Internet crazes are often irritating but, for the most part easily ignored (except when people keep virtually throwing make-up remover wipes in your direction that is!).
This I couldn’t ignore. My irritation has been building since I first came across this latest ‘movement’ last week. Birthed on Tumblr and quickly sweeping its way through our social media hangouts, Women Against Feminism calls for it’s participant to stand in front of a camera holding a refill pad sheet with all the reasons they ‘don’t need feminism’.
‘I don’t need feminism because I am not afraid of men’ , ‘I don’t need feminism because I am not a victim’, ‘I don’t need feminism because I do not hate men’…you get the gist. There was also a hell of a lot of posts that listed ‘because I like to look nice and don’t need to explain why’ as a reason.
This puzzled me… I like to look nice, hell, I even like when a man pays me a compliment. Does this mean I don’t need feminism? no. Does this mean I need you to explain yourself to me? no. This unhealthy view that a feminist is some stuck up sheet wearing bra burning judging prude is a little stereotypical, no?
Let’s define feminism shall we, ‘The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes’ (Oxford Dictionary). You are missing one simple point protesters, anyone can be a feminist…man, woman, child. The whole nature of modern feminism is it’s openness. Also, tell me, since when did equality and feminism become mutually exclusive?
I certainly don’t teach women to be victims. I certainly do not hate men. I’m not afraid of men, nor do I believe they are all rapists like a number of you have frightfully suggested. So who are you talking to? …extremists perhaps?
One sign stated, ‘I don’t need feminism because I am not oppressed’ … is this ignorance or just selfishness, I’m not sure?
Your boyfriend may ‘treat you right’, excellent, mine too! You may feel that feminism is an obsolete issue but you try tell that to the one in three girls in developing countries who are forced into marriage by the age of 18. Or to today’s Libyan woman who remembers being handed over as ‘spoils of war’ if she stood up for her rights during 2011’s Civil War, or to the women in Saudi Arabia who aren’t even allowed to drive a car.
No one is saying times haven’t changed and no one is saying to keep looking to the past as a way forward but why waste time and energy on throwing out a belief system rooted in an over 100 year struggle for female equality just because you have never felt the effects of female oppression.
#WomenForFeminism
Don't Minchin It! 