Thursday 17 November 2011

"Stop going on about feminism!"

You might see a link between some of the posts I will be writing here.

I am unashamedly a feminist.  All women should be feminists.  In fact, hell with it, everyone should be a feminist.  People who roll their eyes either misunderstand what feminism means, or they have had the wool pulled over their eyes and genuinely think we live in an equal society now.  Feminism has, unfortunately, been portrayed as negative, whiny women who hate men making a big fuss over nothing.  Well, of course it would be portrayed as such, since we live in a patriarchal society and it suits some people for it to stay that way.

What does feminism mean to me?

It means all genders being treated with equal respect and being allowed the same opportunities.  It means not objectifying or trivialising someone based upon the gender they happened to be born into (and/or transitioned into).

We have had the Suffragette era, we have the vote, we have the right to work, we even have legislation to guard against discrimination.  So I should be happy, right?  Everything is all OK and much better than it used to be.

I disagree.  You will see why, over the course of some of my later posts, if you bear with me that long.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that things are getting worse again for the average woman.  Media portrayals and expectations, coupled with easy casual sexism in many places in society, insidious inequalities hidden in the working world and a lack of support from our own government, all combines to make it uneasy times indeed.

And for heaven's sake, especially to the women out there, don't tell me to shut up about feminism or sigh and roll your eyes.  It may not seem like a big deal to you, but that in itself is depressing.

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