Feminist. Girls, guys, everyone is so tired of hearing the word. In fact, people are so tired of the whole idea of feminism because of what it has become in the eyes of social media. I’m sure everyone knows this, but feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. That’s it. That’s all it is.
Over the years, people have taken feminism to mean something completely outside of what it is. With the evolution of “Femi-nazis” people are starting to look at feminists with a skewed perspective. 43 percent of Americans polled would describe feminism as “angry.” While that’s not what all feminists are, it's easy to understand why some people view us that way. The extremists always give a group a bad name. No, we are not all “man-haters.” That’s not our goal or premise in any way. If we want to progress in the feminist movement, people need to realize that feminism isn’t about hating men or not shaving (though feel free), but it’s about equality. Nothing more. Nothing less.
It’s undeniable that women have not been equal to men in any point in history. To this day, they still get paid approximately 70 cents to the dollar that a man gets. This sends the message that women are only worth 70 percent of a man, a message we don’t want to send in 2016. 58 percent of women aged 18 to 34 said that the feminist movement is focused on desirable changes. My question is, what changes do the other 42 percent want? All women want is to be treated equally.
Why such a resistance to and stigma about female equality? There are anti-feminist groups who have a following and their sole mission is to make sure feminism cannot progress. That kind of misogyny cannot win in a society where women make up more than half the population. We need to take feminism back and strive to make the definition clear to society. We’re not some group of man-haters who want to take over the world. Feminists are simply women who want to get the same political, social and economic rights as men. A low percentage of women will strongly affirm that they label themselves as feminists. The reason for this is because of all the bad connotations and stereotypes that enter people's minds when they think of a “typical feminist.” The truth is, there is no such thing as a typical feminist. Anyone, male, female, transgender, can be a feminist. Anyone who believes men and women should have equal rights and are entitled to the same things is a feminist. You don’t have to agree with what I’m saying but I’m a feminist. And so is Beyoncé.
