A huge stereotype that comes with the term “feminist” is that we’re all masculine lesbians who hate boys. I can’t tell you how untrue that is. In the community of female feminists that I know personally, we all (for the most part) are heterosexual, love personal hygiene, feeling pretty and looking feminine. AND WE ALL LOVE MEN.
The topic of sex and love with relation to feminism and gender equality has enormous potential for an extremely wide array of opinions and ideas. There’s some people who agree with me that feminism is nothing more than the want for equal rights between males and females. This includes everything, tangible things like equal salary and intangible, social things such as banishing the double standard.
Emma Watson is receiving a ton of attention right now for her recent speech at the UN where she explains exactly how feminism should be accepted by society. But even she is receiving backlash from people who claim she is nothing more than a rich white woman complaining about things she does not understand.
The social stigma attached to the word feminism is tainted due to the extreme members of the feminist movement. People who find every little thing to be upsetting if it has to do with gender. Like the feminist group in France who think the famous statue of a sailor kissing a women from world war 2 depicts sexual assault. It’s extremists like this, and the ones who want to raise women up above men that are ruining feminism for society.
Having boys and men on the side of feminism is very important but tricky to do. Many times I’ll find myself berating my male friends for telling me that “feminism is annoying”. And all I have to say to them is that if they believe I am equal to them, they are feminists.
] I believe in the future we will look back on this period in time and think “what was wrong with us” just as we have for so many things like civil rights and what we will also do for LGBT rights. Feminism is something we all need, and we must not let the skewed versions of the word ruin what women deserve: equal rights to men.
This is a follow up about the last re-blogged post from Preppy Panda “Why I Wasn’t Afraid of Getting Sexually Assaulted in College”. This is a very powerful post that speaks in many ways to the feminist movement for gender equality. While our fellow blogger is correct that actions such as dressing conservatively, refraining from drinking, and avoiding parties will make it less likely for someone to sexually assault you, this to me is shunning life. This could be seen as a guide as to how to live life with extreme caution and avoid putting yourself in situations where bad things could happen to you. But this theory would also require us to avoid cars, bad weather, stoves, and countless other potentially dangerous things. Essentially rejecting living life.
These examples to me are equivalent to the examples that Preppy Panda gives about why she was not afraid of sexual assault. Now I understand that not everyone does want to go out and party and hook up casually and drink but the point I’m trying to make here is that as women, we shouldn’t have to take those precautions whether we want to or not. We need to be able to live the way we want to and not fear others’ actions.
This is a world I would be proud to live in and be a part of. College right now just isn’t a place where this world exists. But we need to work together to make this world a reality for all of us. Where we can do what we want and not have to worry about sick people who don’t understand that me dancing at a party does not in fact mean I want to you to hit on me and attempt to have sex with me.
Can you picture young girls everywhere thinking “Taylor Swift said she isn’t a feminist so neither am I”….? Because I can. Recently, the discussion of feminism has taken a jump into the world of celebrities. The New York Times recently discussed the prevalence of actresses, performance artists and others in the public eye who avoid calling themselves feminists. And yes, the beloved country/pop singer T. Swift is one of them. Many of the women that deny feminism include love for men as the reason for their avoidance. Shailene Woodley’s statement said “I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.” THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!
The dictionary definition of “feminism” is “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” Nowhere in this definition or any other educated explanation of feminism is there a description of a society where women prevail over men. Yes there are extreme feminists who do believe this type of society is the ideal. But keep in mind there are extremists in any group.
The reason the denial of feminism by female celebrities is so worrying is the impressions they have on the rest of our culture. We need to re-educate people on the true meaning of feminism. Every woman should be a feminist, we all want equal rights and we also all want to be viewed by men as equals as opposed to the social norm of being slightly less significant than our male counterparts. Feminism and feminists are not something that should have a negative connotation attached to them. We need to work together to make the belief in equal rights for sexes the societal model.
Woman Writes 