Feminism Is A Successful Global Social Movement

Throughout History, women have been permanently oppressed and treated as subordinate to men. They have been considered mentally weak and biologically inferior. The power of their opinion has been limited and in many situations ignored, being condemned to live in that condition for several years. Therefore, we can conclude that the only responsible for strengthening this characterization of women’s inferiority is our society.

Women are often confined to a set of ideals and expectations because of one simple fact: they are women. Many of the women who contributed to this book have faced gender stereotyping and discrimination. Instead of allowing traditional social norms to confine them to an unwanted lifestyle, they challenged these conventional ideals, risking failure and facing condemnation from strangers as well as people close to them. People often associate feminism with negativity and pessimism. In “Feminism is a Dirty Word,” Cindy Simon Rosenthal talks about how people refuse to define themselves as a “feminist.” However, the movement does not advocate for women’s special privileges. Feminism celebrates social equality and supports the utilization of all talents.

I had never really thought about what it meant to be a feminist, it was just a role I had unquestionably assumed as I consider myself to be an advocate of women empowerment. After last week’s readings, I began to question what exactly does being a feminist entails, and why the label carries very different meanings and connotations to different people. There is a common misconception that feminists are radicals, seeking to be superior to men. This is rooted in the fact that women today do not face the same struggles as its predecessors; namely, the inability to vote, work, study, and own property, to name a few. It is true that I have more rights and privileges than women such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth,

IV: Feminist scholarship extensively details how the very tools that allow us to interpret the world can also constitute and reinforce inequalities of power. We are given over form the beginning to structures such as language, identity, law, nation and privilege (among many others) that implicate us in processes of exclusion, devaluation, and commodification. Drawing upon at least one reading from classes 15-21, one from classes 22-27 and another from before the midterm, discuss methods of undermining or subverting this inevitable complicity to forge room for resistance.

“For male feminists, maintaining an awareness of their own privilege in order to vigilantly disassemble male dominance is crucial. It is not enough to talk the talk; one must also incorporate principles of equality into one’s daily life” (19).

Feminism is often used as an umbrella term describing many different strains of similar ideologies and movements. It classifies the Suffragette movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique, to today’s initiatives for equal pay. Considering what “feminism” has represented throughout many different moments in history, it is easy to understand why feminists often disagree about what the ideology actually represents. What is the nature of sexism? What qualifies as injustice against women? What is the most effective method of bringing about social change? To better understand these questions, some scholars classify feminism into several “waves”, representing the main goals of feminists relative to the time period.

While the piece is somewhat outdated, it continues to bring about important points and issues about women, such as a double standard among the sexes. It is important that this piece is still shared to show how much progress has been made and still needs to be made. While at one point in history it was common to see people ignoring or overlooking women’s rights, today’s society has the ability to platform its arguments in ways never before used. Social media, for example, has become a large part in spreading the need for feminism, allowing powerful celebrities and ordinary, everyday people to express the need for change in the world. Quindlen shares with readers how society needs not to fear words, but rather fear the consequences that can result from not taking social action. Quindlen’s piece succeeds in diminishing the daunting or intimidating fear that is the

Before the rise of the feminist movement in the late 19th century, women were denied social power and the ability to self-express which led women to desire a voice of their own. Since then, feminism has been widely perceived and controversial which provoked feminists to emphasize women’s needs by confronting the social oppression of women and analyze how their feeling of self-doubt results in response to the constant power struggle between the two sexes. Not only did women protest for more rights, but men also sought equal rights, thereby strengthening the feminist movement further. In Donald Hall’s book Literary and Cultural Theory, he explores the various lenses of feminism by discussing how patriarchy affects the social, economic, and psychological

In a world that has been dominated by men since the dawn of time, women have come a long way from resisting patriarchal interest by beginning to realize they are able to do and say as they please. Feminism focuses on gender social roles in which women have been rejected social power and various forms of self-expression. Women weren’t able to choose or say what they wanted because of patriarchal dominance and interest. While feminist analysis acknowledges the separate levels of social power given to women and men. It has altered over the years, women have had an increase in social powers although even today in the twenty-first century women still encounter patriarchal dominance. Today women are still thought of not being capable of achieving as high as a man. Women have a sense of feeling like they’re not good enough although they are capable

This systematic sexism dealt by women, molds their psyche, causing them to accept this repression as commonplace and normal. Until recently, very few women have taken initiative to question this unfair treatment. Personally, I found it intriguing how women who had the ambition to challenge the system were rebuffed because their views were deemed as frivolous. This made me wonder if this hindered women’s motivation to disrupt the status quo, and continue their fight for their rights to voice their opinions.

For many decades, the feminist movement has had a negative connotation. But, that was not meant to be the case. In group discussion with college freshmen, Dube (2004), a lecturer in the English department at the University of New Hampshire, discovered a wholly inaccurate assessment of feminism from her students. In their viewpoint, feminists were “bra-burning, hairy-legged, man-hating lesbians constantly looking for sexism where it cannot be found” (p.1). However, this could not be further from the truth. The purpose of modern feminism is not to strike fear into the hearts of the opposition. It is not a club that requires exclusivity in the form of gender, religious beliefs, etc. Nor does it demand that its members stomp on others in order

That “women live dispersed among men” is the unifying condition of women and the feminist movement (de Beauvoir 8). Beyond that, differences in culture, in privilege, in circumstance all speak of the community that never was. Even so, both history and current conversation speak of women as though they were a unified group. If gender is performative and is the result of “an historical situation,” this generalization of women declares that women experience gender in one way (Butler 520). From this emerges a war that isolates woman in the effort to define what it is to be a woman.

Some women abuse feminism by using it as an excuse to speak their minds, but others use feminism as a tool to open people's eyes to the often ignored problem of inequality. This belief in a tolerant assertiveness, a claim in human participation and human rights is called power feminism (Wolf, 1993). If used ideally, power feminism effectively accomplishes its task of bringing "self worth. . . to every woman's life," states Naomi Wolf. On the other hand, victim feminism makes a woman out to be a defenseless angel who pleads for the mercy of other by acting as a victim. Seeking power through a powerless position of dependence only slows the feminist movement.

The global idea of feminism refers to the belief that men and women deserve equality in all opportunities, treatment, respect, and social rights. In general, feminists are people who try to acknowledge social inequality based on gender and stop it from continuing. Feminists focus on the fact that in most cultures throughout history men have received more opportunities than women. While the simplified, overall goal of feminism is for the equality of sexes, the tactics and specific goals vary between the different variations of the feminist movements. There are, in fact, many different types of feminism, while, according to lecture, the main three are Liberal Feminism,

Feminism is such an important movement that needs to be taken more seriously than it currently is, but the issue isn’t just the people outside of the movement - it 's the people inside it as well. In fact, many of feminism’s issues form and spread from the inside, like parasites. I have witnessed plenty of instances where there are men being blatantly ignorant or grossly misogynistic, but I’d have to say I’ve witnessed and heard about more instances of “feminism gone wrong” than anything else. This might be because society is still at that place where it just wants to make a good movement seem evil; this problem is something most likely due to certain - not all - males somehow feeling emasculated by women getting the same benefits as them or just that they don 't deserve it because males are inherently better, but the issues they bring up are what make it possible to bad mouth feminism in the first place. This generally ranges from verbal abuse to even lying about rape, and almost always stems from a blindly rooted misandristic mind set; fake feminists are the ones that label all men as bad and inferior, going against feminism’s goal of equality for both genders. Every single member needs to be a positive representative of the movement for it to work, despite how ridiculous it may seem. Modern women are embracing new rights that they never had before and are pushing the limits like crazy, but there is a way to do it that shows power and seriousness that won’t turn into man