Understanding Feminism

The term feminism is used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement to establish equal rights for women. It is concerned with gender inequality. 

Simone de Beauvoir, you all must have definitely heard about her, wrote-

The first time we see a woman take up her pen in defense of her sex was Christine de Pizan who wrote Epistre au dieu d'amours, in the 15th century.

"Feminism" came in waves. The first wave was mainly concerned with women's right to vote. The second one was associated with women's liberation movement in the 1960s. The third wave is the continuation and a reaction to the failures of the second wave.

Feminism, as a concept, is understood by all educated men, but as it seems now, they are hanging by a very thin thread. One thing goes wrong, even by accident, and "pseudo-feminists" come to play. 

Before starting, I'll be very clear- I am not against feminism. The real problem starts when people begin to misuse this term. 

Who are these pseudo-feminists? They are a group of people who promote female supremacy and misandry (hatred for men). The only essence of feminism, equality, is lost and revenge takes its place. Feminism was never about hating men, it was about hating the system where men was given more opportunities, choices and options. 

"Half-baked knowledge is worse than ignorance" - this is exactly what needs to be understood at this moment. 

Being a feminist doesn't mean we blame every men out there for the injustice they have done for the last 100 years. 

There was one incident few months back where an army officer was abused and threatened by a lady for no apparent reason. Did feminism give us that power?

A young woman refused to let go of her bus seat for a 84 year old man. Are we trying too hard to be a woman, that we forgot to be humans?

We have this tendency of seeing ourselves as a part of a group, at any point of our lives, against another group. A singular belief, that our believes are right, unites us.  This can be of any form, at any time, be it in school or at the political level. With time, it takes up an extreme form. The group has no moral principles left and we are so blinded that we consider everything we do as right, and everything they do as wrong, even if it's the opposite. 

As long as we are an individual, we have control over our thoughts and morals. When we start following a group, the collective thoughts start influencing us. As time passes, the ideology of the group is lost.  We are lost.

There was another incident few years back, where a Russian woman was seen pouring dilute bleach on manspreaders. The activist, as it turns out, was not a feminist but an anti-feminist, and this was her propaganda to achieve something-only-she-knows.

 

Where is this heading? Women fighting with men, women fighting with women- is this the cost of equality?

What we actually need is a society where terms like feminism, antiracism etc. doesn't even exist- it is ingrained by default. Equality shouldn't have specific term for different sectors of the society- it should be born with us. 

Hashtags like #metoo #mentoo, coining terms like rapisthan, placards of goddesses is not going to change anything. This, according to my belief, is just disturbing the entropy of the society we are living in- a society where peace and humanity should prevail, without having to push it so hard all the time.

The only way to destroy streotypes is by constructing the streotypes. You want more women to be educated- be educated. You want more women in business- start a business. You want more women in politics- join politics.

Posting angry comments on Facebook, without knowing both sides of the story, is not going to help.

[pictures taken from Pinterest]