Feminism does not equal man-hating
Feminism is an extremely important part of today’s political agenda. Yes, I know some of you reading this recoiled at the sight of the word, thinking I’m some man-hating social justice warrior that believes women are the superior gender in every way. But you’re wrong. Feminism simply means that females deserve rights equal to those that men enjoy. That’s it; there’s nothing more or less to it.
I know some of you are reading this now and thinking, “Why can’t we just call it ‘egalitarianism?’ Isn’t that the same?” It’s not the same thing. Yes, the premise and definition are similar, but taking the contextual “female” out of the word means not acknowledging the unique struggles that women still face today from government rules and regulations, work place discrimination, and harassment.
Perhaps the most important issue that women today still face is access to birth control, which includes access to abortions. A hot button issue in politics right now is the potential government de-funding of Planned Parenthood, a critical resource for women to get breast exams, birth control pills, HIV tests, and, yes, abortions. However, Planned Parenthood does not use federal dollars to fund abortion access, which is only a small percentage of what it provides to the public and especially underprivileged and poor women.
There are also many attempts and successes to ban abortion access in a large number of states; the recent case where Hobby Lobby won the right to not provide insurance that covers certain forms of birth control due to religious beliefs is another example of a struggle women have to face today. We need feminism to uphold the decision of “Roe v. Wade,” the Supreme Court case that legalized abortions. Feminism in this case prevents abortions by providing free or cheap access to birth control pills, shots, and even Plan B to underprivileged women and families who cannot afford to bring children into the world. Feminism keeps abortions legal, which in turn, decriminalizes women who need the procedure and saves women’s lives by providing a safe medical procedure rather than limiting their options to dangerous, illegal methods as a last resort.
And yes, I know some will argue that these women should just refrain from sex instead of relying on access to birth control, which brings me to my next point on why we still need feminism.
Women struggle with “slut shaming,” a form of harassment that shames women for being sexual beings, or too sexual in the eyes of society. This includes women having more than one partner, wearing revealing clothes, or any other behaviors that society deems unacceptable for women but fine for men. We’ve all heard quips about these sexual women being unfit for marriage because of their sexual escapades and complaints about “hook-up culture” and how women these days don’t want to settle down into a relationship, essentially, how chivalry and old-fashioned mindsets are gone. We need feminism so women are no longer shamed and bullied for acting human.
Keep in mind that I am not advocating misandry. I do not agree with what I would call “Tumblr feminism,” where men are treated as inferior and accused of oppressing women with everything they do. I do not hate men. I do think that culturally, there are issues that men face that are unique to them, and there are issues that feminism can cure for men too. However, I do not think that we need to dismiss feminism and feminists by calling them misandrists just because of the label they use. We need to recognize that culturally and in government, there are still issues unique to women that cannot be dismissed. Women still have battles to fight, and feminists will fight these battles until they are won.