After reading several Odyssey articles written by women who think the feminist movement is a waste of time and just an excuse for women to complain, I decided to write my own article explaining why these articles are so ignorant.
1. Women aren't protesting for no reason.
Do you really think millions of men and women participate in women's marches just because they feel like it? In case you were wondering, that is not why they do it. They do it to fight for equal pay, the right to make decisions about things that affect their own body, to fight against sexual harassment. These are real issues, with facts to back them up, so no, they aren't just doing it for no reason.
2. Speaking of equal pay, it is actually an issue.
The pay gap has nothing to do with women actually working being a new thing. Your great-great-grandfather having a job and your great-great-grandmother not having one, has nothing to do with men who are actually alive today. That argument makes no sense. The pay gap isn't a history issue, it's a current issue. Women are not protesting because the man who has worked at a company for 30 years is making more than the woman who has worked there for 10.
Women are protesting because men with the same and sometimes even less experience are receiving a higher pay. You can research it, I promise, it is a real problem.
3. People are not criticizing men who are accused of sexual assault just because they think it's the "cool" thing to do.
Believe it or not, sexual assault is actually wrong and not okay. It's gross, and people shouldn't do it. And you know what's even crazier? A man with 19 accusers is living in the White House right now. Women are not fighting sexual assault because it's "cool" or "trendy" but are fighting it because it's disgusting.
4. You may know more women who are doing certain things but that doesn't make it true.
If women had just given up because "things used to be worse," we would not be in the same place we are now. There is a reason we have the right to vote, the right to birth control no matter our age or marital status, that women cannot be fired from their jobs for being pregnant, women can serve in the military, and that women are able to accuse coworkers of sexual harassment. Giving up is ridiculous. Change does not just happen, both men and women work for it.
6. The argument about men and women not being equal physically is so irrelevant right now.
Honestly, what does that argument have to do with anything? Do you think a woman is going to become a feminist just because she doesn't think it's fair that she goes to the gym and can't lift as much as the guy next to her? This argument is so irrelevant. The fight is not over our physical inequalities. Those are things we can't control. The fight is over the inequalities we can control.
I thought I would feel a little less frustrated after writing this article, but honestly, I don't. The fact that there are so many young women who have been raised to see themselves as just male-companions rather than just as women, or who were taught to think women who fight for their own rights are "hateful" or "crazy" is absurd. Women are fighting because of facts, not opinions. Feminism has a purpose: equality. And that purpose is one everyone should support.
