Thursday, February 26, 2015

I'm allowed to be a feminist.

I just want to use a blog post to say that, no matter what other students (ahem) may say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with feminism.
Feminism is simply the idea that men and women should be equal.
Currently, there is a wage gap of 23.5%. This means that, for every dollar a man makes, a woman with the same job will make 77 cents.
Currently, women make up 18.3% of Congress, even though they make up approximately 50% of the U.S. population.
This should not be a problem. Men and women should be equal, and that is the entire premise of feminism. I am not talking about radical feminism or "feminazis." I'm not advocating a female takeover. I am not advocating "man-hating." I'll leave that to the radical feminists. I'm not one of them. I am simply advocating equality between these two halves of our country, and of our world--men and women.
Equality is something that has been a prominent issue since the Civil War era. If we give black and white males equal opportunities, but not the same opportunities for their female counterparts, have we really made any progress?
So please, when I post something or write something that you consider a "feminist" topic, just know that you don't need to assume it to be "some outrageous feminist paper." I promise you, if I ever get on the topic of feminism, it's strictly from an "equality" stance. I, too, recognize double standards, and believe we when I say I think they're just as ridiculous as the next person, no matter whether women "benefit" from it.
I just want to see a world where I can make as much as my male counterparts, and my opportunities are just as within my reach as they are for a man with my same level of education and my same work ethic.

2 comments:

  1. For what it's worth, based on my understanding that 77 cents for every dollar statistic isn't accurate for men and women doing identical work. That's just the gap between all year-round, full-time working men and women. When you account for differences in things like occupation and hours, the gap is somewhere between 40-50% in size. This still leaves a sizable disparity that we can attribute to outright gender discrimination in compensation, but just as much of the problem lies in the way the social expectations we put on women influence their career choices. Addressing this may be even more important.

    On the whole "feminist" thing, I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with identifying as one, but it isn't a prerequisite or an inevitable conclusion of thinking men and women are equal. There's definitely a lot of baggage that comes with the word, to the extent that a lot of people have a seriously adverse reaction to it (in part because of crazed feminazis). Really, having an "-ist" term makes it sound too much like a chosen ideology that people have to go out of their way to prescribe to. When really you don't have to be a feminist to believe women aren't intellectual inferior to men—you just have to not be a fucking idiot.

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  2. I have definitely noticed that the term feminism seems to have lost a lot of its shine, and I think that's a shame. I wonder why the term seems to have lost a lot of favor, to the point that many young people who call themselves feminists seem to immediately qualify the statement--"I'm not THAT kind of feminist," for example. Feminism need not be anything more than a dedication to the idea that men and women should have equal rights--which, as Matthew rightly points out, is not the same as simply being willing to support this idea or to say one believes it. Few people would not say that men and women are equal, and yet few people seem willing to call themselves feminists--why is this?

    I think there is generally an aversion to radicalism of all stripes. Feminism was of course a radical movement for much of its history--although it could also be quite conventional. It's interesting Sydney that you distance yourself from radical feminism. It's perfectly understandable, and yet of course radical feminism need not be anything more than an attempt to raise awareness of inequality in a more unsettling and challenging way--say, by pointing out the way that class intersects with gender, and calling for a systematic critique of both.

    Interesting exchange--thanks for bringing this issue to our attention.

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