“Some people ask: “Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?” Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general—but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
When I saw that ‘coming to terms with the female body’ was written on the board in class I wondered why we never see the term ‘coming to terms with the male body’. Of course, there are insecurities that boys go through, but when women like Sinead Gleeson were told continuously that she was wrong about her own body, then there's a problem.
You can give the argument that the events of her article jump in between the time she wrote it and when she was younger. It was a few years ago and people may say that gender equality has come a long way, when really it's only moved on a smidge. We’re moving all right, but not at the pace that many people would like it to be. It’s why we need feminism.
Why in the name of God is ‘Feminist’ such a bad word anyway? It’s honestly like the 'Voldemort’ of our world, 'It-that-must-not-be-named’. I never understood it. Why do people hate this word so much? Some people may cringe at the word, but why is that? Is it because of the discussions that arise from it? What the word means to people?
I started to look into it a bit more ever since coming across feminist speakers and Gleeson’s article and found out that, surprise surprise, there is almost nothing wrong with feminism, but more so the way the word is taken up and perceived in the media. For the most part, feminism is a necessity, a need in this world.
Feminism, by definition, is the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Gender equality. It’s about women, yes, but it is about equality for women and men. Feminism is not women dominating the entire planet like aliens or something. It’s plain and simple, men and women are equal. What’s so hard about that?
I only started identifying with feminism recently, and I am still learning a lot about it, so bare with me. I think I’ve always been with the idea that men and women should be equal, I just wasn’t educated on this word at the time. It honestly still boggles me how people can say that we don’t need feminism in this day and age, everything is ‘okay’.
When I was around twelve and a part of my Scouting group (majority of these members were boys), I was witnessing and the target of a lot of jokes and taunts that were awful, and I wanted to call them out on it but I just didn’t and now I seriously regret it. They told me and the other girls to “go to the kitchen where we belonged” and made jokes about periods and “not needing consent”. I only now realize how awful and wrong these are, and I wish I had known back then, but more importantly I wish they had known. Levels of maturity shouldn’t factor into what they said.
I was walking around town one day with two other guys and we were talking about a women getting a high up job. I gave a little cheer, and one turned to me and said “Oh no, you’re not one of those feminists, are you?” I laughed nervously and the subject was changed, but God how I wish I had said yes, that maybe I was.
Women’s rugby is slowly becoming a well known sport professionally. We now have a school team, a strong women’s team representing Ireland and an equally strong women’s sevens team. The men’s rugby, however, is shown on T.V, get transported to matches and get paid to do this. Women, as far as I remember, rarely get on T.V, must travel themselves to events and have jobs on the side of playing these matches. Niamh Briggs, an Irish rugby player, is a guard for example. Soccer is the same. Only recently, an article on Indepentant.ie showed us the reality behind women’s soccer. The team called out the FAI on the mistreatment of women. They had to share tracksuits and change in bathrooms for matches. This would never ever happen with the men’s team. This seriously has to stop.
Sinead Gleeson’s doctors and surgeons all through her experience have been men, and treated her awfully. We questioned in class that what if she was male? Would she be treated differently? We said yes, and that is startling. What a lot of people seem to think that feminism means is that it’s bashing men. Not at all. It has nothing to do with that. Women and men should be equal. Everyone equal.
Going back to the Scouting group I was a part of. Men, according to the patriarchy, are supposed to be tough. An alpha male. Hard and ruthless. But this is putting the same pressure on men as we do to women. The boys in the group liked to roughhouse, but sometimes it got out of control. If one got hurt and cried, showing human emotion, the others would laugh. If a girl cried, which has happened, the boys would tend to her as best they could. Another feminist, Emma Watson, stated in an interview that the highest death cause for young men was suicide. If we don’t do anything now, that might continue.
You could call me preachy, because to be completely honest that's what I’m doing, but how else is this message going to get out? I don’t ever want to be told to go to the kitchen anymore. I don’t want to be touched without consent. I don’t want to not have the same opportunities as men do. I don’t want boys to be killing themselves because they can’t be human. I don’t want people like Gleeson to suffer.
It's a typical preachy thing to say I suppose, but I won’t stop until it does change.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an amazing women from Nigeria who has published many books on feminism and has a very famous TED talk called “We should all be feminists”, which I highly recommend to find out more about this topic. It is widely quoted, and how can it not be? The words are powerful and hard-hitting. It makes you wonder.
“I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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