Sometimes, I find it odd that so many people refuse to be called feminist, or believe that feminists are evil. I am a feminist, which means I believe in the social, political, and economic equality of both sexes. I read an article by a student at the University of North Georgia who shared the 7 reasons she was not a feminist. Instead of just blowing off the article, I actually read it to see if it was either sarcastic or maybe factual. It was neither. Contrary to this article, the modern feminist movement is productive, positive, and important to society.
The first point that the article mentions is how modern feminism is not for all women, and later states that the feminist movement is anti-men. In actuality, the feminist movement fights for rights of people of color. For example, they fight discrimination towards black women with dreadlocks and towards those who wear hijabs (Oishi). Not only are there female feminists, but men also are because feminism helps them, however the author says “Feminists do not, in fact, care about men.” Defeating the idea of hyper-masculinity, rights for trans men, and defending men of color are all things the feminist movement works for. The author boldly says “Feminists also have a tendency to ignore women who are not white Americans,” but the movement is not exclusive to just white women, it is for everyone. You can find a feminist of every color, sex, age, or religion.
In the article, the author conveys that feminism spreads misinformation, and does not care about "real world problems." Well that itself is misinformation, because feminism is a world-wide movement. Feminists play a major role in helping women in the Middle East by stopping acid attacks and helping females trapped in domestic abuse, as well as fighting for rights of women to vote, drive, and get an education. The writer claims that feminists don't care about all the problems listed above concluding with, “however, feminists tend to ignore these issues.”
The misinformation feminists spread, according to the author, is about the wage gap, patriarchy, and rape culture. The wage gap commonly confuses people because it is known that legally a woman can not make less than a man for a job, but it actually has a different meaning. According to research done by sociologists, women are less likely to get promoted in a job, even though they may have work that is better than their male counterpart. Women do not get chosen for jobs of authority, for example at schools we see many female teachers, but most of the administration consists of men. That is what the wage gap is really about, and also shows what feminists mean by the patriarchy. Now let’s go back to this rape culture thing- it is not just a mumbo jumbo thing feminist make up. 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted, and 1 out of 16 men, but the author says “1 in 6 males are rape victims," which is actual false information. Rapes are rarely reported because the victim gets a sense of blame from questions like "what were you wearing?" which imply that the victim's clothing said they were asking for it. Along with that, rapists do not get convicted as much as we hope because of the culture of victim blaming. Remember Brock Turner? Yeah, that is what I thought.
The author boldly claims that feminism is a means for murder and weakens women. So I know what you are thinking- means for murder- well how is that? The author brings up abortion: “They fought for the right to murder their children; now they fight for an organization who not only murders children on the taxpayer's dime, but makes profit off these children's mutilated bodies." Abortion is not about "rights." It violates the most basic human right of all: life. A fetus is very much a living human being, by the way,” the author says. But frankly, feminists are pro-choice because it is about not wanting our government deciding what we do with our bodies. According to research done by Lori Robinson, “Abortions represent 3 percent of total services provided by Planned Parenthood, and roughly 10 percent of its clients received an abortion. The group does receive federal funding, but the money cannot be used for abortions by law”. The author then is also stating that a fetus is alive, which is false because if you remove the fetus from it’s mother at the time of pregnancy an abortion takes place, it would be dead and not human looking at all; it would be like the size of an apple or smaller. To add to this, one of the authors points is that feminism weakens women. I find that point almost like a joke because the whole point of feminism is for people to come together for social, political, and economic equality. This means women feeling empowerment at times because for years, women have been treated as less than men, not as equals. I am not sure why the author thinks feminism weakens women, because frankly, it empowers and brings women together.
As much as I am sure the author meant well, she did not do her research on feminism and the ideas of the movement. The idea of being a feminist can be scary because of the demonization of feminists. You can easily be a feminist- all you have to do is believe in the equality of both sexes, and learn a little bit. It is also important to be open minded about feminism because the outreach of the movement is huge. One feminist may be fighting against dress codes, while another is busy trying to bring education to women, and another could be passionate about women in politics. Overall, feminism is for everyone and is helping our society move forward.
