The Girl Syndrome

Feminism and Me

Warning: I found this whole idea a perfect way to voice my thoughts on feminism. I have pretty strong thoughts on this topic (and alot of colourful words - I did try to tone that down a bit) so if you don't agree, just don't read. 

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

 fem·i·nism  [ noun \ˈfe-mə-ˌni-zəm\ ] :

- the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities

So I was going through tumblr (I follow a lot of wonderful feminists) and they were talking about how women are still underrepresented in the media and high-level management & political positions, even citing the abysmal statistics and then anti-feminists go like:

"Yeah, but a lot of women don't want to put their career before their family and a statistic can't really be applied in that case because it essentially says all women must now put work before their kids when it really is a highly personalized, case-by-case decision."

"My company has a quota for women in higher positions and it's just so stupid because now women get the high level job even if they are better qualified men just so the company meets the quota."

"If the under representation in the media is such a big problem, why don't women just stop watching male-dominated movies? And what if the story doesn't fit a woman, we can't just force-cast women to fulfill a 50-50 statistic when it doesn't make sense for the story line!"

And my favorite: "Traditional gender roles have been there for thousands of years you can't just change them overnight. Why do you always have to focus on the negative? Can't you just appreciate the positive? You sound so bitter, but you have it better than countless women before you!"

 It's stuff like this one that makes my blood boil. It's just so tiring to fight that much ignorance and stupidity. Yes I am lucky to have a family who don't discriminate me for being a girl. But that doesn't mean that I should lack social awareness. I know about the millions of women out there who don't get their basic human rights. I know I won't be able to change everything in a go, but I can try. 

 The point is: Yes, we've come very far in a relatively short amount of time when it comes to women's rights and lives. But we still have an even further way to go - and even more so when it comes to women's global situation.

The whole aim of being a feminist is that no one gets to tell you how to be or how to live your life. If you enjoy wearing makeup, wear it. If you love shaving your legs, shave them. If you don't, don't. No one gets to tell you who to be or what the right way to own your body is. Feminism isn't being bitter or judgmental of how other people live, it's living your life how you so choose. Any woman who tells you otherwise is no feminist, they're a bitter, unhappy woman who calls themselves a feminist.

"Most guys do not have to deal with the world of women. They're born from us, they live around us, but for the most part, we take care of our own shit. We buy our own tampons. We deal with skeevy guys who catcall us. We deal with crappier work situations. We deal with getting told we suck at things because we have a vagina, and that we need to be prettier. 

Then, they had daughters.

The girl goes to school, and you watch how she's never called on. You hear someone insult someone else by calling them 'a girl', and it stings. Your little girl is awesome! She's brave and smart and funny! Why would anyone use that as an insult? Then, you remember all the times you did it.

And then, you realize that, all along, you've been a part of the problem." Jezebel, on the recent study showing that men with daughters and boys with sisters are more likely to show more generous, caring and gentle tendencies. 

It's like when a man has a daughter he suddenly wakes up and realizes, "Oh my God, boys out there are going to treat my daughter the way I used to treat girls". That's why men are so protective of their daughters. They know how awful boys are because they acted the same exact way. And instead of teaching your sons not to be assholes, you hide your daughters away.

Against the anti-feminists and the misconceptions of feminism:

"Feminism is terrible."

Anti-feminists consider feminism as a toxic new thing when it's not. It's been a thing for at least a century. It has accomplished great things beneficial for the welfare of women, men and children. 

"Feminism is a want for females to rule over males."

Males at this very moment rule over women. What's the point of trying to rule over them. There is no ruling over them. What the feminist movement aims for justice for women. Feminism is a movement for equality, balance. 

"You are just as bad as the men oppressing you if all you're trying to do is oppress them."

Again, feminists are not trying to 'oppress' men. We have far too many problems to deal with than to 'oppress' men. If you ever hear of so called feminists oppress men it's an isolated case. I'm not disregarding the fact that I know even feminism has its radical feminists and extremists but we all need to accept that every idea will have extremists.

"It is literally revenge. Feminism is a vengeful movement."

'Gosh! Woah, women are disrespecting killing women everywhere. Gosh women now rule the world and give men much lower salaries than them.' Is that what you interpret feminism to be? Get over yourself! We're just trying to get ourselves back up from the low pedal you've put us on. 

We want the fucking change for ourselves not for the fucking oppression of another 

Time for you to see what's really happening to women.  What happened in the past and the present. to see the inequality against them socially, economically and politically. 

I just want to end by my favourite quotes by Natalie Portman:

"I want every version of a woman and a man to be possible. I want women and men to be able to be full-time parents or full-time working people or any combination of the two. I want both to be able to do whatever they want sexually without being called names. I want them to be allowed to be weak and strong and happy and sad – human, basically. The fallacy in Hollywood is that if you're making a "feminist" story, the woman kicks ass and wins. That's not feminist, that's macho. A movie about a weak, vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with."

So yeah, I just really want to thank kingelsa for bringing up this topic. All of this isn't directly related to the book, just my opinions on the topic before we divulge into the actual book.

The links to the side are a few more feminism stuff. I watched the video just a few minutes ago which searching for quotes on feminism and thought it was absolutely wonderful.  Everyone should watch it. 

Dedicated to my friend Aggeliki (angelpatrinou) who shares these opinions with me and I don't think I would be able to stand against the idiots of the world without her. <3