One of the most misunderstood words I have come across in my life would be the word feminist. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking the definition of a feminist is; a women who hates men or believes women are the superior gender and she be treated as so. This is actually the definition of a feminazi. Feminism plain and simple is the advocacy for women’s rights and equality of the sexes. Now, obviously some people do not feel women should have equal rights since we do not yet but sexists are not who I want to talk about today. I want to focus on women and men who want equal rights for both sexes but still do not identify as a feminist.
These people could be worried or afraid of judgement from others but in my opinion if someone doesn’t think women, including myself, deserve equals rights then I don’t care what they think. Maybe, it is the fact that many people do not know what the definition is. Therefore, even if someone wants equal rights for women they will be judged as a feminazi because of this misunderstanding. The solution is simple. Educate the people you meet if the term comes up in conversation! This should solve that problem but in my experience sometimes there is more to it. People have said to me before that they believe in equal rights for women and men but they are not a feminist even after the explanation laid out above has been given. How could such an intense oxymoron still prevail?
Women confuse me the most since they are saying they do not think they deserve their own personal rights. From what I have perceived in my life, the reason for this is that women feel that men will not choose then as partners or put less value in them if they identify as a feminist. Now, this dives into the absurdity of male validation but alas we do not have time to go into that in this post. These women would be referred to as pick me women. This is a woman willing to do anything for male approval which includes giving up their own equal rights.
Men are puzzling in the sense that I am not one so I can not specifically speak on behalf of them. From my perspective it appears that men may think women do not want absolute equality in the sense that men are still expected to pay for the first date and open doors, stuff like that. All women are different when it comes to date expectations but I challenge that idea with this. Some feminists may ask for equality and then call someone a douchebag for not paying on a date, which can be seen as a contradiction but do not let a few misrepresentations keep you from allowing women to make change that might let them walk the streets alone at night with no fear. Overall, Understanding each other and treating each other with respect will only lead to future happiness. I hope you can now call yourself a feminist with pride! What do you think? Why is feminism such a bad word?
What is Perception? 