Goals

What is feminism? There are many definitions for the term, and all with very different connotations. But I define it as the critique of the inequality of the sexes, and the fight to diminish that inequality. And yes, I am a feminist.

I am feminine. In fact, many of my friends make fun of my girliness, including my three closets full of clothes, my eighty pairs of shoes, or my baskets of jewelry and other accessories. I straighten my hair, I shave my legs, I wear dresses, I put on makeup. I am heterosexual. I have a wonderful boyfriend whom I love, and have never had a problem finding loving, fulfilling relationships. I do not hate children, though I do not harbor a desire to reproduce at this time. I work at a preschool and love every minute I spend with my kids there. All of this is true about me, and yet I am a feminist.

Women have come a long way since the days preceding the first wave of feminism. American women are able to enjoy many equalities and freedoms that women before the feminist movements were unable to enjoy. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go before we can say we have achieved true equality. Post-feminism is nonexistent. Many people use this term to indicate that we have moved on socially, past the need for feminism. I strongly disagree.

Obviously there are many other countries in the world in which the women have it worse than we do in America and other developed countries. However, I am not willing to accept the inequalities we do have because other women have it worse. There are still countless problems that women in America face, from attitudes to gender stereotyping to unequal pay and appreciation to violence. And as a young woman in America, I want to change that. I can’t change the world, but I think I can at least make an impact. And if I can’t, I must still try. But how do I do so?

The only place I can think to start is attitudes. If we change the attitudes directed towards women then we will have a better chance at changing policies and discrimination. To start, I will use this blog to conquer some of the major problems I see in attitudes towards women. These are the beliefs and attitudes that I think will be primarily addressing with this blog:

1. Attitudes about rape: If we are to advance gender relations, we must stop blaming rape victims. Rape apologists, no means yes theories, and blaming the victim must cease. This to me is the number one issue in American feminism.

2. Sexuality: As long as we continue to view men as more sexual than women, we will face problems in conquering inequality. Women are sexual beings as well. The theory that women are less sexual than men leads to countless problems, including the aforementioned rape attitudes and several other attitudes as well.

3. Gender stereotyping in the family: I also refer to this issue as the provider/nurturer fallacy. While we continue to believe that the “natural” way of life is for men to be providers and women to be nurturers, we can never conquer sexism.

4. The masculinity/femininity line: We are taught from an early age that there is masculinity and feminity. Masculinity often involves strength, dominance, and competitive nature. Femininity is often associated with emotion, submission, and a more amiable disposition. The very idea that there is a strict difference in masculine and feminine is harmful to the progression of femininity. In actuality, these traits are more individualized, and any man or woman can have any combination of traits. The theory of strict difference is often used to justify sexist behavior.

5. The discriminatory isms: Sexism corresponds with heterosexism (discrimination against non heterosexual individuals), classism (discrimination between social classes), racism, and other less obvious isms, such as sizeism, ableism, and beautyism. If we allow one form of discrimination to be acceptable, where do we draw the line? As one who fights for the equality of women, I fight for the equality of all people everywhere.

These five topics are the ones that I will primarily focus on throughout the course of the blog. They cover only a small portion of feminism, but I do believe that if we change these five attitudes we could move forward in giant bounds.

I will blog about these topics and others, instigate social experiments and projects, research and critique article and books, and implement these ideas into my daily life. The goal of this blog is to instigate social change. Perhaps that is too high of an expectation, but I think it is reasonable. Feel free to read, comment, critique, suggest, participate….but please, be respectful and constructive.