Feminism, by definition, was created to promote equality. Feminism is often confused with misandry or twisted into benefiting misogyny, which only further elucidates the purpose of feminism, and the importance of its existence in the past, present, and future.
When I was younger, I didn’t even know the word feminism. All I understood was that there were too many injustices in this world to count, and that not enough people acknowledged them. When I first truly started learning about feminism, it was through social media. Before that, I had read books about “girl power!” and “plot twists” where the leading female was somehow extraordinary for not liking pink and dresses and princesses. But feminism is not about women doing what society decides is empowering. It’s about personal choice and decision. A female lead can like pink and dresses and princesses and be just as
badass as the other character in question. The idea of feminism is that people have choices that are varying and in multitude.
Once I started reading on social media, I realized feminism was broader than some made it seem. As soon as I found out there was a whole universe of people as frustrated as I was, I felt strength. There were others who understood what it was to be put in a box by society and feel angry because of it. I read anything and everything I could find, determined to arm myself against the world with knowledge. I learned about women’s suffrage. Racial inequality. Gender stereotypes. Wage gaps. The LGBTQ+ community and their struggle for rights and visibility. Rape culture. Body positivity. Acceptance and hope and revolution for people all around the world. I felt different. Strong.
Despite the profusion of issues regarding equity and equality that need to be addressed and discussed, there are those who believe there is no longer a need for feminism. It’s easy to ignore the glass ceiling when you’re standing on the roof. There are people everywhere who need feminism, for all different reasons. Reality is, any place of the world where there are people who have less opportunities than others because of who they are, has a need for feminism.
Continued problems lie with those who twist the word feminist into something it is not. They turn it ugly, into a dirty word, a word people can frown upon when mentioned. I could write pages and pages of information on why it isn’t just women who need feminism, but I won’t. I shouldn’t have to make a movement for equality about a specific group of people for them to consider its validity. However, male feminists are important and necessary. We need and must support them. But if a man uses feminism to purposely raise his opinion over a woman’s while she’s still talking, he is not a feminist, but a misogynist. If you have to silence others to get your point across, your opinion is not a feminist one. It’s about equality. It’s about supporting one another, not discrediting the experiences and issues we may have as
individuals.
We can learn from each other through feminism and become stronger in the process. The more hands we have joined together, the easier it will be to lift each other up and shatter the glass ceiling. When people alike use feminism to share and grow from their own separate struggles, we will finally learn what it means to progress.
~Josie Bleess
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