The other night I was on the phone with my friend. We were discussing the latest Trump scandal when she brought up to me that she had read an article about ending feminism. Ironically, after she had brought this up to me that same article started to appear all over my social media. I am not one to criticize anyone's writing, as I think it is the best medium to express your opinion freely. However, with recent news on Trump's "locker room" comments, we need feminism more than ever. Being a "female that's over feminists" is not edgy or cute. It just further promotes the idea that men should dominate society.
Let me preface this by saying there is a difference between being a feminist and being a man hater. A feminist believes in equal rights and opportunities between men and women. If you would rather live in a society before the women's rights movements of the 1960s, let's take a little journey back through history. According to CNN, here are some things you as a woman, would not be able to do if we did not have this thing called feminism that you speak so disdainfully about.
You as a female would not be able to own a credit card. Well if you are living a life as a stereotypical woman, you must love shopping until you drop! Better save up those pennies and dimes that your husband allows you to have from his paycheck! Otherwise, how are you going to go shopping? Only since 1974 has a woman been allowed to have a credit card without her husband signing for it.
Go on birth control. I mean maybe you would like to be reduced down to a baby machine housewife. I,however, do not and will not allow anyone to make that decision for me. However, before the feminist movement, women were denied the right to be on birth control. Well, not all woman...if you were having "severe menstrual distress" or married you were allowed. So basically if you were just a woman trying to take control of her own life and not pop out a kid before she was ready, sorry! You weren't allowed! Man, feminism sucks right?
Would you like to show up to work and not be treated equally to your male coworkers? No? Yeah, probably not and you don't because of a little thing called feminism. Before the creation of the National Organization of Women in the 1960's, this was common practice. Women earned 59 cents to every dollar a man made and were not treated equally. Pregnancy was a fire-able offense (oh must have been easy to avoid with lack of birth control options). So before you put down feminists because "you like chivalry," think about going to work and being treated as an inconvenience.
I cannot even begin to fathom living in a society before the woman's lib movement. So yeah I am against man haters who feel women are superior to men. However, a feminist is not and should not be a man hater. I promise it is possible to like being treated for a date and still believe you have equal rights as your date. To anyone that thinks they are edgy for not liking feminism, I urge you to crack a history book or watch the documentary "She's Beautiful When She's Angry." Then come back and talk to me about how you're "so over feminism."
