In May of this year, an article was published on the Odyssey entitled, "I Am A Female And I Am So Over Feminists," not to mention, "I Am Not A Feminist And That Is Okay." Being a feminist myself, and admitting my bias toward the article just based on the title, I clicked and began reading the article that at this point has over 190,000 shares. The amount of false information and misunderstanding the author used to make her points was alarming, and the fact that there are nearly 200,000 people under the impression that her article is an accurate representation of feminists and their beliefs is worrisome. What I have done is gone through and dissected some of her main arguments, cleared some of the misconceptions and explained logical reasons why some of these beliefs exist.
So if you would like to read this article and agree with it, then some empirical things need to be understood.
1. Athletics
We get it. Women are smaller; we are built differently and as a whole, we shouldn't play in a football game against a 6' 6", 220 lb linebacker. However, when the U.S. women's soccer team wins the world cup and wins $2 million, and the men's soccer team wins $35 million, for the exact same sport, with 23 million viewers in 2015 setting a world record, we have a problem.
2. Chivalry
Feminists do not want chivalry gone. Feminists do not view men paying as an insult or "offensive." Come on, we are not actually crazy. We do, however, want our date to not feel like they have to pay or that it is their role to pay. Why the heck should you pay every tab when we're here eating too? Maybe I had a bad day and want the triple molten lava obesity cake that's $12 and I want to pay for it with my own money. So yeah, I will let you pay the first date, but you can bet that I am going to take you to Olive Garden and pay next weekend.
3. Money
Don't tell me there's not a glass ceiling. Male nurses make on average $5,148 annually more than women at starting pay. So for all the people who say, "Well maybe women should change their majors from women's literature and gender studies to biology and then they will earn more," guess what? There is still a wage gap. So yes, maybe some strong willed women are breaking through their glass ceilings, but maybe it should be broken for all women and not just the few that are going out of their way to fight through it. Also, don't say that the United States is the best place for women when we are ranked 22nd on the Global Gender Gap Report (2012), with Iceland taking the top slot.
4."Not everything is a man's fault." (As stated in the article.)
We know. Feminists are not practicing misandry, just as a massive majority of men are not misogynists. But you know what? I will purposely take the long way around work to my car if there are men smoking down by the back of the building. When I was going to college, I was on Amazon looking for pepper spray, while many men are shopping for condoms. No, not all men are going to harm me, but there are enough that might that make me want to take these precautions, and in the unfortunate event that a man would harm us, we are blamed for not taking these precautions.
5. "I don't believe that being a female entitles me to put down men to be the 'dominant' gender." (Again, as stated in the article.)
Good! Congratulations, you are a feminist! You really are. If you think that women and men are equal, deserve equal rights and no gender is greater than another, then you are holding the exact foundational feminist standpoint. Believing one sex is better than the other is misandry or misogyny, and thinking that we are equal is feminism. It's a philosophy developed by females (hence the prefix), for the benefit of all. So, congrats on your new-found feminism, sharers and writers, and remember to love and educate others on what it means to be a feminist.
