Here is an excellent speech by Emma Watson, an intelligent and eloquent feminist who explains the importance of feminism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9SUAcNlV
Thursday, January 14, 2016
The F Word
I am a proud, card-carrying feminist. Feminism is something that has, quite frankly, shaped the way I perceive the world and my interactions with others. I first discovered feminism two years ago and it changed my world and the way I viewed situations. When I first explained to my peers my new perspective, I received a lot of scrutiny and hate. They asked questions like, "Why do we need feminism, it's the twentieth century!" and "Are you still going to shave your legs?" I got so much scrutiny and as a result, I was quiet for fear of judgement. I was appalled by the negative attention that people were giving me, as I was only having polite discussion and I was not trying to be aggressive (which feminists often are labeled.) And then I realized all the sudden why people were acting this way: it was because feminists are portrayed so negatively in the media. Feminism has a negative connotation in today’s society. The media often portrays one image of feminists: this being that all feminists are hairy-legged, man-hating lesbians. This is rarely the case. Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men, that's all. It is often taken completely out of context and anti-feminists often criticize feminism for it's aggression and radicalism which is wrong. I hope that opening the discussion up about feminism will truly define it, eliminating the negative connotation. But before this takes place, there needs to be open and respectful conversation.
Here is an excellent speech by Emma Watson, an intelligent and eloquent feminist who explains the importance of feminism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9SUAcNlV
Here is an excellent speech by Emma Watson, an intelligent and eloquent feminist who explains the importance of feminism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9SUAcNlV
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I really enjoyed your blog Meghan, as well as the link you provided to Emma Watson's speech. I was interested by your idea of how feminists are portrayed in the media, so I went out into the deep dark internet and searched for recent stories involving well-known feminists. And I saw exactly what you explained, that radical points of view were written about with negative connotation, and positive stories about women (and men) who debatably did things for attention and labeled them as "for women" or feminist. I think its really important to form our own opinions about such an important topic, and to try our hardest not to be influenced by such an expansive collection of antifeminist pieces in the media. However, I also found some really great, non opinionated pieces. Here are the links if you want to check them out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gender-focus.com/2012/08/07/feminism-f-a-q-s-why-feminism-not-equalism-or-humanism/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/what-makes-a-woman.html?_r=0
I totally agree with this. There's a lot of people who take feminists to be man-hating lesbians who fight for misandry, rather than equality. And to be honest, this inaccurate portrayal leads to some people to actually take that kind of side and fight for inequality under the name of feminism, consequently bringing down the public image of the movement even more. There are some radicalists who seem to fight against men rather than fight for women, which just sucks. I love Emma Watson and her explanation of what feminism really is and why we need it. Because feminism is about equality for all sexes, and that's a great thing.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on this blog Meghan! Very well spoken. I really like how you expressed your pride in your beliefs and how, compared to what you mentioned in your post about getting hate for it, grew to become such a strong and independent woman in terms of not caring about other peoples judgment and fighting for such a relevant issue in todays society that is so important to both yourself and so many of the rest of us. I also would like to comment on how you were getting hate on what you believe in. I feel that such questions/statements like "why do we need feminism? Its the twenty first century!" are so incorrect and must have been said by someone not educated in the topic because a) feminism is so important in terms of creating a more equal earth politically, economically, and socially, an Earth in which both men and women should have all the same rights and be treated with equality. And b) it doesn't matter that its the twenty first century because this is a timeless issue and not something of just the past but something we are still trying to overcome now and could very well still be striving to overcome in future years. So in conclusion, I'd just like to say you did a wonderful job on this one, very factual and truthful, with some personal experience, and I really enjoyed reading it.Thank you!
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