Feminists still have a long way to go.
fem·i·nism 
/ˈfɛməˌnɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[fem-uh-niz-uhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
| 1. | the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. |
“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”
Why is it that so many people are convinced that the Feminist movement has no more purpose? Men and women have not reached the point of equality. To begin I think I have to clarify what a feminist is and what one would commonly believe. As you can see from the definition above, we do not believe that women are in anyway better than men. We simply want equality.
Women have come a long way since the battle for equality had begun. We now have the oppertunity to get an education and follow our own carreer paths. We can opt for divorce, own property, sell property, have our own bank accounts and manage our own finances that are in no way affiliated with any man.
I think this is a good time to point out some history. Womens’ suffrage has been a struggle from the 1820’s until 1920. In 1920 the nineteenth amendment was passed that granted women suffrage. The struggle for mere voting has lasted roughly 100 years. Remember that I am only referring to America. Women have been fighting for the right to vote in Europe long before America’s birth. We have had to work 10x harder than men to just get closer to their level in society.
Throughout the mid 1900’s a woman had to stay at home, cook, clean and take care of the children. In 1959 20.8% of families lived in poverty. On average most families had at least 2 children. Think about it, how can one income provide for a family of 4 at the least?
Problems still exist. Though the tension between the 2 sexes has died down there are still obvious issues. In my opinion the biggest one being discrimination of women by health insurance companys. Sadly, not very many women are even aware of this. Since the 90’s women have fought for insurance companies to cover contraception. 82% of women use it and still today, most insurance companies do not cover it. American women pay 68% more for health care expenses than do men. But consider this also. Viagra was approved by the FDA in 1996. It had no health care functions unlike contraception. But yet, it took less than 2 months for insurance companies to cover the drug.
This is only based off of my own personal opinion. I believe that women are also terribly degraded in the media. Take for example the famous MTV. In music videos the women are barely clothed and the lyrics to alot of the music (especially in the rap community) are completely disrespectful. I don’t understand how any woman could sink so low and completely disregard what her mother and grandmother have been fighting for. Now to point out a different side of our culture let’s look at shows like Laguna Beach. In that kind of a show the women just come off as stupid, airheaded and spoiled.
Remember, your daughters are going to grow up watching that type of trash. Girls nowadays will do whatever it takes to look like the airheads they put all over your magazines and television screens. There has never been such a high percentage of anorexia and eating disorders up until now. Women are competing against eachother for a false sense of beauty. When instead we should all be united as one community.
Our great grandmothers did not picket out in the streets for days, weeks, months and years for this. They did not expect that girls would die everyday from depriving themselves for beauty. Nor did they want for us to mimic what we see all over the media. Point is, the media will still portray women as toys, not human beings.
I beleive that society’s expectations for women are absurd. I may personally follow some of them but that is purely for myself. Being skinny and tan and whatever else they throw out there is nothing but retardation. I think every woman is beautiful. Now if only we can all change our mindset a bit the feminist movement can move forward. They may try to throw things in our way but females in reality are not airheads and are not stupid. We need to lose our current vocabulary. Women are not sluts, whores or bitches. And you know what? We degrade ourselves when we put one another down.
We need to stop mimicking what we see and unite again. We’re all sisters. No matter where you’re from, what color you are or what religion you are. We still have work to do.
This is beautiful
