February 10, 2016, by Joe
Feminism
Feminism is the belief in the equality of the sexes. Despite this simple belief for which the feminist movement stands, many people see it as a bad thing. There are, broadly speaking, two reasons why people might see feminism as not worth supporting:
- They are misinformed about the actual values that feminism stands for.
- They think that the sexes are already “equal” and that there is no problem
My hope is that this post clears up both of these fallacies. When you get down to it, massive inequalities still exist in modern day Britain between the sexes. Both men and women experience discrimination because of their gender. For example tampons currently hold the tax status of “luxury product” in the UK today, despite it being obvious to anyone with any common sense that they are in fact essential. It is also worth mentioning that men often receive harsher sentences than a woman would for the same crime.
Discrimination is experienced by both men and women, although not in equal measure. It is very clear that women are discriminated against a lot more than men are. This is obvious and historically women have been oppressed for a longer duration and to a greater degree than possibly any other group of people. Acknowledging that men have been and still are privileged in everyday life is crucial to anyone who decides to question whether feminism is relevant.
However in spite of the apparent simplicity of treating men and women equally, when discussions take place, all too often the debate becomes about “who has it worse”, this is especially annoying when it is quite obvious women have it worse. This for me is a pointless distraction from the real question which should be “how do we deal with this problem”. It is crucial when discussing these issues to acknowledge privilege wherever it occurs, ignoring it and pretending it doesn’t exist leads to denial. Only by avoiding this sort of divisive and incendiary rhetoric can we work together to help end sexism in all its forms.
“…historically women have been oppressed for a longer duration and to a greater degree than possibly any other group of people.”
Well, that’s my cue to close this page.
“It is very clear that women are discriminated against a lot more than men are.” No it is not. Young boys in the US aged 12 have to be put on drugs to stop them from acting “boystrous” because they’re expected to live up to female behaviour standards. Women have a 2-1 chance of getting a place to study a STEM subject. Women have way more support in receiving bursaries, help and advice than men. The movement of feminism has began to discriminate against men for simply being male and white. Why do you assume every white male is privileged? You are making a massive generalisation. Some white men need more support than some women. Feminism aims to divide us. It aims to place one group of people in a higher category than another simply based on race and gender. If you think a woman needs more support than a white man simply because she is a woman than my friend THAT is sexism at its finest.
I’m somewhat appalled by this article. It pictures itself to be some introduction to an essay yet would only really hold up as a bad introduction to one.
There is no semblance of research presented here as first off your two reasons for disagreeing with feminism are somewhat misjudged. The chief reason most people oppose feminism is due to the hostile and toxic attitude spread around by extreme third wave feminism women who preach about drinking male tears and strive rather for female supremacy than a society of equality. These people are not ‘misinformed’ about what feminism is, but rather exposed to the tumorous growth that spawned within feminism.
I appreciate the intent of the article, to clear up the fallacy, but not only did you engage with the wrong issues, you also provide absolutely no sign of research. Talking about the tax on tampons is something I could have gathered that much from scrolling through Facebook. The following sentence is an even worse crime than those people appeared to be sentenced for, not only is it misplaced within the paragraph, as you were just talking about the plight of women, and the switch is rather sudden and startling, but you provide no sources nor articles to support the bold claim of Men receiving harsher punishments to women. Regardless of the societal outlook on such, it’s a rather radical statement which would serve better accompanied with evidence.
Which is the way I view the rest of this article as well. This whole thing could have been written equally well by a primary school child having to do a quick homework assessment. I’ll forgive the idealism of ‘end[ing] sexism in all its forms,’ because regretfully people will always discriminate against each other for a reason or another, but I cannot forgive the lack of quality in this article.
If you’re going to write about a serious issue, post it on a university blog, and attach your name to it, then please take it seriously and do it properly.
I agree with Daria’s comments. Your post is generalizing the issues people have with feminism. It’s a fairly contested and divisive field of ideas, opinions, and histories, none of which can be swept over so easily. We teach our boys that they can only be successful if they play sport, work on that toned body, and get wealthy. They need to be ambitious and hungry for power (politicians, lawyers, businessmen). It’s just as, not less, problematic as telling our girls that they need to be pretty and funny so men will like them. We have fundamental issues in raising both biological sexes in these pre-defined and narrow parameters (not the least of which is having to do with gender identity and sexual identity). We need to stop saying that all white men are privileged. My parents wanted me to play football and get involved in social clubs but I wouldn’t have it and it caused emotional issues for me as a child. I was weird and I was bullied because I didn’t fit preconceived notions of what a boy was supposed to be into. We need to step away from these generalizations of an entire gender group. I don’t need a highly divisive and politically-charged label to know that I support true gender equality. To fix what’s wrong with our patriarchal society, we can’t just fix half of the equation to make it all work out. We need to fix what’s wrong with the ways we raise girls AND boys and the world we imagine for them. Most of all, we should never shame people for not blindly following the angry masses. I do what I can in my professional and personal life to project my humanism into everything I do, fighting injustice of any kind where I can. I am white, male, and privileged and that is exactly what will allow me to change the world for the better.