Unit 2 Assignment – Feminism
Ever since I heard of the word feminist/feminism, which would be a few years ago, I’ve since then considered myself as a feminist. I would even call myself a hardcore feminist considering how much I talk about it and how passionately I’d argue with people who had their thoughts about women and their rights all wrong. I’ve almost chosen Women Studies/Gender Studies as my major instead of Theatre, the major I’m taking right now, before learning it apparently wouldn’t do anything for my future. That’s how much of a feminist I am.
Even though I feel somewhat educated on the topic, I never really knew there were different categories of feminism. 4 apparently. I mean, I knew there were people who had these views on women, so I already felt there are 3 types of views. One of them think that women should be lower than men, second, equal to men, and third, higher than men.
I’m very open-minded so I feel like everyone’s opinion should be validated, but I think it draws the line when it comes to taking away someone’s right. That being said, I honestly wouldn’t go as far to actually give them the title of feminists. I only find one of them to be the real one, which I will talk more about later.
Going in the order I have mentioned above, the first ‘feminists’ I’ll be talking about are people who believe women today shouldn’t have much power, compared to men, and should act more submissive in a way. People who believe this would be part of Conservative Feminism.
I may be wrong, but this group of people think that women are fragile, pure, and possibly stupid, so they shouldn’t be able to do a job a man can do, like jobs that require you to carry heavy objects, or maybe working in the military. They even think women should cover themselves when they are dressed, meaning no short skirts, or anything else that would be revealing, otherwise, they’d be a ‘hoe’.
They even believe that women should only take the role of being a mother, take care of their husbands, and essentially, be a housewife (Rozinskis, 2018). Keyword, only. They don’t think that women should be able to be and do much more than that.
The reason I don’t find Conservative Feminists as ‘real feminists’ is that what they believe in doesn’t empower women in any way, but instead brings them down or restricts them from gaining any power. Even they wouldn’t consider themselves as feminists (The CanLit Guides Editorial Team, 2013, n.p.). Their beliefs just don’t give any freedom to women.
On the other hand, the group that does give plenty of freedom for women would be Liberal Feminists. To me, they are the ‘real’ feminists and this would be where I’d fit in, as well as most people. What they believe would be that there should be equity of rights and treatment for every gender. I would have said equality instead of equity before, but after seeing a picture I’ve found on Facebook of the difference between equity and equality, I realized they aren’t the same (Kuttner, 2016, n.p.).
I feel like their beliefs would depend on many factors like for example, someone’s biology or physical structure, because let's face it, men and women are not the same. Biologically, men are made to be stronger than women and bigger, whereas women would be smaller and have daintier features. This doesn’t mean women can’t be big and strong too, because if you actually look, there are plenty of women who have muscles bigger than your average male.
There is also this debate with pads and tampons. As women naturally have periods, which is a pain in the ass as they get messy and can hurt, most feel that these ‘luxury items’ should be free or at least cheaper than what they are now (Scaccia, 2016, n.p.). It doesn’t seem fair that women have to pay an extra fee for something they aren’t in control of, and men do not.
They can be so expensive for some peoples they are a constant need. There are homeless women out there, having to make do for their pads. “Some use socks, paper towels, plastic bags, toilet paper, towels, cotton balls, or clothing in place of hygiene products” (Upadhye, 2016, n.p.). When they don’t have access to these items, they’ll have to walk around with embarrassing red stains, losing their dignity.
Tying this with equity of treatments and rights, discounted or free pads/tampons should only be for females buying them and not men because if you look at the physical structure of men, they do not need these items. So this would not take away from men at all, whereas equality would unnecessarily give these men pads.
We even believe that women should be able to do anything they want with their bodies. It could be something like clothing. They should be able to wear as little or as much clothing whenever they want without being called any derogative names.
This also applies for abortion. Liberal feminists would believe that abortion should be legal because this baby is connected to the women who carry them. Therefore, they should choose whether or not if they want to have an abortion.
Although feminism does focus a lot on women as they are in need of power, it isn’t only reserved for women. It’s also about empowering men that are in need of it. For example, rape. Rape cases are usually seen as something men initiate and sometimes, that isn’t always the case.
Women can be rapists as well, but usually in the media or when they are convicted, their actions aren’t described as such. For example, there was a case where a women who raped her ex-boyfriend by scaring him into it with a machete.
“The woman in question wasn’t even charged with rape, but aggravated burglary and assault with a weapon. As far as a court is concerned, the sex was secondary. That’s likely because although the Justice Department modified its definition of rape in 2012 to be gender-neutral — none other than FBI Director Robert Mueller III was responsible for that change — the crime still only encompasses “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person” (Klee, 2018, n.p.).
It’s our job as feminists to empower women, but also reveal all the bad things women have done and charging them in court the same way a man would be if they were to have done the same actions.
I could kind of go on and on about feminism, but the next feminists are seen as ‘hardcore’. Although I did call myself a hardcore feminist above, it’s only because I just feel very passionate about the topic, but real hardcore feminists, on the other hand, would be called either Social Feminists or Radical Feminists. I’m not quite sure what the difference is, but Radical Feminists are apparently more extreme than Social feminists (Rozinskis, 2018). But really, they are practically the same to me.
Their beliefs are pretty much the same as Liberal Feminists, except it’s strictly focused on women and empowering them to the point where they become narcissistic, thinking that the world revolves around women and women only (Navarro, 2017, n.p.). I’d actually go as far as to say they hate on men (Bellin, 2013, n.p.).
They basically try to take ‘back’ the power from men, which I find is the reason why they wouldn’t be considered as ‘real’ feminists because too much of anything is bad (Riggio, 2013, n.p.). There needs to be balance, therefore there should be power being given to both women and men, and neither overpowering one or the other.
I think this group of people just got feminism all wrong. I think they aren’t that educated on the topic and had just assumed that because of the term F
eminism kind of resembles the word females, they’d think it’s only giving power to women.
Honestly, if there had to be one gender that overpowers the other, it definitely should have been females/women. If you take a look at the animal world, the females in pretty much every single Animalia are always bigger, scarier, takes care of their family, and just has the most power (Ogden, 2018, n.p.). It’s different for us human beings for some reason.
So maybe that’s how it should be, women having the most power, but because humans are smart, and unlike other animals who do things out of instinct, we are aware of the things we do. We are able to change the world and make things fair, so why not share our power to make all humans equally powerful with one another?
Works Cited:
Bellin, Kelly. “Liberal Feminism vs. Socialist Feminism.” Socialist Alternative, 8 Sept.
2013, www.socialistalternative.org/2013/09/08/liberal-feminism-vs-socialist
feminism/.
Klee, Miles. “Why Can't the Media Call a Woman Raping a Man What It Is?” MEL
Magazine, 4 Oct. 2018, melmagazine.com/en-us/story/why-cant-the-media-call
a-woman-raping-a-man-what-it-is.
Kuttner, Paul. “The Problem with That Equity vs. Equality Graphic You're Using.”
Cultural Organizing, 10 Nov. 2016, culturalorganizing.org/the-problem-with-that
equity-vs-equality-graphic/.
Navarro, Joe. “Inside the Mind of a Narcissist.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,
1 Sept. 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201709/inside
the-mind-narcissist.
Ogden, Lesley Evans. “What Animals Tell Us about Female Leadership.” BBC , BBC
Capitol, 26 Sept. 2018, www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180925-with-females-in
charge-bonobo-society-is-more-chilled-out.
Riggio, Ronald E. “Too Much of Anything Is Bad For You.” Psychology Today, Sussex
Publishers, 11 Feb. 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge
leadership/201302/too-much-anything-is-bad-you.
Scaccia, Annamarya. “The Price Young Girls Pay When Tampons Aren't Free.” FREE
THE TAMPONS, 29 Feb. 216AD, 5:15 PM, www.freethetampons.org/the-price
young-girls-pay-when-tampons-arent-free.html.
The CanLit Guides Editorial Team. “Conservative Feminism.” CanLit Guides, 21 Nov.
2013, canlitguides.ca/canlit-guides-editorial-team/postfeminism-and
conservative-feminism/conservative-feminism/.
Upadhye, Janet. “This Is How Homeless Women Cope With Their Periods.” Bustle, 18
Oct. 2016, www.bustle.com/articles/190092-this-is-how-homeless-women
cope-with-their-periods.