While scrolling through the popular articles on Odyssey earlier this week, I came across an article entitled "I'm An 18-Year-Old Female And I Will Never Be A Feminist" (check it out here, if you so choose). As a self-proclaimed feminist, I rolled my eyes and clicked on the article, expecting a white girl with a lot of privilege saying she doesn't need feminism because she's never felt oppressed for being a woman (due to her privilege, not that she'd admit it). What I found was a very uneducated and misguided view of modern-day feminism that had gathered a lot of attention. Here is my response to this ludicrous article:
Outright stating that you think “boys are stupid” and that you’re “probably better than 90% of the male population” does not make you any better than modern-day feminists. It makes you appear to have a superiority complex, which is a large part of the controversy surrounding 21st-century feminism. Feminism is the idea that everyone receives equal treatment regardless of gender. Unfortunately, there are a number of people who have taken feminism and twisted it into an avenue for hatred and superiority. These supposed “modern-day feminists” you are attempting to distance yourself from are part of the reason you see feminism as a dirty word. They are NOT feminists; they are individuals using a worldwide movement as an excuse for their horribly selfish behavior.
What you believe feminism used to be is what feminism still is. Everyone should be able to work hard and be ambitious and achieve their goals. The fact of the matter is, ambition and a good work ethic isn’t proving to be enough for minority groups. The people around them believe that their gender or race or sexuality or any other factor of their identity invalidates their abilities, which is not the case. There is no correlation between identity and ability, and to believe that there is makes you part of the problem.
Your arguments regarding the supposed inequalities between men and women, along with being uneducated and downright ludicrous, are blatantly sexist and transphobic. Feminism has nothing to do with the physical differences between men and women; a simple Google search could tell you that. I know people of all genders that could carry a 190-pound man back to a safe zone after he was shot on the front line of a war, and I know people of all genders that could not. Regardless of this, and regardless of the article you linked to arguing that brains are sex-oriented organs, sex and gender are not the same thing. Sex is a physical attribute, while gender is a social identification. Sex and gender do not always “match up”, and there is NOTHING wrong with that! Since I am cisgender (meaning I am female and identify as a woman) and do not have the authority or all the necessary knowledge to educate you more in-depth on gender identity, I won’t say more about this.
As far as “running a revolution” against Donald Trump and his supporters is concerned, people have every right to protest the president and his administration. These rights are spelled out in the Constitution. The government class I’m sure you took in high school should have taught you that. The United States of America was born out of the protest of unjust leaders, and these rights to protest and criticize leaders were created to ensure that the things Great Britain subjected us to would not happen again. As a woman, as someone with more than a few preexisting conditions, as a member of the LGBT+ community, and as a young person ready to inherit the world from the older generations, a lot of the things Trump and his administration have said and done are terrifying. I am not about to stand by and let these terrifying things happen, not when I am guaranteed the right to do something about it.
Do you want to know why the 15- to 25-year-olds of our society are really "clinging" to feminism? They are realizing that they can do something about the world they live in. They are realizing that they have a voice, and that speaking up can actually change something. Social media is a big part of this. Social media is connecting people to each other and to the world around them in an unprecedented way. The entire world lives in the palm of our hands, giving people access to stories and information they otherwise would never have known. It’s true that Twitter can be a world of hatred and fake love towards all, I will give you that. But there are other parts of Twitter that are full of real love, support, and inspirational stories that prove that there are still plenty of good things in this world to celebrate.
I had hoped that household gender stereotypes were something that had lived and died in the 1950’s, but I understand that not everyone thinks they’re a bad thing. I personally don’t want to be shoved into outdated roles that require me to stay home and cook and clean and be generally miserable while waiting for the husband I may or may not have to bring home the bacon. I am the type of person who wants to see the world and pursue my dreams and not have to rely on anyone else, so being expected to become a housewife like you seem to be suggesting would not be fulfilling for me. Of course, I can’t speak for every woman. Some women want nothing more than to be a housewife, and I have no authority or right to tell them how to live their life. Feminism is about having a choice, not because of gender, but because you are a human being that has the right to a choice in how you live your life.
It seems to me that your only experiences with modern-day feminism have been with extremists that are the reason feminism has such a bad rep. And for that, I am sorry. Feminism is truly about the equal treatment of all people, something that benefits everyone involved. To believe that feminism is anything but that is to deprive yourself of the opportunity to lead your life the way you see fit. I hope that you can reconsider your stance on feminism, now that you know what it actually is.
Also, I have a huge issue with your opening line “‘A man told me to have a good day... I'm triggered.’ How ludicrous does that sound?” Triggers refer to anything that evokes the memory of a traumatic event. Triggers are a very real thing for some people, with very real physical and mental effects. You have no right to reduce someone’s trauma to an insensitive joke to aid in your ludicrous argument. Grow up, and have some respect.
