So here it is, I have finally plucked up the courage to write a blog post on the F-word, yeah you guessed it, feminism. Over the past few months I have become increasingly agitated by this topic and conversations surrounding it, so here it goes, here's to my feminist rant...
I'm not one for labelling, I highly dislike confining an individual to a specific genre, style, group or lifestyle. Contrary to this I would in fact consider myself a Feminist. There I said it, that dreaded word that many of my friends curl their nose up at, I am a feminist, and to be quite honest I am proud of this. As a current third year English student, when it came to deciding a dissertation topic I knew that I wanted to explore Feminist Theory, Literature and it's influence on modern-day popular culture. In the past year or so the word feminist has frequently popped up in the media, and although many people may believe that feminism is now an outdated and obsolete movement- yes we women do now have the vote, but our struggle does not end here- feminism is still very much alive. You only have to look at J Law's, Meryl Streep's and various other celebs recent speeches to see that females are still subjected to inferiority between genders, the pay gap, lifestyle opportunities and gender performance issues. So why is it that when I say to some of my closest friends 'What do you think about feminism?' or 'are you a feminist?' do they tend to roll their eyes and say that they in fact are not? Saying that I myself am a feminist does not make me man-hating, or mean that I believe females are the superior sex. No. This word, and what I have come to learn that the word means, is that I believe females and males are equal.
One of my closest friends seems to sum up the general consensus on the word quite nicely, 'I am not a feminist but...' she then went on to say that she believe's in equal pay, the equality of men and women and that females should be able to use contraception. This is where I got very confused and slightly angry, I then turned to her and asked 'So why do you not consider yourself a feminist?' To this she replied 'Well i'm not one of those extreme women who'd go out burn my bra and believe that men shouldn't hold a door open for you.' Unfortunately, I hadn't the energy to argue, you see so may women and men hear the word feminist and think of Radical feminism. Radical feminism was a form of feminism that originated within the second-wave in the 1960's, a perspective that holds the belief that MEN OPPRESS WOMEN. Well i'm sorry to offend anyone but I believe this is a highly outdated way of thinking, and that this issue shouldn't be a US vs THEM argument, men can be feminists too, I like to think my father one, my boyfriend one and many of my male friends to be feminists, although many boys seem to squint at the topic and are scared to share their opinion, in fear of being beaten down by a man-hating psycho bitch.
And so, I could rant about this topic for hours, days or even years, but I would like to leave you with this; if you find yourself answering the question 'Are you a feminist?' in the same way my close friend did, 'I am not a feminist but..' Are the reasons that you are about to state not those that in fact make you a feminist? Do you not believe that men and females are both equal, and should be treated that way? I'm fed up with this negative stigma that looms over the word, you are a feminist, believe me you are.
K.
