Why the world needs feminism

I am probably a bit late to the party, but I’m writing this in response to the viral “I don’t even know what she’s talking about” video titled “has the feminist movement lost its cause?” If anyone wants to watch 20 minutes of absolute nonsense, the link is here.

However, if there’s one thing that came out of this video, it was that it showed the importance of feminism in society and how the fight must go on. Before we dive further, let’s look at the definition of feminism. In its simplest form, feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Anything other than “equality” is NOT feminism.

What has happened today is that most people think that feminism is “man-hating” and a plot to “overthrow and dominate men”, which is really not the case. Although the idea of feminism is to remove the “patriarchy”, it does not want to create a matriarchy but rather an equal society, where all genders & sexes are EQUAL. The feminist movement is needed as it helps to address A LOT of issues women face: harassment & discrimination in the workplace, rape & sexual assault and lack of access to opportunities like education, jobs etc. While there is still a long way to go, it’s slowly helping.

But most importantly, feminism is needed to break these “black-white” gender roles that society has created. The traditional idea is that men work and bring in the income, while women stay home, look after kids, cook and clean. Today that isn’t necessarily the case. Women should also work. Men and women should both know basic household skills, and roles shouldn’t be distributed based on gender. And if a man wants to stay home and not work, he should be allowed to, and it shouldn’t be such a big deal like society makes it out to be. Equality all the way!

This brings me to my second point. Feminism has given the space for men to speak up about their feelings without having to feel that they are “less masculine”. Remember the #MeToo movement and how even men started opening up about sexual assault? That’s the society we need, where it is ok for men to be vulnerable. Statistics show that 1 in 10 men have been sexually abused or assaulted. But men don’t report this as it will take a hit on their masculinity to be portrayed as “weak” and comments like “oh, you must have enjoyed it” don’t really help (I saw a post on Reddit once where a guy had said he was sexually assaulted when drunk by a woman and didn’t know what to do, and so many replies said “oh, at least you had sex. You should have enjoyed it”) I mean, really?

Rape is rape, regardless of WHO commits the crime.

Another reason we need feminism is to break away from this “excusing rape” mentality. Rape and sexual assault are always made to be the girl’s fault. I was on a bus once, and I got groped and tried to shout at the guy touching me, only be told by the woman next to me that “it was my fault for wearing a dress, and I asked for it”. If a woman gets raped, she’s questioned, “what were you wearing?” “Did you drink alcohol?” “Why did you go to a party?” “Why did you walk down this street?”. I mean, not only do these questions make me want me to want to rip my eyes out in frustration but honestly, what does it matter? A woman can wear whatever she wants, can walk on any street, can send nude photos, be a sex worker and still should not be raped. There is no excuse for rape. Period.

Also, workplace discrimination and lack of opportunities is a real thing (I’ve heard people say otherwise. Hint-the video). The gender pay gap is a real thing. None of these is hoaxes. And we need feminism to address these issues. Further, the feminist movement is needed to remove ideas like a “woman who speaks up is bitchy”, “a strong, career-oriented woman will not make a good wife or mother”, and a good woman has to be a “certain way”. It’s nonsense, and the feminist movement is needed to address these problems.

So, we need feminism to improve the lives of everyone. We need feminism to make women their own individuals in their own right. Without feminism, we would have the social and policy changes that currently exist. There’s a long way to go, but we need to continue fighting. Ultimately, we need feminism because oppression still exists in a variety of forms, even for men. And feminism is an important movement that promotes the equality and wellbeing of all people in society (males, females, LGBTQ), everyone, which is what we need.