We have all seen the images making the rounds on social media.. women hiding their faces with notes about why they do not need feminism. The images, and the ideals behind them, are proof positive that we feminists need way better PR people! We have allowed an entire political/religious party to demonize our quest for equality, and women are falling for the propaganda with wild abandon.
Why?
It would be easy for us (women) to stand a bit more united if the enemy were clearly defined. Women could easily see the damage being done in the name of religious misogyny or blind ignorance if it were just men strutting about proclaiming what our place is and what our roles are. We could band together and fight our fight with an obvious target. That, sadly, is not the case.
Enter the pretty face of inequality.. Ann Coulter, Michelle Bachman, Phyllis Schlafly, Star Parker, Renee Ellmers.. educated, successful women telling us that we ARE less so we DESERVE less. Spouting off about our intellectual flaws, our emotional insecurity, our basic less-ness in the eyes of men and god. These are our enemies, these talking heads, paid millions to tell women that we are stupid, useless whores unless a man says otherwise. Preaching from a television screen about the evils of independent womanhood. Screaming about the war on men, because wanting equality is emasculating the penis havers.
Really.
What strikes me as so side-splittingly hilarious is this.. without the feminist movement, without the very ideas and rights our feminist predecessors fought and died (Yes.. DIED) for, these women would not have the ability to even be seen or heard.
That's right ladies, you LITERALLY owe your ability to demonize your own gender, to write books, go on speaking tours, immortalize yourself on the internet, or get on television and discuss the horrors of equality, to the very women you stand against.
In order to convince women everywhere that feminism is a dirty nasty thing, women themselves are seeking out the very fringes of the movement. Pointing to the militant man haters and the spoof tampon non-users, women are taking these examples as the be all end all gospel truth of what feminists are, of what feminism stands for. With no thought to actually looking for the reality, the truth, the face of feminism in its gritty realness, women take the lies based on fear and believe them.
Google is a beautiful tool. It's simple and quick, giving even a toddler the ability to access HUGE amounts of information. Seriously.. Google it. There is ZERO excuse for anyone to not be informed, to not be a fucking expert on the issues that move them. I realize that the entire basis of this anti-feminist thing is completely dependent on people not receiving balanced information, and that so many prefer to simply have their own fears and biases fed back to them via their choice of media, but really, why live in willful ignorance?
Really.
What strikes me as so side-splittingly hilarious is this.. without the feminist movement, without the very ideas and rights our feminist predecessors fought and died (Yes.. DIED) for, these women would not have the ability to even be seen or heard.
That's right ladies, you LITERALLY owe your ability to demonize your own gender, to write books, go on speaking tours, immortalize yourself on the internet, or get on television and discuss the horrors of equality, to the very women you stand against.
In order to convince women everywhere that feminism is a dirty nasty thing, women themselves are seeking out the very fringes of the movement. Pointing to the militant man haters and the spoof tampon non-users, women are taking these examples as the be all end all gospel truth of what feminists are, of what feminism stands for. With no thought to actually looking for the reality, the truth, the face of feminism in its gritty realness, women take the lies based on fear and believe them.
Google is a beautiful tool. It's simple and quick, giving even a toddler the ability to access HUGE amounts of information. Seriously.. Google it. There is ZERO excuse for anyone to not be informed, to not be a fucking expert on the issues that move them. I realize that the entire basis of this anti-feminist thing is completely dependent on people not receiving balanced information, and that so many prefer to simply have their own fears and biases fed back to them via their choice of media, but really, why live in willful ignorance?
(ig·no·rance noun lack of knowledge or information.)
It's easy. Let someone tell you what to do, what to think, what to believe, and you are no longer responsible for yourself. "It's wrong because _______ says so, not because I think so" We make people and religions rich, all to avoid personal responsibility. Yes, it's simple to get both sides of the issue, but so much is riding on you NOT looking away from those spouting their version of truth.. most people just won't do it because they have been told not to.
The women that fought so hard for the small measure of equality that we have today in America: Abigail Adams, Sarah Moore Grimke, Sojourner Truth, Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Constance Austin, Rachel Foster Avery, Catharine Beecher, Elizabeth Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, Katharine Bushnell, Frances Jennings Casement, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Agnes Chase, Voltairine de Cleyre, Margaret Fuller, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Angelina Emily Grimke, Ida Crouch-Hazlett, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore, Clarina I. H. Nichols, Anna Garlin Spencer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Harriet Tubman, Frances Willard, Victoria Woodhull.. each of these women understood the value of equality, the value of being a woman, the value of our ideas and of our intelligence. These women (how many did you have to Google I wonder) whose names every person should know, women who sacrificed and struggled in the hopes that their daughters and granddaughters and great great great granddaughters would never have to, these women made it possible for women to stand on a national stage as congresswomen and senators and vilify the acts of feminism.
Before you proudly display your notion of what feminism is, and why you as a woman do not need it, take a minute to understand the truth. Stop listening to what you have been told by women making millions to misinform you and look for the reality of feminism. Chances are, you will discover that yes, you ARE a feminist at heart.
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