Feminism, to many men, is considered something that they can’t relate to. For a while I felt the same. Then I realized something. Feminism is in my blood and has been engrained into me since I was little. Growing up with two sisters, a strong mother and a supportive father it makes sense why. I mean how can one not develop a feminist attitude while growing up with three strong women?
Feminism, as stated in the classic Beyoncé song Flawless, is “a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes”. It just makes sense to me. Equality. Growing up I always hated when I would hear my sisters complain about how they were treated due to the fact that they had a vagina as opposed to a penis. It sickened me. How could someone treat my amazingly smart and beautiful and talented and all around fantastic sisters like this? Who could make them feel inadequate for just being a woman? In short it pissed me off.
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It wasn't until college that I really decided I was a feminist. To be honest I didn't really know what it was. I just knew that women and men are equal and that’s all that should matter. Women should be paid the same wages as men do for doing the same job. They should not be ridiculed for choosing to work over having a family and vice versa. Because we all know that if a man did the same thing people would just call him ambitious and call a woman selfish.
Now I know this doesn’t really mean much coming from a white male in the upper middle class but I think that for feminist ideals to spread everyone needs to be involved equally. We need equal representation from both sexes. Building on that we need equal representations across races, ethnic groups and sexualities. Without reaching across the various barriers we won’t be able to create change of any sort.
So feminism to me is the fight to make sure my sisters, my cousins, my friends (whom are mostly female) and my mother don’t have to be worried about being treated any differently just because they are a woman.
I am not ashamed to say I am a feminist and neither should anyone else.
