend the universities of our choice, and we’ve also had to prove ourselves over and over to receive any modicum of consideration.” Now we’re ready to fight for equal pay and for more women to pursue placement in the oval office. Why should we be reprimanded or put down based on our ambition to achieve completely equal rights as American citizens? We are passionate people (not just women) who, like any other activist group, must take charge to evoke change.
There are plenty of people who believe that in 2015 men and women now have equal rights and the idea of feminism is irrelevant. This is a fair statement from someone who does not know the facts, albeit one of the most talked about topics nowadays is the fact that we have never had a female president and recently, the fact that women, on average, make only 75 cents for every one dollar a man makes. With just these two facts one can see just how unequal we are. What is wrong with believing the country could benefit from a female leader? Or that women and men doing the same job should receive equal pay? Both of those seem to be reasonable seeing that even though we have had the right to vote for 95 years we still haven’t put a woman in the highest office this country has or bridged the economic gap in terms of income. In less than a century we have done things our ancestors would have only dreamed of. We are a new generation of women seeking everything the feminist movement has not yet achieved.
Telling someone you are a feminist in today’s society is like saying you are a humorless, over-ambitious, and bitter, not to mention you don’t shave (which is preposterous). There are a million different types of “feminist” a person can be and what they believe in for the feminist movement. All stereotypes aside, we are a diverse group of men and women who want to see positive affirmation and forward movement for women. I am proud to call myself a feminist regardless of the wrongfully attributed terms that are applied with the title. I want to be able to advance our cause, achieve what we wish to achieve, and inspire future generations to join the movement. The conversation about feminism has to shift because contrary to popular belief, feminist is not a bad word.
