Sunday 17 June 2012

Feminism or Gender Inequality?

The term 'feminism' has a lot of negative connotations these days. To paraphrase my friend Josh, "It's because so many feminists take an anti-male, almost militant stance. Feminism is alright, but too many feminists push almost for dominance, rather than equality."

Personally, I don't know any feminists who take on this so-called 'militant stance'. All the feminists I've met are intelligent males and females who believe in gender equality. The media does a fantastic job of convincing us that feminism is anti-male and militant, even butch and ''lesbian''. That's just not true. I think people have taken the example of Emily Davison running in front of King George V's horse... and gone a bit mad with it.

It seems a shame therefore, that feminism has been bridled with these ultimately imaginary claims. Feminine and masculine words are used commonly in many languages, indeed they are used to TEACH languages, without intentional misinterpretation of their meanings. It seems a little too convenient that we take the 'fem' in 'feminism' and make that a negative thing.

But (and I hate to start sentences with but) it's hard to get anywhere by fighting against people. So let's not call it feminism. Let's rebrand it. This Western Consumerist Culture loves that; so for the sake of the people we're dealing with, let's call it gender inequality.

After all, that's what feminism means.

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