Feminism is Not Outdated, Not in America and Not Anywhere
Hello beautiful! I hope you are doing well! I want to talk about feminism again today, more specifically, the need for feminism. Something that I've noticed when some people speak about feminism is this wrongly conceived idea that feminism isn't necessary. Other variations of this thought might include, "Feminism isn't necessary anymore" or "Feminism isn't necessary in America." I personally disagree with all of these opinions, and this post will be dedicated to explaining why. If you have something to add, whether it be a personal experience, new perspective, or a question/thought, don't hesitate to start a conversation in the comments!
Feminism Timeline
To begin a conversation about the need for feminism, I think we have to understand the history of feminism first, starting with the beginnings of the term. Feminism was first coined by French philosopher Charles Fourier in 1837. There were a few writers and scholars that advocated for women's rights during the Enlightenment, and they used Enlightenment ideas like liberty and inalienable rights to strengthen their argument for equal opportunities for women and men. These early advocates for women's rights are called proto-feminists.
First Wave Feminism grew in the late 19th century and served to grant women rights that they were restricted from by the government, specifically, the right to vote. Moving into the 20th century, first wave feminism led to the 19th amendment, which granted women suffrage. Still, first wave feminism failed to include women of color and the working class.
After the 1920's, it was another 40 years before the Second Wave started. Some milestones of this wave were the Pay Act of 1963 and Roe v. Wade in 1973. New categories of feminism emerged including liberal feminism, radical feminism, and cultural feminism.
In the 1990's, Third Wave Feminism granted women with more rights than ever before in history. Much of the fight against sexism in this era involved cultural reformations and changes in language towards women. This era also included women of color for the first time on a larger scale.
Now, in the 2020's, there are no laws that explicitly discriminate against women, and this is the "evidence" that people will use to minimize the importance of feminism. This argument is one of the most intellectually weak pieces of thought that I've ever tried to comprehend, and there are two main reasons why.
The first is that these people think feminism needs to stop because it's working. Because we've already made so much progress in giving rights to women, some men believe we need to stop, or at least slow down. When we get to the core of this argument, we can see that it's held up by a very unstable foundation. If we apply this principle of stopping a movement when it starts making progress to any other scenario, it falls apart.
The second major shortcoming of this argument is that it relies on the assumption that equality is only achieved through laws and institutional change. It completely disregards cultural and social standards and treatment of women and girls that is written nowhere in the laws.
To provide an example, rape is illegal. Women do have that protection. But still, 1 in 5 women have experienced rape or attempted rape once in their life. The law prohibits it, but many people still view women through the same lens that they view toys to play with and see it as perfectly fine to treat women just like toys. On paper, women are protected, but in practice, they're not.
And it's not just sexual objectification that women have to deal with. I've written about body image, glow-up culture periods and their stigmatization, and the scrutiny of female celebrities on this blog. All of these topics fall under the general umbrella of feminism in one way or another, but none of them directly involve the law.
Feminism is a social movement as much as it has been a legal one. It's not over, and I doubt that it will be for a very long time, in the West and everywhere.
That brings me to my next point: we still need feminism in the West. To avoid repeating everything I mentioned above, I'll move on to another topic, international advocacy. Women in the West are given rights by the law that often aren't granted to women in other countries, but that doesn't mean that we can just forget about feminism in places like America.
Even if I was to lie and say that America is a perfect place where women and men are 100% treated and viewed as equal (it's not), there are still women in the world that experience injustice because of their gender, and that means that none of us are truly free. We can't just turn our backs on the women who lose the opportunities simply because of their gender all for the fact that they're on a different continent. It is up to us to use our freedoms to speak up for women that can't.
I can never agree with the statement that feminism is outdated as long as sexism still exists, because feminism must exist to work against sexism and injustice. It's scary, especially as a young woman, but part of what makes feminism so beautiful is that women have come together to fight for what they deserve as a collective, equal rights. We can do the same as a group of young women in the 2020's. You're supporting feminism by reading this post to the end, so thank you.
Remember, if you ever need a hand, girl, let me help!
References:
McCain, R. (2023, March 15). A Kinda Brief History of Feminism. Andrews University. https://www.andrews.edu/life/student-movement/issues/2023-03-16/ideas-a-kinda-brief-history-of-feminism.html
Comments