Feminism

In many developing as well as developed states, women face discrimination and hold a lower status than men to this date. As society progresses and education becomes increasingly accessible, many begin to question the validity and morality of this phenomenon. Feminism is a movement and ideology that aims to raise awareness about and/or eliminate gender inequality. However, nowadays, some tend to naturally associate feminism with discriminatory matriarchal ideas. Why is this?

Before understanding why feminism faces criticism, we must first define the term and have background knowledge of it. Feminism, by definition, is the advocacy of women's rights. Thus, I would qualify as a feminist. But, even as a feminist, I myself am not a fan of many other "feminists". Honestly, I don't think they really count. I'll explain why later on.

As it is an ideology, it is likely that it has existed since the early days but simply has not gotten popular until recently. The initial rise in feminism came in the 19th century. During this time, progressive countries in the West, such as the United Kingdom, began giving more sexual and economic rights to their female citizens. In the early 20th century, adult women also enjoyed voting rights. As women's social status rose, feminist literature works grew and caught the public's attention.

Such movements were not only seen in the West. In the East, Chinese and Middle Eastern feminists emerged and sought to reform society. For instance, in 1956, Egypt banned discrimination based on gender.

This all sounded promising. But what happened next? See, the rise of social networks made voicing one's opinion much easier and information became increasingly accessible. One downside of this, however, is that people tend to radicalize on the Internet as they're likely interacting with people they have never met and likely never will meet in real life. Thus, those with opposing opinions often stir up quite some drama.

With the rise of social media, expression of opinions as well as access to other's opinions became a rather easy task. Hence, feminist ideas continued to spread rapidly. But, no matter what it is about, each community would have its own subgroups, with some stupid enough to end up going against their initial goals.

Many of these "annoying feminists" exist online. They call for the downfall of patriarchy and instead establish matriarchy. It is rather ironic how those who were meant to call for equal gender rights end up supporting one sex's dominance over another. Vengeance isn't the right answer here, and never will be. This will only lead to an endless and tiresome cycle.

A lot of such feminists also do trash talk about men a lot. Instead of criticizing actual misogynists, they tend to extend their hate to all men. Some common things these people do include but are not limited to:

- Considering all men "trash"

- Being ultra-sensitive over the slightest words that intended no harm (kinda like what I said with some individuals of the LGBTQ+ community)

- Ignoring problems men face as if they were all well-deserved

- Advocating misandry as if it's the core of feminism

You may have noticed. Many of these people I deem "stupid" agree on one thing: complete or near complete disregard of men's feelings. Surprise surprise, it turns out that women are not the only ones facing problems in this world. At home, many boys are taught to hold their emotions and not cry as they would be perceived as weak and feminine by the society. This is very wrong, and reality tells us that due to such pressure, many men end up closeting their feelings. Even the slightest warmth can bring them loads of happiness. That's how little care they received, or perceived, at the very least.

But what happens to men who do not have these joyous experiences? Are they going to pressure themselves forever? Many in this world simply cannot stand this and divert this anger at someone else, or perhaps even go as far as taking their own lives. Men have a higher suicide rate, a high work fatality rate, a high depression rate, etc. Yet, the suffering some men go through are simply overlooked by many. While this is happening, there's still a bunch of people smack talking. In my opinion, as a feminist, and as a guy, that is the biggest problem with feminism.

It sure is fine to criticize those who truly deserve it, but is this "who" all men? All those who tried their very best providing care to others but did not get what they deserved and in the end had no one to vent to? No. Please don't. Don't just violate my identity as a male, as well as billions of others'.

Another group of hypocrites in this community are the TERFs. This minority tends to express transphobic sentiments and reject trans women's identities as women. A group desperately advocating for equality disregards the equality another group deserves? I really can't describe the irony behind this...

I myself am a feminist and support equal gender rights. Although I do promote feminism, I am strongly against misandry and radical feminism as they do in fact violate my identity as a guy. Not all men are misogynists and misandry is simply unjust and a foolish idea that does nothing more than tearing society apart. These ideas are nothing but loud radical voices that do not and must not represent feminism. We shouldn't let feminism's reputation fall to them.

Although feminism is important and has my support, please also do not forget that men are living beings too. Men suffer more emotionally as historically we are more emotionally oppressed. Pushing over the limit to harass and trash talk men is not equivalent to giving women the rights they deserved. This opposes the basis of feminism itself and I hope more and more people would begin to realize that.

One last thing. This is not to say that we should completely abandon traditional gender roles. In terms of upper body strength, men are, on average, 50% stronger than women, and it would make sense that there'd be a division of labor. We should respect others while acknowledging the differences. A lot of people don't seem to understand that these two elements can co-exist.

Alright, I believe that's all I wanted to say. I initially planned to add some more photos but I couldn't find that many relevant ones. This probably appears more serious anyway so I believe the formatting is reasonable. Sorry for the rant and a relatively short blog. Hope I got my point across in this blog.

Have a nice day :D