To be clear, I'm not burning my bra like the generation before me. But if it will get my point across, I'll do what I have to. The Feminist Movement of this age is not just for all the ladies out there who feel they deserve equal rights to men (which of course they do)! This is for the men, for the LGBT community, and anyone suffering from discrimination based on: sex, gender, sexual orientation. Feminism is equality.
Being pro-woman does not equal anti-man.
Because I, in fact, do not hate men.
Admit it, you're surprised.
And another thing; everyone commenting that I'm a "dirty little jobless hippie liberal." I should not have to explain to you why caring about people, and someone other than yourself, is important. Why do I need to make the "think about your mother/girlfriend/wife/daughter" remark to get your ears to perk up. How hard is it to care about something bigger than yourself?
In this generation of feminists, you've heard numerous remarks referring to us as:
"Feminists are nothing but man-haters because they can't get a date."
"They're all lesbians."
"So you think you're superior to men..?"
...and countless comments on not shaving, armpits, legs... Whatever - which I'll leave out for good measure.
I'm here to clear some of these misconceptions up.
To begin with, assuming all feminists are "man-haters" is assuming all feminists are female; which is false.
This brings me to my next point: As I had mentioned, we are not all females and even if we were, supporting equality does not directly relate to sexual orientation. That's just a ridiculous assumption.
Again: EQUALITY people, equal.
Somewhere along the way, a blanketed statement saying that "Feminists are just hormonal women on their periods" is just another example of why we need this! This isn't a hypothetical problem we see far off into the distance... This is happening. These are real lives being affected.
In case you didn't know:
One in four women are sexually assaulted and society still has the nerve to ask what she was wearing.
Breasts are still portrayed as sexual objects and not what they biologically are intended for (AKA: okay when used in advertisements but not for breastfeeding).
In 2013 alone over 700 bills were proposed to regulate women's bodies.
Slut-shaming still exists...
Woman-woman relationships are still hyper-sexualized.
Women are still made to feel that their purpose in life is to procreate. (Check out my article about this https://www.theodysseyonline.com/dont-want-kids-and-thats-okay)
There is no denying that there are changes to be made and gaps to close in order to get us to equality.