Women empowerment, equality and feminism; while one may say these words are synonymous with each other, many today view these three ideas as mutually exclusive contradictory beliefs. Society today, no stranger to inequality and sexism, has unfortunately been normalized to the point of forced acceptance. Recently, an Instagram group chat named the “Bois Locker Room” was brought to light where discussions objectifying women and underage girls along with ‘jokes’ about rape were made. This issue has sparked a discussion on the normalization of mistreating women and women having to deal with it on a daily basis, and the direction of feminism in the 21st Century.
The History
The concept of wanting to obtain equality between the sexes has existed for centuries, but the concept of feminism only emerged in the 19th century when women began protesting for their right to vote. That came to be known as First Wave Feminism, where the suffragettes fought for political equality. This evolved into a Second Wave feminist Movement that targeted cultural and social discrimination due to women’s historically faced oppression and restriction to domestic roles such as taking care of the family and doing household chores due to it simply being womankind’s duty.
This then brought out a Third Wave Feminism where financial, social and cultural inequalities are addressed along with stronger campaigns for a greater influence of women in all fields such as politics, film, media, sports and so on. Like with every ideology, belief and religion, feminism also has a large spectrum of beliefs with passive feminists and those that are radical with their beliefs, the later of which unfortunately is defined as feminism today.
The Opinions
While sexism is blatant and continuous in society, politicians don’t shy away from making sexist remarks either, which only further endorses sexism and the idea that it’s okay to belittle women. Decrediting women has become normalized in politics and society as it is expected to be taken as a “joke” and not something to become “overly emotional about” like women do.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2014 stated that “Our religion [Islam] has defined a position for women: motherhood. Some people can understand this, while others can’t. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don’t accept the concept of motherhood.”
Janusz Korwin-Mikke a member of the European Parliament said that “women must earn less than men because they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent.”
Tomomi Inada, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan stated that (with regards to her female colleague) “As long as Ms. Mori is there, it feels glamorous”, at a gathering in Fukushima Prefecture.
Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi party of India commented that “boys will be boys” when addressing the issue of rape in India.
Senator Yelena Mizulina stated that “a man beating his wife is less offensive than when a woman humiliates a man” with regards to decriminalizing some forms of domestic abuse in Russia.
Similarly, many people in society expect women and girls to be quiet when faced with inappropriate remarks, cat-calling and even assault, so as to not cause a scene. The phrase “boys will boys” is the epitome of degrading women. Protests against this have been increasing over the years with a larger focus on prevention rather than neglect. This, however, has sparked a wave of protests amongst people who were angry that only women were typically seen as victims of abuse and assault while men were only seen as the perpetrators and criminals. This led to the establishment Men’s Rights activists who advocate for the equality of men or rather the reduction of the importance given to female empowerment.
Many believe that it is extremely important to have a focus on the empowerment and provision of measures for women specifically due to their long history of oppression, while others believe that it is a similar situation to that of having an “All Lives Matter Movement” rather than just “Black Lives Matter”.
The essence of feminism has constantly evolved and been misunderstood over the years. What began as a way of advocating for women’s empowerment on the grounds of equality has very quickly turned into an idea that has become automatically synonymous with man-hating, not only calling for changes in the patriarchal system, but also the language we use due to the words women, feminism and person having “men” and “son” in them which are masculine nouns. The feminist ideology also has extremsists that promote radical beliefs and it is crucial that we all understand that they alone don’t represent the ideals of feminism as a whole. Being a feminist is simply wanting equality while acknowledging the requirement of female empowerment.
The Conclusion
While the parameters of feminism have changed throughout time, it is essential that society starts reforming into one that is more equal by focusing on providing equal opportunity for men and women rather than simply striving for equal outcome which just turns into an ineffective quota system. It is vital that we understand the different stances of the feminism spectrum wherein feminism in its raw form is purely striving for equality by empowering women (as the historically oppressed ) whereas a lot of the feminism we see today is in fact radical feminism. It is important to understand what feminism is and where the ideology stemmed from to dissociate the word from its negative connotations of “female dominance” and “male oppression”.
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