The Blurred Lines Of Feminism: Re-Defining ‘The F Word’
With the current ‘Feminist’ movement becoming evermore popular, there seems to be mixed opinions on what ‘being a feminist’ actually means.
Here’s a few of the views we came across when talking to Women…
- Feminists are Women who hate men
- Feminists are Women who are better than men
- Feminists are Women who are treated badly in work and life situations
- Feminists can’t have careers and be mothers
- Feminists are not allowed to be attractive
- Feminists believes Women will never as good as men
- Feminists believe Women have to work 100% harder just to prove themselves
The list goes on…
The oxford english dictionary defines Feminism as the following -
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
So how did we get on such a confused and distorted path and why are we all singing a different tune when it comes to Feminism?
To start, there is way too much stigma towards the word FEMINISM. The problem lies with us.. YES US GIRLS.
We create such a hype over how we are “never treated as well as men” or how we are “always undervalued”. We say it enough and emphasise it enough that it actually starts to become true. We manifest our own reality based on our thoughts, words and actions.
What we need to do as Women is look at things from a different point of view. What we should strive for is to be as good as we can be, whether it’s better than men or not. We focus too much on how well men do in the world of work yet we forget how important and vital we are to the world as Women. Put simply, there would be no man without Woman!
Women are creating a label for themselves yet asking to be treated the same, if not better, than men. How does that work? If we only strive to be equal to men — we’re setting the bar pretty low anyway right? That’s not saying that we should drop all of our life and career goals and forget ever being a success or having ‘power’, but we should merely look at how we already are successful in other ways, e.g. — being a mother, a doting wife, a loyal friend etc.. Naturally some Women will always crave more from life but the fact is we already are ‘good enough’ and we’re achieving a hell of a lot more than just a decade ago.
Chivalry is another thing we need to stop barking on about.
We crave being the strong, independent, do-it-all-herself kind of Women, but then complain when a guy doesn’t show us the respect we ‘deserve’ by opening doors, helping us with our shopping or pulling the seat out in the restaurant… No wonder guys are confused!
There also seems to be a big misconception in regards to the Women who ‘aren’t’ Feminists -
- She can’t be a feminist because she takes good care of her man
- She can’t be a feminist because she chooses to be a stay at home Mother
- She can’t be a feminist because she shows her body off in sexy clothing (if ya’got, flaunt it guuurl)
- She can’t be a feminist because she’s an ‘exotic dancer’ (or other related well paid, scrutinized job)
- She can’t be a feminist because she gets drunk and sleeps with men
Just because some Women do not appear to be on the same ‘side’ as you, doesn’t mean they are against you. Women of today are just simply more diverse and we don’t have to confirm to what society tells us and live within the rules of just one box. We can live in a bunch of boxes!
As Women, we simply need to stop living in the glory of one day being ‘better’ than Men and realise we already are an amazing sex. It’s time to eradicate the blurred lines as well as the stigma associated with being a Feminist and it’s time ditch the ‘F word’ once and for all.
