The F-word, a word that turns so many people away from a conversation: Feminism. While some people may associate this with bra burning, extremist man-haters, that is NOT what feminism is about. Feminism is the radical notion that all people should be treated equally on a social, political and economical platform, regardless of their anatomy.
This whole man hating thing is called misandry, NOT feminism. Many times, feminism is misconstrued with misandry because those women are extremely outspoken, confrontational and a little bit scary. These radical sexists set feminists back even further in their quest for equality, tarnishing the name of feminists. A true feminist isn’t trying to put any gender over the other, they just want to see the sexes treated equally.
There are SO many aspects of feminism, but I’ve come to realize that most of the issues that people in America speak out on are definitely #FirstWorldProblems. Granted, the wage gap is super inconvenient, allowing men to be paid 21.7 percent more than women for doing the same job with the same hours. Yeah, I get it, that sucks, but at least women in America aren’t getting sold off as child brides at ages as young as 7 years old. At least women aren’t being disowned from their entire family and society by being sexually promiscuous. At least women aren’t being forced to have abortions because we already have one child.
As an American woman, I don’t have to worry about a soldier rampaging my house and stealing me to send into sex slavery. I am given the opportunity to get an education and make something of my life, and that’s more than so many people in the world are privileged. People don’t focus on these matters of life and death because it doesn’t directly pertain to their own life. These are the issues people need to work towards fixing. This is feminism.
True equality is not something that we can just wake up to. It is not something that only one person can make happen. This isn’t a matter that just women can fix. This isn’t something that only men can fix. Feminism is something that we have to work together for in order to achieve gender equality.
Even though this is an important movement, it isn’t a perfect movement. There are so many flaws in just about everything in society, and this is no exception. What’s concerning is the issues that people choose to focus on. Women make movements out of being allowed to walk around half naked rather than rallying against sex trafficking. Some of them work towards legalizing prostitution rather than fixing the wage gap so women can have better opportunities, preventing them from resorting to prostitution in the first place. I won’t be so bold as to say feminists don’t support the problems women face in other countries, but the number of feminists that I have seen promoting the "Free the Nipple" movement have vastly outweighed the number of women who want to protect young girls in foreign countries who have had their innocence and childhood ripped away from them.
Fortunately, the work of feminists have not been in vain. They have shed light on the over sexualization of females, they have been working towards closing the wage gap, and they have been promoting body positivity. It reminds women that being cat called or hyper sexualized is NOT appropriate. It teaches women that it is not rude to put someone in their place for objectifying someone. Some companies have been hopping on board with this body positivity movement, using models that have more “average” body types, advocating the idea that your body is beautiful regardless of skin tone, weight or any other physical aspect. This gives young girls everywhere hope in knowing that their bodies are beautiful just the way they are. This is feminism.
So next time you hear the word feminism, don’t shy away from it. Instead, listen to what that person has to say and join along side them in the movement towards equality. Don’t argue about why you think feminism is overrated, or sexist or stupid in general, because it’s not. It’s simply the idea that women deserve to be treated equally and deserve the same rights as men. That's not that outrageous of an idea, and for some girls, it is literally a matter of life and death.
