A friend of mine once stopped dating a guy after he told her that her feminist ideals were “a turn off.” What he was saying, of course, is that he doesn’t want to date a woman who demands equal treatment and respect, because that’s just no fun. Incidentally, he’s still single, but he’s not alone in his mentality. A lot of people believe feminism has a negative effect on society. Others argue that though feminism was once necessary, it’s irrelevant now. But they’re both wrong.
I still need feminism because society misuses women’s bodies. Flip through a magazine and look at the way they sexualize even young girls. Stroll down the street and hear all the catcalling and street harassment that reduces women to ambient sex objects. Walk past newsstands with Photoshopped women on the magazine covers and the headlines telling us what our priorities should be: to “Be Beautiful”, “Tone Every Inch!”, “Resize Your Thighs” and “Get a Sexy Body!”. 80% of ten-year-old girls have dieted in the hopes of conforming and looking more like these fantasy images. Isn’t middle school tough enough without adding pressure to maintain a perfect body before you hit puberty?
I still need feminism because women have a hard time being taken seriously in the workplace. The wage gap of 77 cents on the dollar is by now a well-known figure. Not only are women paid less, there are fewer women in positions of power, both in the political and the business world. That means society doesn’t value the work that women bring, even if it’s the same as men.
I still need feminism because women of color are underrepresented and unheard. The wage gap is even worse for women of color, who according to some estimates make as little as 54 cents for every dollar a man earns. As for representation, women of color are rarely given starring roles in mainstream media. More often than not, Hollywood delegates them to typecast supporting roles.
I still need feminism because the men in charge in Hollywood systematically rape, abuse and oppress women. And they almost never fund female-written or directed films. Film and TV are major contributors to the way women are viewed in society, and women’s oppressors are shaping our culture.
I still need feminism because lesbianism is okay in front of a camera, but still isn’t fully accepted in our society. Many lesbians feel that society views their love as acceptable only if it’s for the benefit and viewing pleasure of men. But women’s happiness should matter in its own right, independent from male desire.
I still need feminism because it’s still normal to ask “what was she wearing?”, “was she drunk?”, or “does she get around?” and victim blame women who’ve been raped. In fact, rape culture is so overpowering, women have to look at every man as Schrödinger’s rapist. Rape culture is everywhere: in Hollywood, in business, in the military, in colleges. And instead of helping survivors, society finds ways to blame the victims. All that matters is that she said no, but too many people still refuse to accept that. Women have the right to feel safe at all times, but because of the perpetuation of rape culture, this is rarely the case.
I still need feminism because men seem to think it’s ok to police women’s choices. Women’s health issues are the subject of constant controversy. Sexual choices always come with judgment, no matter what she decides to do. Articles about “fashion trends men hate” pervade the internet, even though the average guy’s closet isn’t exactly fashion central. Who gave men the right to dictate what women should wear? Whether she’s choosing a miniskirt or a hijab, women must be free to make these kinds of choices.
I still need feminism because too many men don’t respect women. Women are attacked and vilified for rejecting men. Women who “friend-zone” men by refusing to sleep with them get called a bitch, as though it’s a woman’s duty to deliver sex on command. And often, refusal becomes dangerous as men stalk, harass, or physically harm women who turned them down. Women routinely die for speaking their mind to men they are intimate with, or for turning down prom dates, breaking up with boyfriends, or not responding to catcalling. It’s time we started fighting for women’s right to turn down romantic and sexual advances. Her right to no should always trump his desire for yes.
I still need feminism because the word is tarnished by the male-run mainstream media. Too many people see feminism as wrong. Many people, including women, are turning away from feminism. They associate the movement with aggressive bitches, shrill harpies, and hairy lesbians. These huge negative connotations lead to things like the completely disheartening ‘Women Against Feminism’ tumblr page. There, women post photos with signs like “I don’t need feminism because I like men” and “A good man raised me, a great man loves me, millions died for me, and they don’t deserve your shit” and “Men have been predestined to be the head; the role for men is to be leaders, not us” and “As a Christian I follow the bible’s commands that I submit to my husband in all things, and this makes my marriage stronger.”
Feminism was supposed to be the one area in society where women could talk about their issues and seek change. Instead, attitudes like this confuse what feminism is all about, and still make it all about men.
I still need feminism because teenage girls need feminists. Right now, there are thousands of teen girls across the country struggling to find their place in society. They’re doing it with the media idealizing one form of beauty and putting down everyone else. They’re doing it with too few female role models in positions of power to inspire them. They’re doing it with the knowledge that even if they somehow break the glass ceiling and make it as far as a man does, they’ll still get paid less. They’re doing it with society pitted against them in so many ways, they can’t make a choice without getting vilified. I still need feminism because the place society has reserved for them now isn’t good enough.
Why do you still need feminism? Let us know in the comments!
How can anyone argue that feminism is irrelevant when women in the U.S. make an average of 78 cents to their male coworker’s dollar for doing the exact same job? And that pay gap gets even larger when you look at the salaries of women of color in this country?
This state of affairs isn’t just ridiculous! It’s also unjust.
We still need feminism because our culture today still finds excuses for rape…
I agree. Society still finds a way to blame the victims instead.
A human being’s right to live should be respected, whether you are male or female. Yet that doesn’t seem to be the case in countries like India and Pakistan where around 2,000 women are killed by family members every year in order to “restore the family’s honor”. Internationally, the toll jumps to about 5,000 women. Sure, steps are being taken to stop these killings, which are already technically illegal in both countries, but the issue isn’t one of government apathy or religion, but cultural conceptions of female inferiority. Again unlinked to religion, hundreds of millions of women have their genitals mutilated every year. The mutilation most often involves the violent removal or mutilation of the clitoris, and in other cases, also includes the cutting and sewing of the labia. For me, this is why we still need feminism.
The recent war on women’s reproductive rights which includes the financial attacks on Planned Parenthood that led the House of Representatives to pass a bill attempting to freeze funding for the non-profit, as well as the extreme difficulties that many women still must cope with just to obtain birth control. Maybe the biggest reason yet that we still need feminism.
Women deserve equal pay for equal work.
Yes, women do have more social, political and economic rights than ever before. But the fact is, we still have to deal with the harmful side effects of gender inequality on a daily basis. We still have to deal with pay inequality, body-shaming, sex-shaming, slut-shaming, mansplaining, victim-blaming and the constant erosion of our reproductive rights here in the U.S.
Additionally, women living in developing nations are still being forced to cope with harsh, gender-specific health threats like female genital mutilation and fight for basic rights like education.
While men perceive the same sort of pressure to “lose weight, get ripped” and so on, the pressure on women to have a great body and a flawless face is more pervasive. Consider the lengths women go (and amount of make-up they use) to get the “natural” look. More women go under the knife just to be accepted by society or be perceived as pretty.
More stay at home parents are female rather than male because men still get higher-paying opportunities in general. Race and economic factors play into this as well, with a third of stay-at-home moms living below the poverty line.
“Because feminism doesn’t address the issues that men face in our society. Men are expected to be the providers, and we don’t talk about how unfair that is.” This is the reality of our society and what most children know. We grew up in a society where women are the ones who stay at home and take care of the children, and men are the ones who are working in order to put food on the table. This in itself has a hidden message that genders have certain roles that needs to be fulfilled. Other women don’t see that the power isn’t within them because it’s what makes them feel safe in a society that has raised them to think they were inferior.
Despite what non-feminists might say, it’s painfully evident that the global struggle for women’s rights is far from over, and we definitely still need feminism.