Youth and the Loss of Feminism

I have found that feminism has an extremely negative stigma stuck to it. When I say I am a feminist I get weird looks, people make fun of me and call me a man hater, and that I’m just looking for something to be upset about. Feminism is part of the reason sociology exists. Feminism is one of the reasons women can vote, feminism is one of the reasons women can work. I hate being among my peers who have such a negative perspective on feminism.

Feminism’s support died when the media began portraying feminists as ugly man haters. The news would have pictures of angry women burning their bras and screaming about beauty being an allusion created to make money. The media began to say, “Look at these sad, sad women, they can’t find a boy friend so their blaming it on everyone else other than themselves for not spending thousands of dollars a year on cosmetics, most of which don’t even do anything.” Women are so afraid to be ugly in today’s society that they don’t want to be a feminist because they think it takes their beauty away from them!

I was at a party with a few friends playing Apples to Apples. If you don’t know what Apples to Apples is, learn because it’s great! Anyway one of the cards someone put down was feminist. A fifteen year old sibling of my friend said, “Who put down feminist?” Everyone went quiet. She says, “Feminism is so stupid.” I answered, “I’m a feminist.” The young girl says, “Just a bunch of whiners.” Then another friend speaks up, “I’m a feminist too, you kind of have to be if you believe in equality of the genders.” The fifteen year old still didn’t care! The power the media and the patriarchy we live under are so strong! Even just today I was talking with someone about a feminist issue, and she says, “I would never call myself a feminist, but I don’t like men very much, so maybe I am a feminist.” The loss of what feminism means and where it came from is heart breaking. If we want change, we need to stand up for feminism. We need to stand up for less gender constrictions, and a freedom of sexuality. My peers, those of us under thirty, seem to have a horrible definition of feminism. We want to ignore the male gaze that is constantly around us! Even magazines that have a woman’s issue are written by men! Womens’ magazines even perpetuate the inequality among the sexes!

I want to do something about this horrible stigma. I want everyone to learn the truth about feminism. I’ve found it extremely difficult to do however. Any time I fight for feminism, people keep their biases and stick with what the media has told them. Feminism should be taught in history class, when I went to high school I never learned about feminism. Maybe there was a second when the teacher said, “Oh yeah women fought for stuff too in the 60’s and 70’s… good for them.”

Feminism can lead to people caring more about the inequalities in race, sexuality, and class too! People close their eyes to what they could see if they took one look, and stopped opening their ears to the media and advertisements. When equality becomes more prominent, maybe gender itself will begin to fade too.

This is my first blog ever, and I’m so excited to be part of a site that is here fighting for equality.