It’s almost March 2016 and many of us still seem confused about Feminism. What is it? What are its purposes? How does it benefit me? Let’s start from the beginning: Feminism is a movement for all. It is, to its core, the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Now, if you refer to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (like I did), you will also see “organized activity in support of women’s rights and interests” as a definition. Let’s take those as simple definition, as defined by the dictionary itself, and expand to its full definitions: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes; organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.
As a female myself, I get it, the word itself can be misleading. If we consider a few of our “ism,” Communism actually traces back to the word “communist,” which at first meant, “people having in common a property belonging to the category of main morte – that is, not being submitted to the law of heritage.” The point I’m trying to make is that while Communism traces back to communist and only aligns with the interests of the same, Feminism is also a movement for all genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, regardless of its roots. And now we are back to the million dollar questions: why is it not called Humanism?
Traced back to the Renaissance, Humanism values human reason, “attributing human achievement and successes to humans rather than a supernatural entity.” To sum it up, Humanism already exists and it celebrates the human mind, which is awesome considering how great we can be while we get our analytical gears going. Okay, so, we got that out of the way, but still, why “Feminism?” During the process of equaling women to men in society, the movement also advocates for those that have suffered any injustice due to discrimination regarding their sexual preference, mental health, and so on. Like it or not, us girls are the oppressed gender. Femininity has been historically associated with weakness and we have never represented strength.
Alright, so now you ask, “would ‘Meninism,’ then, be okay?” No, it would not. Much like reverse racism, discrimination based on a men’s gender is not real. Of course there are stereotypical gender profiling of the manly-macho man, but once you a born with the Y chromosome, you are not belittled. Plus, if we already have Feminism, wouldn’t “Meninism,” the opposite of Feminism, negate what the movement preaches? A movement focused on men so that it can contrast a movement that is popularly (popular demand does not mean it’s correct, okay?) known to focus only on women is against everything Feminism and feminists advocate for. Having movements names after each sex does not equate equality. Feminism does wish to bring down the patriarchy, but not the create a matriarchy.
Back to the name, its roots lay on the suffrage movement during the 1900’s in which women fought mainly for the right to vote. The movement, however, is not perfect. As exposed in “Feminist Stories From Women’s Liberation” (great watch, highly recommended), the movement has had it’s fair share of internal conflicts of discrimination. As Feminism evolved, it centered around the heterosexual, white, upper-class women. Those, like Betty Friedan, were the one’s gaining power and a voice. In fact, Friedan attempted to eradicate lesbians from the movement, fearing they would damage its wider acceptance.
Luckily, it has, once again, evolved. Intersectional feminist have taken the lead of the movement, including any and all. Bringing my own personal thoughts and research to a conclusion, no one has any reason to be offended by the word “Feminism.” If you have followed me until here and still feels like the word invalidates the movement then you probably have no idea what Feminism is, even after being told so or are far too focused on semantics to truly capture the essence of Feminism. Women have been fighting for equal pay, rights, freedom, and respect. If that is not enough to have an entire movement on equality named after us, I’m not sure what is.
Note: please do not take my words out of context. I am not discussing inequality, discrimination and social movements as a whole. I am not putting Feminism on a pedestal above all. My main and only goal with this particular article is to celebrate the movement. While Feminism does stand for all, movements that are exclusive to racial and religious intolerance are by no means any less important.
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