Today I've been thinking about the view people have about feminism, the kinds of stereotypes that people seem to have, not being someone who isn't a feminist I am quite biased and so may think people have an opinion on feminism they really don't, it's not as if I have surveyed people, although this could be a very interesting thing to do!
Where, then have we ended up as a supposedly more equal society, what is the view of feminism in the 21st century? Thinking about the most significant achievements by feminists for our current society, 'second wave' feminists and how they went about their campaigns, it seems that a feminist in the modern view is a bra burning, militant person that feels women should all become lesbians. Feel free to disagree but from what I've managed to come across, this is the legacy of those women who, granted paved the way for women to have many more opportunities an rights than ever before, used extreme methods to achieve their aims. The modern women feels as though she must subscribe to extreme beliefs and an extreme lifestyle to be classed as a feminist. The truth is the dictionary describes a feminist as 'someone who advocates equal rights for women', does that describe you? In whatever way you wish to interpret this, I don't think there would be one person who did not subscribe to this to some extent.
I think a word that maybe need a little qualification in the definition of a feminist is 'advocates'. What I mean is, what kind of things can be classed as advocating equal rights for women, and this of course can include the kind of bra burning, sash wearing sheep sorts of rallies but could also include speaking up say if you know your boss has overlooked someone for a job simply because they're a woman. What I think doesn't need qualifying is equal rights. Anything that undermines some one's humanity, that undermines freedom, justice and fairness should not be advocated. I wouldn't say that women's rights were the most important thing to advocate in the world but is still very important. There are inequalities between people on the basis of many things, feminism has its eye on gender.
As a Christian woman living in the 21st century, I don't actually feel like I am personally unequal to my fellow man, I can't think of anything that as a woman I do not have the same rights to as men. I believe strongly that a woman shouldn't be denied something simply because she is a woman, and that a man shouldn't be denied something simply because he is a man (we're talking gender here) just in the same way someone shouldn't be denied something because they are of a particular race or background. I don't believe that one gender is superior to the other, one is not to dominate the other, gender relations should be balanced and this does not necessarily mean that men and women do exactly the same thing but they conduct themselves with an openness and respect towards the opposite gender, doing things not because that's what they can only do as a woman or only do as a man but what on an individual basis they are particularly gifted for. To be a feminist then, it really doesn't have to include bra burning and such like, anyone can be a feminist if they think it is important to make sure men and women have equal rights. Do we need a different word other than feminism to describe this? This is the banner under which all the negative things people have done in trying to achieve equal rights for women but what about all the great things that came from it? Maybe a way of encouraging more people to consider it acceptable to be a feminist is to think about how you would feel if women could not get a mortgage by themselves, could not vote, could not go to university, could not wear trousers in a restaurant, could not be on the stage, were sacked because they got pregnant. Again, if it cam down to campaigning for the right for women to wear trousers instead of a campaign against ethnic cleansing for example the choice is clear, but just as one persons passion might be protecting jobs and fighting for a higher minimum wage or providing a holistic approach to encourage the homeless into accommodation and employment or providing education and support to young people, etc, one's passion could also be to see that women are not discriminated against simply for their gender.
