Feminism: Revised
The term “feminism” dates back as far as the early 1800’s, here it was first coined as “feminisme” by a French philosopher. The word has since been at the forefront of multiple women’s rights movements and reformations throughout Europe, North America, and is spreading throughout the rest of the globe. The term feminism, and its associated noun feminist, has become a controversial word to represent gender-rights movements in the modern world. Some view the term as empowering to all women, raising the bar of equality of women to that of men in our society. It is also argued that feminist movemets made significant strides for women’s access to education, their entrance into the workforce, and political rights since the 1900s. However, feminism has received consistent backlash since its creation. Common arguments are that feminism pits women against each other, is inherently ‘man-hating’, and is selective for a white demographic only. Even the word itself has a bad connotation according to critics. A Salon article published in 2005 referred to feminism as the “F word”, and argued to replace ‘feminism’ with a completely new term to address this negative stigma. But despite the negative connotation given to the word ‘feminist’, the concept of feminism is inherently empowering to both women and men, and its intersectional nature includes all marginalized groups.
To state the obvious (to most individuals), feminism is inherently empowering to women. It challenges ones individualism to stand up to constraining gender norms that underestimate a woman’s capabilities. It also transforms a woman’s view of herself and her abilities by challenging differential treatment of males and females in society. According to Lisa Maria Hogeland’s article, “Fear of Feminism: Why Young Women Get the Willies”, many women nevertheless fear feminism (and the label of feminist). Hogeland explains that this fear is not a fear of feminism, but rather a fear of politics. In other words, women are scared that identifying with this word will result in alienation from our male-dominated society for challenging social norms. However, feminism at its core is the movement to reconstruct these social norms, and change our political infrastructure to support female empowerment instead of punishing women for it. In addition, as Valenti’s article “You’re a Feminist. Deal.” points out, most women are feminists. In fact, anyone who believes in equality, defends women’s inherent right to her own well-being and body, revokes violence against women, and values oneself as a human being is a feminist – despite their attitudes towards this word. Thus, the term is empowering to women and also encompasses most women.
Men are also empowered by the feminist movement despite misconceptions of its apparent “man-hating” tendencies. As Valenti admits, “any term that we use to describe equality for women will end up being considered a bad word” (Valenti, 25). In our society, feminine objects and concepts are deemed inferior to masculine ones, so it is no surprise that a whole movement is viewed as such. In addition, anything associated with empowering the oppressed feels threatening to the oppressor. Oppressors don’t like being labeled as such, as it automatically places a responsibility on the oppressors to change. The social response to this threat is to reject the idea and place a negative connotation to the word (such as the common ‘man-hating’ argument). However, this social sense of inferiority with femininity is to the blame of society and institutions, not the individuals themselves. Feminism is actually empowering to men because challenges gender norms relieves pressure from males to be traditionally masculine (expectations such as being violent, outgoing/persistent, and financial breadwinners). In addition, elevating females to the same equality standards as men adds unique skills and perspectives beneficial to companies, organizations, and political arenas.
Lastly, the intersectional nature of feminism emcompasses all marginalized groups beyond strictly gender. Feminism does not support merely white women. The term applies to raising equality standards of all women regardless of disability, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, etc. Valenti admits that the term feminism is slightly discriminating, but not in the sense that it neglects the intersectionality of oppression. Feminism is discriminating in that the term ‘feminist’ excludes all those who are not intersectional in their approach to women’s empowerment. By that every nature, women who limit their attention to a specific demographic in their activist agenda are not feminists.
In conclusion, the term feminism transcends far beyond letters written on paper. It puts a name to countless women’s rights movements throughout history and defines those seeking to empower women. Feminism is also intersectional by nature, and it seeks to empower all women regardless of their demographics. Lastly, feminism empowers men to challenge constraining social norms and foster a more diverse environment. It is unfortunate that this term recieves consistent backlash and distaste by our society – but this backlash from an empowering movement exemplifies the very reason why we need feminism today.
