My whole life I've been told by random people "feminists are BAD!" Why, just the other day at work someone told me, "I was walking in the mall and I saw a beautiful teenager wearing extremely revealing clothes. Her boyfriend yelled at her, 'Get over here slut...' and she actually came like a little puppy dog! That's a feminist. Don't ever be one."
As a youngster I would ask these people exactly what a feminist was, and the answer would be something like, "A feminist is a woman who marches in demonstrations, shucks her bra and tosses it into a bonfire to signify stripping off the yoke of male oppression." I did not want to be associated with those crazy radicals and so whenever someone asked if I was a feminist, I would say "no."
But that's not what feminism is really all about! We have been grossly misinformed.
Hey, Tyra Banks, you're doin' it WRONG!What is feminism really? It is a movement for social, political, and economic equality of men and women.
Is it discrimination when men make more money than women and the men get promoted to higher positions over women who may have been more qualified. It is discrimination to disallow women the right to vote, hold office, or own property. I am extremely thankful to the women's suffrage movement for paving the way for women of the future to have the rights that men enjoy. If this is what a feminist is, then yes, I am a feminist.
I am very proud of my grandmother Janet McGaughran who was one of the original "Rosie the Riveters."
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the full involvement of the U.S. in World War II, the male work force was depleted to fill the ranks of the U.S. military. So while the men were off fighting to save the world from Nazis, my grandmother was one of many teenage girls who fulfilled their patriotic duty by building planes for the war effort in Long Island, New York. She helped make it socially acceptable and even desirable for women to work outside the home. I am extremely grateful to her and the many other women who had her courage to step outside the constructs of what was proper for a lady at that time.
The media has portrayed feminists to me as women who don't shave their legs, wear their hair cropped short, and never wear dresses or anything else feminine. I know that's not true, but that's the image most people get when they think of a feminist.
Like all political movements, they usually start off with a good principle and someone takes it too far, perverts it, and it gets out of hand. Feminism has turned into a belief system. "If you believe THAT, then you can't possibly be a feminist," is something I would hear an awful lot in high school and is something I still hear today.
People have wrongfully attributed certain beliefs to the feminist worldview that don't belong with the label. There are different types of feminists. I can still be a feminist while believing that abortion is morally wrong except in the case where the pregnancy threatens the mother's life.
Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would get criticized for answering, "I'd like to be a stay-at-home mom while my husband brings home the bacon." Because of this, kids in high school made fun of me and called me an anti-feminist. But a feminist can still be an advocate for other women to go out and work equally alongside men even if she herself wishes to stay home and care for children!!! You don't have to stereotype people just because they choose a certain lifestyle. Just the other day at work I got yelled at by a co-worker who felt personally insulted when I told her I wanted to stay home with my kids and home-school them. "Some women don't have that luxury!" She spat. I could have said a lot of things to her but I didn't. I thought of her poor little daughter at home who was shoved into daycare for the majority of her day. I don't ever want to do that to my children. I worked at a daycare myself and I know what they are like. The kids don't get enough individual attention like they should and they are often starved for love. They cling to your legs at the end of the day and don't want to go home because the teacher has essentially become their mama. (Granted this isn't the case for all kids but I find it to be true for many.)
"No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children... precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make it."
-Simone de Beauvoir
The arrogance of this statement is SHOCKING. She has no basis at all to say this. The very person who should be
FIGHTING for rights of women is advocating the
robbery of a woman's right to take care of her own children rather than pay a stranger to do it. Simone de Beauvoir is a slave to a political agenda and I honestly pity her. She is trying to pass laws that say "Any man who says something mean to a woman should be trialed for a hate crime and labeled a bigot." These kinds of feminists are sexists who trample liberty, restrict women's choices, and foster animosity between the sexes.
That is not where feminism started in its roots and is the exact reason why so many people tell me not to be a feminist. It's the crazy ones that give the rest all a bad name.
The libertarian view of feminism is closer to the actual definition than the socialist and collectivist definition which is equality = sameness. We all know women =/= men. Women have vaginas and men have penises (obviously) but deeper than that, men are more physically able than women, women have stronger intuition, emotional perception, and are more in tune with their feelings. Women are usually more compassionate and men are usually more logical and rational. These may sound like stereotypes, and while there are exceptions, these male/female traits are generally the rule.
Women tend to excel in language while men tend to excel in mathematics. Men also more likely to be dyslexic or have other language disabilities since they’re more often left-brain dominant. Males are also more prone to autism, ADHD and Tourette’s Syndrome, while women are more susceptible to mood disorders like anxiety and depression.
It is a universally accepted fact that most little boys like to play with bulldozers and trucks while most little girls like to nurture their dollies and play house. In one out of 100,000 pregnancies, a genetic defect causes human female babies to be exposed to a bath of the male hormone androgen... a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (or CAH for short.) These girls act like "tomboys" and typically play with "boy" toys more than their female counterparts. Child psychologist Michael Lewis conducted an experiment with one-year-old boys and girls to see how they would react to being separated from their mother by a barrier. The boys tried to knock the barrier down while the girls stood passively, crying for help.
JeongMee Yoon is a Korean artist who has done a series of photographs entitled “The Pink and Blue Project.” She asks children to gather together all of their pink and blue things, and photographs them with their collections.
Notice the trucks and trains in the boy picture and the pink tutus in the girl picture? People may maintain that girls are conditioned to be "girly" but if you're a mom, you've probably lost count how many times your little girl begged for a Barbie dream house or a princess gown to play dress up in. Boy and girls are intrinsically different.
On another note, when have we deemed it acceptable to objectify women because we’ve decided that objectification is actually empowering?
Watch this video and observe Britney's confidence. What some might call self-assurance could also be pride and vanity. Notice how she objectifies herself like all her worth is in how sexy she is and how every man must want her body. Wearing revealing clothing and engaging in lewd behavior are forms of female self-objectification. Many might call that a form of empowerment but critics contend that it has led to a greater emphasis on sexualization and lowered women's sense of self-worth.
This phenomenon is documented in "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture." The author, Ariel Levy, follows a the camera crew from the Girls Gone Wild video series and argues that today's culture not only objectifies women but it encourages women to objectify themselves. Levy writes, "The idea of a woman participating in a wet T-shirt contest or being comfortable watching explicit pornography has become a symbol of feminist strength, that women are now strong enough to express their sexuality publicly." I was shocked when my friend told me that she frequently flashes her breasts at construction workers because she feels bad for them working hard all day in the Arizona heat and they need a little pick-me-up. I replied "No offense to what I'm sure are beautiful breasts, but what if you've just offended that man and he doesn't actually want to see your breasts? You've just demeaned yourself and degraded your sexuality by letting any old person see what is precious and and now that man thinks less of your dignity. What if that man is happily married and faithful to his wife and you've just tempted him to lust after you? You've actually done him a disservice rather than a favor." She kind of looked at me dumbfounded and shrugged her shoulders.
Women have done this to themselves. They not only don't care that women are being turned into sex objects, they actually like being sex objects. When young Italian women were asked what they'd like to do after high school, the number one answer was "showgirl." Today, Italy has the lowest percentage of working women in Europe. Only 2 percent of top management positions are held by women — that's even behind Kuwait — and only 17 percent of the members of parliament are women — less than in Rwanda and Burundi.
People seem to encourage the perspective that objectification is okay just as long as we also show curvy women prancing around half-naked alongside the skinny white blonde ones with big breasts. "Oh, good for that commercial, it is so progressive! Kudos to showing a fat black woman without clothes on because that's a step in the right direction." *CRINGE*
Ex-burlesque dancer Laurie Penny once said, "Since the dawn of time, women have been told that their most important social bargaining chip is the power to suggest sex and then withhold it, denying our own desires and manipulating the desires of men." It is disgusting that women are told that their most valuable asset is their sexuality. Women's sexuality is an incredibly beautiful thing and there isn't much on this planet that is more beautiful than a nude female figure... but society has taught us that female bodies exist to be placed on display, gawked at, and to be enjoyed (and accessed) by men. There is absolutely nothing inherently degrading about a nude woman but it becomes degrading in the wrong context.
I hate the fact that words that used to mean female dog and prostitute are being thrown around so that they've lost their true meanings. It's very similar with what has happened to the N-word with black people. See the parallels in this video and stand up and cheer.
I don't get this video at all... the rally is called a Slutwalk and the women are saying "My body does not exist to pleasure you," and yet they are dancing in their underwear and wearing TRAMP tattoos as they chant "Rape is a felony."
Ummm, ???????
Women! We are taking one step forward and twelve steps back!!! We need to reclaim our beauty by keeping it sacred, reclaim our intelligence and our equality to men by taking a stand against sexism. Don't accept anyone calling you a nasty word. Don't laugh when someone attacks your character. Stand up for yourself. I am taking a stand against the ladies at work who keep telling me I should dye my hair and dress less "simple." I love my hair the way it is and I shouldn't have to change my style for anyone. I am a WOMAN dang it and I am happy and proud to have the XX chromosome! I am created differently than a man but I am in no way inferior to him. YOU GO GIRLS!
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