Reclaiming The F-Word

More often than not, it is merely among the less knowledgeable majority that one must be anti-man in order to be pro-woman. If anyone is to blame, for lack of a better word, for the common myths behind defining feminism, it is history. Over periods of time, feminism has become a topic of discussion as well as controversy since women have started stepping up and speaking out about roles in society, claiming a need for equality. We've grown convinced with the idea that women should take on the role of the less intelligible, weaker structured beings in comparison to the male population. But why is that? And beyond that, men are in on the issue too.

"I don't know why people are so reluctant to say they're feminists. Maybe some women just don't care. But how could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?" Says actress Page Allen. In order to challenge the patriarchy, we have to look at how patriarchy controls our thoughts and minds. Once we quit falling into the pit of internalized misogyny will we come forward as the bold, intelligent and strong women we wish to see and be in the world.

Very deliberately, women have made vast changes happen over generations going back to the Women's Rights Movement in 1848. Proclaiming that men are the privileged sex is a pretentious statement. Jenny Slate once said, “I think that people who are maybe threatened by feminism think that it’s about setting your bra on fire and being aggressive, and I think that’s really wrong and really dangerous.”

For years women have clearly been a degraded object in the media. They are depicted as poorly as ever, and this image creates potential side effects for the girl sitting on the other side of the TV screen. This idea opens up another can of worms, however. Is the way women are depicted a mere reflection from their choices and decisions? What the media "wants" is the standards they are willing to meet which, in turn, scrutinizes the way women are valued altogether. It's "appropriate" for girls to hide under layers of products from the makeup to the clothes they wear.

On another note, why is it that men aren't thrown into the same stereotypical sex pool of creatures as women when they're feeling erotic? If this doesn't scream equality!

Gender equality is a problem among us all. The fight has changed, but the stereotypes still stand. If we always submit to our gender's prescribed role, then we lose our realness by existing by the standards of history.