The thing is, feminism has gotten a bad rep. There are a lot of radicals who?ve attached other controversial connotations to the word. However, classic feminists simply believe that women should have every right and opportunity a man does. Feminists do not hate or devalue men. Because of all the negativity concerning feminism, there is a decreasing number of men and women standing up for what they know is right.
Here are four reasons that we need to stand up.
1) Women are still suffering financially.
There is still a gender pay gap. Actress Charlize Theron who played the evil step mother in ?The Huntsmen? is fighting back. Sony recently leaked emails exposing the difference in income between men and women in Hollywood. Theron asked for a raise of $10 million for her work, which would make her pay equal to what her costar Chris Hemsworth received. Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams have each received only seven percent of the profits for ?American Hustle?, but male costars have each received nine percent.
While Hollywood’s pay gap is of the most obvious, this type of discrimination is going on everywhere. It won’t stop if we don’t take action. Are we really still living in a world where women are paid less than men? The only reason I even saw American Hustle was because J Law was in it.
2) Women are misled emotionally/mentally.
Sadly there is still a contagious medieval mind-set that women need men to save them. One of the most annoying commercials out there is Game of War’s latest. It is everywhere. Not only are Kate Upton’s triple Fs obnoxiously flopping around my screen every time I lose my turn on Trivia Crack, but she’s asking men everywhere, ?Will you be my hero?? I’ll give the pretty lady a break, she probably got paid a significant amount to say that while wearing that stupid costume. But every time I watch her commercial I just want to yell, ?Be your own hero Kate Upton!?
I’m not saying that men aren’t capable of doing the saving, but chances are a prince charming isn’t going to ride around the corner and save you from whatever turmoil you’re under. That’s just not realistic. The answer isn’t always a man.
I think we could all take a lesson from Disney in this area. Unlike their older movies where the dead girl just lays around being pretty, waiting for her prince charming to come kiss her, we’re seeing more examples of strong, independent women who save themselves. In Tangled, Rapunzel and her Flynn Rider are seen as equals. He comes to her rescue, but in the end, she saves him. In Frozen, ?an act of true love? surprisingly isn’t a clich? true love’s kiss, but the sacrificial act of a sister.
While Disney is taking steps to encourage young girls to be heroines and not damsels in distress, there are still too many of us who have been led to believe we’re too inferior to save the day. I hope this generation of young girls watch Frozen and Tangled and are inspired by the brave female characters who get things done. If we teach them to rely on Prince Charming for happiness, they’ll only be let down when no one asks them to the Junior High dance. They?ll feel worthless when their fathers are absent.
We have to tell them that they’re powerful within themselves. We have to tell them that their worth and happy ending doesn’t come from some boy. We need feminism because we all need emotional empowerment in this day and age.
3) Women should be challenged spiritually.
I might get a lot of flak for saying this from both religious and non-religious sides, but I am concerned for the gender roles that some Christians have adopted. I’ve even thought this way at one point in my life. I think some of us have taken the ?husband being the head of the wife? verse out of context and have decided that the man is the spiritual leader and consequently the woman is the spiritual inferior.
So before I’m married, who is my leader? It seems implied that I need a leader to help me grow in my faith, although I feel as though I’ve been doing fine as a single woman. My problem with this is I won’t do anything in life that won’t bring me closer to Jesus. I won’t pull back the reigns and let my future husband do all of the leading and growing, and I don’t think that’s what Paul was telling me to do when he wrote that.
The Bible calls for mutual submission between men and women in the church. If a man has taken on a servant-hearted leadership position, he should be submitted to, and vice versa if the servant-hearted leader is a woman.
I’ve tried putting myself in the inferior position in many areas of my spiritual life. While going out on dates or in groups, I’d push the man I was hanging out with to pray over our meal instead of just doing it myself. In Sunday school, I’d wait to answer a question to make sure a boy didn’t have one first. I wasn’t taught to do this by anyone, that’s simply how I interpreted the Bible at that time.
The problem with this is if women aren’t challenged, they won’t grow. After a while I realized that just doesn’t make sense. That didn’t feel like relentlessly pursuing Jesus to me. We need feminism because the opposite stunts our spiritual growth. I truly believe that without it, we encounter a stumbling block.
4) Women are being discouraged physically.
Maybe you’re familiar with the #LikeAGirl campaign by Always. If not, the video is easy to Google. In the video we see a man, woman, and young boy’s reaction to being asked to run and fight ?like a girl?. They flailed their arms around and acted incompetent. We then see a young girl being asked the same questions. Shockingly, she began running in place like a normal person.
The video states: ?A girl’s confidence plummets during puberty?. I know we’re all guilty of using ?like a girl? as an insult, but what are we telling our youth? Why is ?like a girl? a bad thing? Why can’t run like a girl also mean win the race?
The fact is that stereotypes like this discourage girls from giving sports and other physical activities their all. They might grow up with all of these gender roles being forced upon them and once they reach the insecure age of puberty some will decide that the aggressiveness and messiness of sports isn’t feminine enough. They decide girls don’t belong on the field, maybe just the sidelines. What this video proves is that in the pre puberty stage young girls are still confident in their abilities until someone tells them that they’re not good enough.
Feminism isn’t a negative or hateful cause, it’s not even unique to the right or left side. Again, does not mean that you hate men or gentlemen. Men and women are both uniquely special and bring different and yet equally useful gifts to the table. Feminism is acknowledging that men and women are equally intelligent, strong, and competent in all areas of life. Feminists are trying to empower women to be all they can be. When we are put down in all of these areas the world misses out on what we can do. Men and women alike have to stand up for one another and for feminism so we can all be challenged and grow as a society.
If that’s not a cause worth fighting for then I don’t know what is.
