When in a group, it is often hard for me to keep opinions to myself if the conversation becomes about any social issues. Although, at the same time, I often feel I cannot share my views because when asked why I have such strong views about issues such as abortion, gender wage gap and domestic violence, I fear to tell my real reasoning. That is because I am a feminist.
The first thoughts anyone I know has when they ever hear that I am a feminist is that they think that I hate men, want to burn my bra and think I believe women are superior to men. I have been called a "feminazi" multiple times and have been told that feminists are not looking for equality, but superiority. That has never been what I believe. I believe that women should be treated as equals to men. We live in a society in which men and women can work at the same job, with the same experience and yet the woman will make around $0.75 to every $1 that her male counterpart will make. We live in a society in which we tell victims of assault that they were probably "asking for it" and make the victim at fault instead of the man that attacked her. Many times, when a woman is sexually assaulted, or there was an attempted assault, media and others look for ways to victim blame. The first questions asked are often, Were you alone? Had you been drinking? Were you flirting with the person who attacked you or did you lead them on? They will ask the victim if it was late out and try to pinpoint a fault in the victim, rather than asking about questions that put the male attacker at fault.
I don't want to live in a society in which my future daughter is not treated with the same respect as her male classmates. I want her to feel that she can achieve great things in her career. I want her to believe that she can be a doctor or lawyer if she wishes to be, and those are not just jobs for boys. I want her to feel strong and know that it is okay for her to be independent. I don't ever want her to feel that she should be ashamed for who she is -- a girl. She should not have to worry about walking home at night when she is in her late teens and early twenties because she is afraid that she may be attacked or cat called.
Our society's problem is not that we have more problems facing women -- our problem is that we do nothing about it. We make the girls and the women in our society feel helpless, rather than to help them strive in life. Our women are made into victims and are blamed for the problems that they face. Instead of teaching our female youth to be afraid, we should be teaching our boys the appropriate ways to act and treat a woman. We need to teach the male youth that females are people and not objects, they cannot expect physical contact from females, they must learn to have a respect for females that is no longer there. We need to teach the next generation that they are all equal despite their physical differences.
