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Summary
Feminism gets unwarranted criticism from the public, not because it is bad but because it has the potential to denounce the falsehood that males are a superior sex. The criticism becomes a strategy to stall the spread of a movement that eliminates undue male privilege and restores a sex-class balance in society. Feminism remains a genuine and just movement that liberates women across social strata.
The ‘feminist’ tag is a loaded one in mainstream culture, and it is not for reasons of anything it describes. Or perhaps, as Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his 1963 letter from a Birmingham jail: ‘Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,’ that is what we see playing out with people’s attitude towards the feminist movement. In and of itself, feminism is not problematic, but because it exists in contrast to all that has been entrenched about women, it is largely treated as being wrong.
When society dictates that sexual abuse is covered up for the sake of maintaining ‘harmony,’ then a movement that accommodates the belief that abusers should be outed will be seen as ‘deviant.’
The case for feminism as an identity
Feminism calls us to acknowledge and challenge the long-held beliefs we’ve held as essential and universal truths about women in society, from public to private life. A feminist espouses and promotes this view—no more, no less.
Some might question why reassessing personal beliefs and re-ordering society into a more equal, just, and safe place for women should be called ‘feminism.’ Still, the truth of the matter is: if you have no problem with what feminism advocates for, why should there be a problem with the term?
Take the words ‘writer’ and ‘smoker’, for example. They describe actions people carry out, and some people fit into both categories independently. Writing fundamentally describes an act, and there are cases of writers who suffer from mental illnesses, maybe violent killers or terrible parents. Such does not and will not alter what writing means. Smoking, in contrast, defines an objectively bad act, and that there may be friendly, successful, beautiful, or happy smokers will not change what the act entails.
Naturally, feminism IS the way we ought to look at the world. Life should be based on equality, equity, freedom, love, communal sharing, etc. Treating everyone with respect and dignity irrespective of their sex, age, race, sexuality, and look should be the ideal. Call it common sense, call it wholesome living, call it a positive mentality, call it a refined individuality, call it being a practising ‘Christian,’ the reality remains that the natural world does not operate from these progressive ideals. The world has not been built on the value of the inherent worth of human beings, and sexism against women exists in society, even without having these words to describe them. That is the very simple fact that necessitates ‘feminism,’ a linguistic creation meant to describe the phenomenon of women’s experiences in society and the encompassing means aimed towards improving the quality of these experiences. So, to be a feminist or not should not be a matter of choice because what it stands for is consequential to every woman living in society. However, every conscious person should be one.
Feminism’s focus is on the subject matter of women. It is not a cult that compels herd thinking, as such, it encourages independent thinking and self-discovery. However, this does not make it lacking in immutable values that, at the basic level, must be adhered to. One cannot simply be a feminist and HR personnel and be denying women job opportunities based on gender stereotypes. There are also some choices and lifestyles that are inherently anti-feminist, and the critique of them is not in any way a means to control or disparage women. If anything, it is to ensure women live their lives to the fullest in a way that is just and true to their humanity.
