Feminism

I cannot begin to count the number of times that someone has said to me, “Oh, you’re a feminist? That’s so dumb.” I also can’t begin to count the number of women that have said that to me. Whenever this happens, I hope that these people are just ignorant about the definition of feminism and aren’t actually telling me that they think equality among genders is “dumb”.
When I was in elementary school, I thought feminism was dumb, too. I remember being in the fifth grade and listening to a girl in my class give a speech on feminism. I had no idea what the concept was at the time and I had the belief that sure, things had been messed up in the past, but now the world is a fair place. Consequently, I thought my classmate was annoying and searching for reasons to complain. Only once I grew up and became more educated, did I realize how wrong I was.
Not only is feminism still an important concept today, but for people to bash it is, to me, extremely inconsiderate of those who came before us. Without feminism, I would not be in college, I would not be allowed to vote, I would be the property of my father until I was passed on to my husband, I would work solely in the house, I would not be allowed to legally own that house, and I would not be allowed to file for a divorce on my own. These are only some of the gifts of citizenship that our past women have given us. I think that people tend to forget this and discount all the effort it took to get here.
That being said, the world is still not an equal place. I am not sure if there ever will be equality, because some human beings simply feel superior based on whatever aspects they have that other’s don’t. Specifically, females are still fighting to be treated equally to men.
There are obviously still issues such as the wage gap, there aren’t enough women in power positions, and societal gender norms that visualize women as inferior to men. But my biggest issue is with the objectification of women and with some women’s lack of knowledge and care for the subject of equality.
I see it every single day. Women are judged, based on every tiny detail of their appearance. Women have to shave their legs, women have to shave their arms, women have to wear make up…Technically, women do not have to do any of this, but trust me, it’s frowned upon not to, and it will make life more difficult, because these are what’s known as body norms.
Yes, in the West it is a body norm for a women to wear make up, shave her legs, and shave her arm pits after she has hit puberty. It is 100% normal for a women to be hairless everywhere besides her head and face. However, has anyone ever stopped to think how strange it is that we have a norm for our bodies that is not even naturally normal?
Of course, men have norms in the West that aren’t natural either; such as circumcision. But the extent to what the female body norms are, exceed the males by quite a lot.
I am not here to argue that both men and women don’t face the conflict of body shaming, because even though it is more prevalent among women, men too feel the pressure to have a nice body. But I also wouldn’t necessarily consider that a horrible thing, because having a healthy figure is something that can be, and should be, naturally done.
If there is one thing that I truly hope for people, it is that they are educated on the definition of feminism and they are aware of all the good it has brought. The definition is equality among the genders, and I believe that anyone who is morally right, will say that they believe in this concept. I know the word has some negative stigma attached to it, and some people don’t want to be identified as a “radical feminist who hates men”, but that is not what a feminist is. The definition is purely equality, just a fact; and simply because some people who define themselves as feminist go further with the concept than what one may think is still true to equality, does not change the definition of the word.

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