Feminism and What is Stopping Us
Did you just go “Oh man! Not again!” after reading the title? Then you need to read this. Or did you think “Oh yeah! Finally!”? Then good news, you will vibe with the entire article! Or are you the “Meh whatever, I just need to pass my time” person? Then go ahead and finish the article, now that you have started it.
So let us start with the cliché question - What is feminism? And the cliché answer: Feminism is the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Yet, even after the same question and answer being repeated several times over and over again, we see famous female artists proclaiming why feminism, let there be equality.
Now a few of you may think, why support women empowerment for equality of sexes? Well, if you haven’t noticed already, women are one of the groups being discriminated against socially, economically, and politically based on their gender and sex (this is where the feminist movement and the LGBTQ+ movement meet, but that is a story for another day). Hence feminism advocates the upliftment of women for equality of sexes.
Once, I was watching an interview with a famous YouTuber who claims to be a feminist. During the interview, she was asked whether she is a feminist. The interviewer laughs shyly and says she is not, clarifying that she only believes in equality of all genders. What is with our resistance to the word feminism?
During my teenage years, even I was afraid or reluctant to admit that I was a feminist. Why? Here I would like to introduce a concept called benevolent sexism propounded by psychologists.
Contemporary sexism is of two types: benevolent sexism and hostile sexism. Hostile sexism is the old-fashioned, overt negativity towards the sex being discriminated against. In hostile sexism, men have more power over women as they supposedly can use their sexuality to benefit from men’s higher status and are less competent than men.
Benevolent sexism on the other hand is more subtle, positive in valence while still undermining and patronizing over the sex being discriminated against. Here “good” women are those who nurture the family and they are always protected by men. Due to these different perspectives of the same sexism, benevolent sexism tends to go unnoticed and also has negative consequences on women like making them less interested in activism, setting the entire movement years back. It makes them as well as anyone else reluctant to admit that they are feminists.
Hostile sexism punishes behaviors seen as inappropriate in women, similar to what Malala Yousafzai faced for going to school. But hostile sexism would mostly result in retaliation. Hence benevolent sexism tries to put a velvet glove over the iron fist of sexism by rewarding women who comply with the patriarchal system. Women who follow traditional gender roles are placed on a pedestal and who wouldn’t want to be liked by all? This leads to internalized misogyny and these women feel that feminists are trying to take these stereotyped “traditional” gender roles from them. Such women often use several justifications for their opposition to feminism, some commonly used ones being how women are better than men in the domestic sphere and men would fall apart without their help at home.
Another excuse I have heard from people who don’t admit they are feminists is that they follow “humanism” or “egalitarianism”. Humanism is a branch of philosophy and ethics that advocates for equality, tolerance, and secularism. Egalitarianism is a form of political philosophy that advocates all human beings are fundamentally equal and therefore equally entitled to resources. Although these two ideologies considerably helped shape feminism, feminism actively advocates for gender equality, unlike these two ideologies which do not stress any particular basis for discrimination. Thus these cannot be replacements for or better ideologies than feminism.
Some others have problems with the fact that the name ‘feminism’ is visibly associated with the term ‘female’ and not ‘male’ or ‘human’. That is because, just like I said in the beginning, the movement was begun to fight the inequality faced by women and hence named so.
Annie from Annie’s Kitchen, Vidhu Bala from Kathayallithu Jeevitham (both quite popular Malayalam TV reality shows) and several others who still propagate patriarchy on national television have a huge fan base. At the same time, Mollywood actors like Nimisha Sajayan and Parvathy Thiruvothu who try to break the stereotyped female characters in Malayalam cinema are persecuted and trashed for their opinions and choices they make in the industry. Thus, due to benevolent sexism, we see not only men but also women who support the existing gender roles. It surely is a pity that today, even in the 21st century, we hear comments like “Women should always be a step below men” from women themselves.
The female literacy rate in India is 70.3% which is below the average literacy rate (77.7%) while the male literacy rate is 84.7%. To people who think we have already attained equality among genders, do you still think so? The pay divide among men and women who hold the same office exists even today. Employers still think it’s better to employ a 25-year-old male than a 25-year-old female because of the possibility that she may soon get married and pregnant and then ask for maternity leave. Not to mention the increasing number of atrocities and violence that women face on the streets, at her workplace, even inside her house, literally her entire life. Nobody is spared, be it a 6-year-old girl or a 60-year-old woman. Sure, we as a society have come miles forward compared to India during the late 1990s. But there is still a long way to go.
It took an African American woman, Rosa Parks, to ignite the civil rights movement in America, which was the first step against racial discrimination there. For us to overcome this gender inequality we face, we have to take the first step. Trying to push each other off the boat that we all are on is only going to ultimately tip the boat over.
We have reached a golden point in time where there are a lot of men who have come up with support for the cause of feminism and are ready to fight with us. We need to seize this opportunity. Call out misogyny as and when you see it. Using racially derogatory or homophobic terms is looked down upon now, which was not the case a little while ago. Let us bring the same change in society and look down upon those who practice patriarchy and misogyny in any manner.
Feminism is about ensuring all kinds of equality for women and men. For women, it is equality to get educated, equality to dress up the way they want, equality to decide which career to choose, equality in the time they can get out of and in their house, equality in wages, etc. For men, it is the freedom to emotionally express themselves, to not have to adopt toxic masculine traits to be accepted as a man, to not take up the financial burden for the entire family, etc.
Feminism essentially tries to beat the patriarchal stereotypes that society practices. To the misogynists who say, earlier the movement was for women to cover their chests, now it is to uncover them - times have changed and it has always been about equality, whether it calls for covering or uncovering. The essence of both movements is that whether our chests remain covered or uncovered, it is none of your business!
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