In today’s society there is a taboo f-word that leaves people feeling uncomfortable, offended, and angry: feminism. Feminism today is often demonized, met with opposition like “meninists”, and is associated with the ugly-armpit-hair-having-lesbian stereotype. It is often used as a punchline, a criticism for women who get a little too angry for comfort. Not only are these views of feminism wrong and insulting, they highlight exactly why feminism is needed. The resistance to feminism is largely based in a lack of understanding of what feminism truly stands for. Contrary to the opposition’s belief, the feminist movement promotes equality for women and men, and strives to erase the perspective that being feminine equates to being of a lesser value. …show more content…
It has been around since before the civil rights movement and before the suffragettes. The woman’s plight to be seen just as serious and strong as men and assume more prominent roles in society transcends time and place. We can see examples of it in classic literature like The Awakening by Kate Chopin and in short stories like “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Both works, written in the late 1800s, carry examples of the age old struggle for equality. Women historically have been trivialized and seen as having “a slight hysterical tendency,” (Gilman, 1892). In “The Yellow Wall Paper”, the narrator goes mad while her husband insists that she rest all day in bed, while in The Awakening, Edna struggles to find and identity outside of her role as a mother and wife. Both women are tied to their house by the expectations of men, but this is not meant to villainize the men. Rather, it is meant to draw attention to and criticize the idea that men and women should each play into these dangerous gender roles. While some may say that this is an issue of the past, today women are still expected to fulfill those same duties as a mother and wife and those who deviate from this norm are looked down upon. One can say that they don’t believe women should only be mothers and wives, and that’s great, but until the majority of the …show more content…
Not to say that women today have no rights at all: yes, we can “vote, work, attend college, get divorced, run for public office, and own businesses.” (Young, 2014) That’s not the point. The point is, even though we are technically allowed to do these things, women are much less likely to hold public office, own businesses, and pursue jobs or college degrees in fields that are typically considered masculine. Something in society is keeping women from pursuing these fields and being successful, and it isn’t feminism. What keeps the sexism and oppression alive today is not a violent male oppressor; it’s the violent ideas of oppression that have become commonplace in our