There isn’t a term as contradictory as feminism right now. Especially women either claim to have no opinion on that subject or are aggressively against it, or they feel uncomfortable even talking about it. Like it’s an out-of-body experience to declare yourself feminist. Feminist isn’t a dirty word, believe it or not. It holds no witchcraft powers if you believe it!
Feminism, feminism, feminism!
There, I said it three times. Can it now please manifest itself in our heads as the normal thing that it is?! As an avid blog reader myself, I read many posts about what feminism means in this day and age to various bloggers – male and female, but mostly female. Between the lines, a certain reluctance swung with the words though. I assume you regularly read a few blogs as well and just know when you come across a paragraph that’s not dedicated to something but also not against it. More like “yeah, feminism. What else is new? Let’s change the subject, shall we?”, to include the keyword for once and be done with it.
Being a feminist means you believe that men and women are equal!
That’s it! Period. What feminism doesn’t mean are many things. Feminism doesn’t mean that you hate men, it doesn’t mean that you hate masculine women (yes, I heard that as well believe it or not!), and it doesn’t mean that you think women are superior to men. Feminism doesn’t mean that the world should be led by dominatrix women who enslave the male population (yup, I came across this one as well). Feminism, of course, also includes the LGBTQ+ community. Why is that even a question? It’s mindblowing how many things feminism doesn’t mean, yet they are more discussed than the simple statement of what being a feminist truly is!
If you are male and consider yourself a feminist, it means that you believe that a woman should receive the same paycheck as you, and a female competitor deserves the same chances as you do. You believe that men and women are equal and worthy of equal rights. If you are female and consider yourself a feminist, you believe the same exact thing. Isn’t that amazing?!
There are people who try to make this overly complicated by saying they aren’t feminists but egalitarian. So what now?! Egalitarianism, by definition, means that someone believes in the equality of all people, especially in political, economic, and social life. For me, that comes in the package It wouldn’t make much sense to call yourself egalitarian but not feminist, or does it?
The bottom line is: feminist isn’t a dirty word
The bottom line is, that feminist isn’t a dirty word and you shouldn’t feel afraid to use it. Quite the opposite actually: you should shout it from the rooftops and be informed about what you can do to empower your fellow females. Maybe you want to start with my not-so-ranty rant on how important it is that Women Empower Women or why it pains me that it’s still such a foreign concept to live feminism!
I, for one, am a feminist with a never-ending to-do list. Who are you?
(Images by Word for Word Factory and fairycakes)
