Don 't Call Me The F Word

To admit or to label oneself as a feminist is to accept a whirlwind of judgment from those around you. It is without a doubt that the word “Feminism” or “Feminist” turns heads, and not necessarily for the right reasons. Many have resorted to mocking, disagreeing, and/or hating Feminism without even having a good grasp of what it is. The stigmas that feminists face are that they are radical, extremist, liberal, lesbians who hate men, refuse to shave and enjoy burning bras (Lee).Conversely, feminists are principally advocates for social justice and equality as well as aim for the establishment of equally divided power between the sexes. It is obvious that many are unaware of and uneducated on the misogynistic injustices plaguing our world and the toxic environment we all live in- both women and men. Feminism is a positive concept that works to eliminate injustices between both sexes and to establish the value of women, thus should be treated as such a concept instead of being a forbidden idea.

When thinking about feminism in today’s society we tend to direct our minds and thoughts to a more radical and powerful train of thought. Feminism has been going on for centuries, with two main ideologies at the forefront; liberal and cultural feminism. Someone who identifies as a liberal feminist is someone who believes that women and men are a like and equal in most respects and deserve equal roles and opportunities (Wood & Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017, p. 58). And cultural feminism is someone who identifies as someone who believes that men and women are fundamentally differently; you have different rights, role and opportunities (Wood & Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017, p. 58). The women’s rights movement can be understood and broken down into three “waves”.

Feminists today are viewed as raging, man-hating bitches, but feminism in its true sense simply advocates women’s rights. While there are extremes on either side of the scale, most feminists fight

Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings. It’s a quote that has been attributed to dozens of women throughout history, but no matter who whispered those wise words, they still hold a significant impact in the modern social body. Much like with the civil rights movement for African Americans, women have won their suffrage and have been granted equal rights; however, also much like the African American people, oppression is still very real for women in the modern social body. The growing disparity between the wages of males and females is frightening, the presence of a rape culture is devastating, and the failures to recognize the right of a woman to choose are cataclysmic. So, if the feminist

Feminism has become an ugly word. Some say it does not even live up to its definition anymore. However, the definition remains unchanged in the pages of history. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary’s definition of Feminism reads, “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” If one digs deep into this definition, beyond the surface of society’s view on feminism today, one can see that feminism would benefit both sexes. The true ideals of feminism break down gender roles, thus benefitting men, women and future generations.

In the beginning of the lecture when he is addressing autonomy, he states that women have overcome most of the issues he listed. However, in several countries, women haven't overcome those issues. He also doesn't give men as much credit as they probably deserve. He says that he aims to explain in his book that "it isn't scary and you can understand it." The way he says it sounds to me like he thinks men aren't smart enough to understand it, so he's going to dumb it down for them. The issue, I believe, is not that they're too dumb to understand it, it's that they're not open to understanding it. I understand he was probably trying to make a joke, but it's not great to say things like that when he's trying to get men to support something. I do like that he puts a lot of emphasis on how supporting feminism could benefit men because I don't think that a whole book explaining why feminism is good for only women would be effective in trying to convince men that they should support

At the beginning of the semester when I was asked if I was a feminist, I thought the answer was pretty obvious. I didn’t consider myself a feminist, nor did I ever think I would ever become a feminist, but what I didn’t understand about feminism, was that I didn’t truly understand what it meant to be a feminist. After months of studying gender, I now have a better understanding of what it exactly means to be a feminist. In my opinion, a feminist is someone who wants equal rights for women and men, and what I mean by equal rights, is equality across the board, which includes the political landscape, religious landscape, the free market, the jobs market, ETC. Although that definition is not one that is widely accepted in the academic environment,

In his article, “Why Men Have a Problem with the Word ‘Feminism’”, author Martin Daubney explains how he doesn’t clearly like the word feminism. Though he believes in what the word stands for, equality and freedom of choice, irrespective of gender, sexuality or race, he is repulsed by the word feminists. This is because of how the word is perceived; the word feminism now tends to symbolize an aura of negativity. The reasons behind the negativity are the acts of the radical feminists. “All men are rapists”, that statement was supposedly said once but as is can’t be taken back it is all that the men tends to remember. What was supposed to be a positive message for the benefit of mankind became a word that gives people a personal bad attitude.

The article “Rejecting Feminism Makes No Sense” by Leonard Pitts Jr argues clearly and illustratively about women who reject feminism considering what feminism is today but at the same time enjoy the achievements made by the movement. He also demonstrates that many women forget that life as they have today was the result of feminism. These points of view by the author are right. Many women can be described by Leonard’s passage where he says, "It's hard to imagine any young woman really wants to return to days of barefoot, pregnant and making meatloaf, many now disdain the banner under which their gender fought for freedom. They scorn feminism even they feast at a table feminism prepared."

From a very young age, girls are held to different standards than boys. They are expected to act differently, strive for different things, and lead a more cleanly life. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, feminism was not yet a prominent idea. You wouldn’t see large groups of women, and some men too, crowding the streets promoting their beliefs that women and men should receive equal pay, women should be able to hold positions of importance in the workplace, and absolutely not that women should be able to hold a political position of any sort. An article that we read this semester focused solely on the evolution of types of feminism throughout the last few decades. In mid-1900, daughters were expected to uphold the duties that her mother performed

"For me, it 's not even that I 'm a feminist. I 'm for anybody. I 'm for everybody, for everything. I don 't care what you want to do in your life, or whom you want to be with, which you want to love, who you want to look like. I’m a feminist in the way that I’m really empowering to women.”

While early stages of feminism has made great strides on reproductive rights, equal pay, and women’s suffrage; through increasing misconceptions today the once powerful

Feminism is more than a word, more than an individual, and more than an identity. In the words of Tavi Gevinson, editor-in-chief of Rookie Mag, an online feminist magazine for teen girls, feminism is a discussion, a conversation, and a process. It’s not a set of rules and restrictions, and it’s certainly not an attack targeted on men, but it is a fight, and it’s a long one. Over time, various connotations surrounding the word “feminist” have developed to form an image of angry, misandrist, bra-burning women who shouldn’t be taken seriously as thinkers and agents of social change. A dismissal of feminism that I hear often seems to be that feminists are just looking for things to be angry about, seeking out reasons to complain so we feel

Clearly, my proposed definition of feminism is gender neutral and pertains to men as much as it does to women, but that vision has not been pursued in the same way by men as it has by women,” (Gross np). As Gross proposes, most feminist fighting is not worth it. All the pain and suffering from attempting to achieve true equality is not worth the effort and sacrifice. Additionally, Gross points out that, “if any one person is not free, then no one is free, that individual liberation is impossible. Either women and men are both free of the prison of gender roles or neither is free,” (Gross np). This realization dooms feminism to hypocrisy. If feminists believe so much in fighting for equality, then they must also consider all the factors and instances in which men are not created equal. As Gross would say, “…individual liberation is impossible,” (Gross np). It is not possible to offer everyone on the face of the earth equality because we were never born equal. We may be offered the same opportunities in one nation that may not be offered in a poverty-stricken nation. Therefore, one soul offered one opportunity cannot simply have the same equal opportunity as another born across the

To further my understanding of feminism, I am currently taking the class Introduction to Women’s Gender and Ethnic Studies. During the first unit, I studied more in-depth about different types of feminism, and the feminism waves throughout