At this point, we've probably all seen some sort of article claiming to take a stand against the evils of feminism, recently this one. Here, feminism is made out to be an ideology based on hating men, and yelling about problems that don't exist. Spoiler alert: that's not what feminism is.
Feminism is, quite simply, the belief that men and women should be equal. That's it. It's the idea that women should get paid the same amount of money for the same work. It's the notion that both women and men should be able to walk down the street without the fear of being attacked. It's the revolutionary concept that women can be strong and intelligent, and that our voices deserve to be heard just as much as any mans.
It's not about hating men. Personally, some of my best friends are men. They were the ones marching right beside me at the Women's March on Philadelphia this weekend, the ones who unapologetically call themselves male feminists. That's right, male feminists. If feminism is about hating men, does that really make any sense at all?
Yes, as the author of the article mentions, men and women can be very different, but that doesn't make us unequal. Look, maybe it is scientifically true that men have more muscle mass than women, but we aren't hunter gatherers anymore, plus this whole argument kind of ignores anyone who isn't cisgender, so it doesn't really matter anyway. Some women are delicate and some really like football and some are both. The exact same thing goes for men, and everyone else really.
Women around the world are being mocked, attacked, murdered, and silenced. So those are just a few of the things that feminists are yelling about. Oh, and men are being attacked as well, they just aren't allowed to feel any sort of emotion about it. Feminists are yelling about that too. The people who fought so hard to win women every right that we have today were feminists. The people who are trying to take away those rights don't know what feminism is, and they don't care enough to learn.
So if you are really "over" feminism, take a moment to consider how privileged you are to be in a position where it feels like you don't need it. While you're doing that, the rest of us feminists have work to do.
