I apologise in advance, there is a chance that i might spiral while writing this and end up getting angry hence use swear words, for my young readers i am really sorry....hopefully i will be able to keep the hulk in me inside till the end of this.
It has come to my understanding that a lot of people from the male gender do not feel comfortable with "Feminism" and some from the female gender as well, I am here to educate you. A simple definition from Merriam Webster,
Feminism: the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.
As simple as that. I am going to ask you to do one thing, ask yourself, do you believe a man and a woman should both be equally able to apply for the same job and both of them should only have to worry about being hired because of their qualification and not their gender? If it is Yes, awesome, if it is No, rethink your life and priorities, repeat exercise in 1 month. These are things women have to worry about everyday, because being a woman suddenly limits your ability to be good at a job which you spent years at University training for. Some of you might say, Oh, but men face these issues too and i will ask you, how many times? I am not a fan of statistics because i strongly believe every single statistic out there is a lie so i will not be pretentious on here and call numbers and ratios to you. Ask the people around you. Do a little survey. Women tend to worry more about things like this than men. Why you wonder? Well right from birth, men have being told that the world is theirs for the taking, that during the day, they will go out and conquer the world and they will come home to a nice meal and a warm bed. Women on the other hand are thought, if you do not know how to make a nice meal and keep a bed warm, then you are as useless as a couch potato with a remote control. You see the flaw here?
I was asked why i need feminism, to be honest, there are so many reasons why i need feminism, i will state them as i go along but mainly because i am asked why i need feminism. The moment someone begins to tell you not to do something is the moment you begin to wonder why you are being told not to do that thing, at least that is how i am. Do not blindly obey when told not to think, think. What are they so afraid for you to find out. Why are they so afraid of feminism succeeding, actually striking a change?
Feminism came about to let women all over know they are not alone in their struggle for equality. That they can be so much more than a kitchen staff and a bed warmer. Feminism pushes to let people know that women are so much more. That they can be more and do more. What does feminism hope to accomplish? To create a system that protects the interests of women, to create a system in which a woman gets paid based on her qualification, to create a system in which a woman can run for a political career and succeed. I do not understand how all of this is a bad thing, i will never understand why some women go about saying "oh no i am not a feminist", shut up and sit. You just sound and look ridiculous. Don't you want a society in which you are judged based on the person you are and not based on your gender? Don't you want to live a life filled with opportunities because you are skilled and not have to worry about your gender limiting you? The moment you say something as silly as that then you are contradicting so many things, don't you believe in the anti-racism campaign?
Words are heavy. I noticed. Let us say for now, right now that the word feminism does not exist. The word has been erased from our dictionaries and our minds. There is just a bunch of people on the street holding placards saying, "I want equal pay because i am qualified" "i am more than a house servant" "I am not weak and helpless, i can take care of myself". What would be your first thought when you read those placards. Forget about the people holding them up, just the sentences, also you cannot call them feminists because the word does not exist. They are just several anonymous gendered people telling the world that they demand more. That they are not satisfied. What would you think of that? Would you look at them and ask them why they want equal pay just because they are qualified? It makes sense to want that actually. Like i said, words are heavy. I don't know what some of you understand by feminism but obviously you are misunderstanding what feminism stands for. Think of yourself, you are man, you are paid less than your friend whom you are probably better than at a particular job, wouldn't that piss you off? Wouldn't that make you want to shove your foot up someones ass?
Listen to me, do not misunderstand feminism with "some feminists", believe me, not all feminists understand fully what feminism means. Do not misunderstand these peoples contradictions with that of essentially what feminism is about. You would be confused as hell. You will go "wait, these women want equality but they want me to pay for the date, i thought we were equal". Sit down. That is not what feminism is about, those are personal. Understand that people will bring their personal shit into feminism and there is nothing anyone can do about it, we cannot control the way people think. Keep the main idea of feminism at the back of your mind and you will look educated, not dumb as hell asking stupid questions.
Women are biologically weaker than men, that is something i had a hard time coming to terms with. Physical strength i mean. That is the basis of patriarchy. During those savage ages, during wars, obviously you will not carry someone whom is not physically capable of defending the clan to wars. There were exceptions of course but generally, the women and some of the not so strong men were left to protect the children while the stronger mainly male dominated army goes of to fight the enemies at the front. We are past those times now, it is 2014. Men are not marching off to battle fronts anymore(except obamas army which by the way comprises of both men and women). Women do not need to stay to protect the children while the men battle enemies at the war front. If the man can go off to look for something to sustain his life, so can the woman. We are not fighting clan wars anymore(we have evolved into newer types though).
If men feel left out of feminism, then honestly that is another problem for another set of people(men). Men tend to say, but feminism is exclusively about women, what about men getting discriminated, abused, raped and i tell them this. Feminism is about women. Only women. Solely women. A woman can go off to start a movement to protect men whom are getting discriminated, abused, raped. That is cool but it is not and will never be feminism. It will be called something else. Feminism IS exclusively for women, if men feel left out, then they should do something about it. Feminists are not responsible for the ego of men. Women went out and demanded to be heard, men can do the same as well. It is a free world(or so we like to think). Feminism is not here to baby sit you. If men decide to be feminists then that is cool, but they must remember, they are doing it out of humanity, because they are human and they strongly believe in the rights of people to demand equality. It is not a charity case or a pity party. To be feminist is to be human, call yourself whatever you like but feminism is about humanity, it is about civilisation. Nothing more, nothing less.
I am not here to convince you to support feminism. You do not have to. I am here to educate you, to make you understand the basics about feminism and it's contradictions. You can criticise it all you want and pretend women do not have problems that feminism addresses, that is your choice and it is fine. But i am sure you were birthed by a woman and out of respect for the women in your life, you would want them to live a full life, a life that does not limit their capabilities, a life that does not teach them to be good little obedient wives only.
Hopefully you got to the end of this long post and hopefully i did not spiral.
Sayonara
xx
On Feminism
As I read through your post, the only thing that keeps going on my mind is Islam. That's the answer to all the problems you mentioned created by the west. Also, feminism goes way, way beyond all that you mentioned, yes it's part of it but not exclusive to getting equal chances at a job which I lMO is justice rather than equality. From all that you've talked on feminism it seems you, yourself don't understand the movement. You only know of it at the surface level.
ReplyDeleteBut what I'm glad about is how you vehemently stand with "feminism is exclusive to the female gender", thanks to Emma Watson's talk suddenly feminism seems to mean gender equality for both sexes.
Question: what would you rather have? equality or justice? They don't mean the same.
As i stated clearly in the article, I am talking about "basics", simple terms. TBH I did not watch Emma Watsons video so i really do not know what she talked about. Equality goes together with justice. I am guessing you are not a person of color. What do u think the fight against racism is about? Justice and equality.People of color are out there protesting everyday in Ferguson for justice and equality for one cannot work without the other. In order to stand for a purpose like feminism, you have to ask for equality and justice simultaneously for one does not go without the other.
ReplyDeleteI did not mention religion in my article intentionally, we live in a world that consists of so much diversity. Yes islam "might" be a solution if you mean Islam as a way of life(because it is), but being todays practicing muslims does not automatically fix problems, the Islam practiced today is not an answer and there are people who are not muslims. who were raised to believe their religion is true and they strongly believe in that just as much as you do, how do you blandly tell them islam is the solution. Womens issues are not just problems of the west, they are problems of the everyday women. You think the muslims in the middle east do not have these problems as well?
i am a woman of color. but i disagree with you, justice isnt equality and they dont go hand in hand. i won't talk about racism cos that's a whole different from feminism. I mentioned islam because i know you are a muslim. and by saying 'the Islam practiced today is not an answer and there are people who are not muslims" that shows the problem is from the practitioners not the religion itself, as it hasnt changed ever since it was perfected hundreds of years ago. of course middle eastern women do, idk if you mentioned that because of my reference to Islam, but if that's your reason it's a shame because you should know women are held highly in islam.
ReplyDeletehttp://fatpastor.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/equality-justice.jpg
ReplyDeletethis picture shows how equality isnt justice in the most 'interesting' way.
I never said they were same, i said they go hand in hand. as they should and i strongly believe that just as much as you strongly believe they don't and THAT IS OK, i am not here to convince you to agree with me. To demand equality you have to demand justice, it only makes sense. Equality is considered as a constitutive feature of justice(stanford did a study about that).
ReplyDeleteI never said islam is the problem, If you have read the book by the muslim philosopher Alija Izetbegovich, you would see that he did talk about Islam evolving(mind you, the inevitable change with the coming of civilization i mean and not changing scriptures). I do not want to mis quote but i do remember reading something said by one of the Sahabis, he said "do not raise your children the way your fathers raised you for it is a different time now than it is then" Everything changes with time, everything. As i have read a lot of books by esteemed muslim philosophers, i do know very well that Islam holds women highly(hence the whole thing about the islam practiced today). Again i intentionally left islam out of my article because i know very well that islam holds women highly, to include that means to claim islam does not hold women highly which is a lie. I did mention the middle east because it is primarily a muslim society and there are still problem with womens issues(hence the whole thing about the islam practiced today because you brought up simply islam being the solution). If Islam would be used as a way of life, the way the prophet lived his life, i dunno, maybe we wouldn't have these problems but Islam is not being practiced like that. People choose what they want out of it and leave the rest.
Discussing religion drags on and on and to avoid that i took religion out of my article(yet here we are). Before we were anything, we were humans first, we have our humanity(which religion reinforces), so to begin with, we will put our humanity first and then reinforce it with religion.
Assume this article was written by a non muslim, what would your comment be? (seeing as you said you mentioned religion because you know i am a muslim)
okay, i understand your point and message better now. if it were written by a non-muslim i wouldn't comment because we don't hold the same values (or at least try to) and our beliefs almost fundamentally shape us.
ReplyDelete"To demand equality you have to demand justice, it only makes sense." i think this goes more with the subject in question, correct me if im wrong. Feminist asking for equality on all aspects, but then when narrowed down to the littlest bit excluding some. like you mentioned, strength related jobs.
Yes in all aspects, even strength related jobs. There are some women whom defy biology and are actually very strong and we cannot just exclude them, some are born like that, some train to be like that(just as much as not all men are actually physically strong), they could be tested as equals, whomever can do the job better should get it. That is just.
ReplyDeletein that sense; men and women sports shouldn't be seperated? men and women should compete against each other at a professional level for the same reward?
ReplyDeleteabout sports, we have men and womens team, if a sort of try-out is carried out and it proves that both men and women can compete against each other at a professional level for the same award, then why not, else we are being in-just if we just pit them against each other without properly examining to see if their physical strength matches. Women in sports train very hard, possibly harder than the men because people do not have alot of regard for womens sports and they feel the need to always prove to people that they can be just as good, with that level of training, it is possible that their strength and speed could match up to the counterpart male teams. also how much do you think female footballers make compared to make footballers? zero equality and justice there.
ReplyDelete