Feminists fight for the advancement of women’s rights in the world. They believe that women are equal to men and should be treated as such. They fight to reduce the wage gap and to make sure that each woman has the right to make her own decisions about her body. They strive for the eradication of gender violence and the idea that one is limited by their biology.
Knowing all this, how on earth do we have women who are declaring themselves anti-feminist?
The Tumblr blog “Women against feminism” posts pictures submitted by female users holding up sign that explain why they are not feminists.
“I don’t need modern feminism because it’s shameful to suggest women in the US are oppressed when there is ACTUAL oppression happening in other parts of the world.”
“I don’t need feminism because I am NOT a delusional, disgusting, hypocritical man-hater! I respect men and they respect me!”
“I don’t need feminism because I want to believe there is a healthier and more constructive way to stop oppression and abuse of women than doing the same thing to men.”
“I don’t need feminism because fighting for woman superiority is not fighting for equality”
Feminism is the belief that women are and should be treated as equals to men. Nowhere in the definition of feminism does it say that feminists are “man haters,” “man oppressors,” or “advocates of female superiority.”
The reason for these misconceptions is ignorance.
“They’re uninformed about the true meaning of feminism,” Ashley Foster, a sophomore Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Psychology major, said. “A feminist is not a woman who wants to be miss independent and doesn’t want men to open doors for us and pay for our meals. Feminists actually want men to help fight against antifeminism with them, they don’t want to fight against them – just against patriarchy in general.”
The next question is where did such a negative view of feminism first arise?
To put it in simple terms, the feminist movement has two branches, equal rights feminism and radical feminism.
Unfortunately radical feminists are louder than the other branch and have become the face of feminism.
Radical feminist do not want equal rights and believe that men were, and still are, responsible for all the issues women have to deal with.
“They actually were the minority during the women’s liberation movement and only represented the radicals in the feminist movement but they got all the media attention and that is why feminism has such a stigma to this day.” Michelle Glazer, a sophomore History major, said. “So many people (especially females) that say they’re against feminism are actually not against feminism but are against radical feminism which is not representative at all of feminism as a whole.”
With radical feminism dominating the media it is no wonder that women are declaring themselves against this type of feminism.
“Even Shailene Woodley, who is pretty much the most vocal ‘stand up for my rights’ actress there is right now, renounced her feminist status because she didn’t understand this, which is not helpful at all because it supports the misconception,” Erin Kwong, a junior English major, said.
What is not fair is that an entire movement is being undermined by this distorted view. There is still a need for feminism in today’s society.
A very visible line needs to be drawn between equal rights feminism and radical feminism. Rejecting an entire movement because of bad press will deter us from the ultimate goal of gender equality.