An Introduction to My Studies

So What is Feminism, Anyway?

        

 According to one misinformed man, feminism is...
 "not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians," ("Robertson"). 
               On a lighter note, Webster gives a more approximate definition, "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities," ("Feminism" Merriam-Webster). The Urban Dictionary then extends upon that stating that "the basic idea of feminism revolves around the principle that just because human bodies are designed to perform certain procreative functions, biological elements need not dictate intellectual and social functions, capabilities, and rights," ("Feminism" Urban). Feminism is not in any way, shape, or form, what Mr. Robertson had classified it as in 1992. Feminism is about women having the freedom of choice without question or judgement. It's being treated equally to men, but in many more detailed ways. 

These are the "Femininjas." This video portrays two young ladies who perform a spoken word poem about feminism and the justice that women deserve in our society. This was done at the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement. These women express to the world the insanity of all of the injustices that women actually experience and how we can push past them.

         Throughout my life, I have always heard people mention the word, "feminism," and never really knew what it meant. To be honest, I still don't quite fully know what it means, which is why I'm creating this blog; to document everything I learn about it. 
         Anyway, any time I did hear about feminism or feminists, there was usually some sort of negative spin on it. Naomi Wolf discusses this in the introduction of her book, The Beauty Myth. She claims that during the "evil eighties, intense conservatism had become allied with strong anti-feminism in our culture, making arguments about feminine ideals seeming ill-mannered, even freakish," (Wolf). It was thought that being a feminist meant that those women were apparently "incapable" of satisfying a man. Not everyone was always as negative about feminism as Pat Robertson and people who shared his beliefs; however the idea itself was still mocked.

            In the image to the left, the assumption being made is that feminists are classified as ugly and angry man-haters. This cartoon is a prime example of the definition of feminism being twisted into something that it is not, by people who are ignorant to the real meaning of the word.
          
          I never really thought anything of feminism during those moments because I felt as though I could never quite contribute to the conversation, especially since I have a conservative background. However it was after becoming an English major, and actually becoming involved in conversations about feminism, that I began to understand the content and it was mind-blowing to me. One of my good friends, Allison, had always been talking about feminism and she was in a decent amount of my classes, so she would bring the topic up relatively frequently. Because of this, I started to get a general understanding of feminism and have become increasingly interested in the subject; the different waves, movements, the political aspect, religion, societal expectations of women, and ultimately the beauty culture of feminism.

            There are many silly assumptions that people make about feminists (just watch the video of all of the idiotic men above. There is also one confused woman who states she does not believe in women's rights, however her face tells a very different story when her husband says "the bible states very clear that the man is the head of the household"). One that I had heard before was that feminists do not want the support of a man in any aspect; an example being a man taking a woman out to dinner. This is an extreme embellishment of the actual feminist perspective. A woman would gladly take a male up on whatever offer he may have in supporting her, however, he must remember that she is fully capable of doing it herself, and it is her choice to allow him to support her. Men doing kind or generous acts for women is not a form of gender discrimination, it is simply being considerate.
          Another lie that I have heard is that feminists support "killing children," which is not what they are supporting. The idea of feminism and reproduction is that women should be able to have the choice of what they can and cannot do to their bodies. Of course, most men would not understand this because they do not have the possibility of getting pregnant and they also do not have any legal restrictions on what they can or cannot do to their own bodies. Sam Bennett from the Huffington Post stated "we can all agree that feminism is about equality. Where we all disagree is whether or not 'equality' extends to all aspects of a woman's life- including reproductive health choices," (Bennett). Bennett classifies women as disagreeing upon that topic because there are women who disagree with having the choice of whether or not they would like to go through with a pregnancy. This is a concern because it is perfectly acceptable for people to be morally pro-life, politically however, women should promote pro-choice because no matter what, a woman should be able to have the option of what she wants to do with her own body. 
  
Click here to read Sam Bennett's entire article on Huffington Post. 

         Feminists cannot be classified as man-haters or lesbians. Those types of feminists do exist, I'm sure, but not all feminists feel that way. They are not man-haters; they simply wish respect, equality, and freedom while being taken seriously. As for lesbians, lesbians are everywhere. Being a feminist does not change someone's sexual orientation, therefore being a feminist does not make a woman a lesbian. 
         Feminists are also not anti-family. They just request that society realize that a woman should not be expected to develop a family. If she wants to stay single and focus on her career, who is any male to tell her that she is unable when men do it all the time?

Audre Lorde

           So how are we able to reform a societal view on one gender? This is extremely complicated given that throughout history, men have conducted society. However, Audre Lorde words it very well by stating, "it is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support," (Lorde).                       

           It is hard to convey a feminine meaning to a man in a man's world, with man's language; hence why the word woman contains the word, "man." The word woman, pronounced wo-man, actually means "from man." Because of this, many women have begun trying to re-spell the word as "womyn," however it is almost impossible to officially change the spelling of a word in an entirely developed, and known, language. Since our language is derived by men, and they created the structured vocabulary, spelling "woman" in such a sexist way puts women into a negative light. Unfortunately, people like Pat Robertson would never take the time to educate themselves on the small, hidden, misogynistic features of society. However, my eyes have been opened to anything and everything regarding these feminine ideals that are so new to me. In all honesty, there really isn't any one, specific definition of feminism. Every person has their own detailed explanation of feminism and what it truly is to them, and also how it impacts them, but overall it comes down to the freedom of choice and freedom in general. Personally, I am interested in analyzing the beauty aspects and how society views women; or I should say how society views women through man's skewed eyes, but more on that to come.

Here's to digging deeper on the next post!

Sincerely,

Samantha