The F Word: Second Post on Feminism

In conjunction with my last blog post, I would say that the media is in control of how the media perceives others. The media has the power to place a stigma on any group of people. It is in full control of whether or not we will hate these types of people, place stereotypes and be prejudice against them, or accept and embrace them. I blame the media as well as myself when I say that before seeing “The F Word”, if you asked me to envision a hard core feminist I would picture a tall, earthy woman with long, straggly and unwashed hair, wearing a tie dye shirt and Birkenstock shoes. After seeing the film, I see a feminist somewhere in most people, men included. Another myth associated with feminism is that they are “liberal” lesbians. This statement is crazy to me because there are so many different views in the world, and why in today’s advanced culture does viewing male and females as equals have to be considered leftist? This should be a given, but unfortunately it is not. Also, I feel as though it is an excuse to say that only women who are attracted to other women are feminists. In many ways, I would consider many men I know to have feminist ideas. Look at how many split households there are in today’s society where the woman works as well as the man, so the household chores and child care is divided in half. There are also many households where the father stays home and the mother of the child (ren) works. The father in these situations must be somewhat feminist to be splitting the responsibilities that men may have viewed 60 years ago as “the woman’s duty”.

 I would define feminism as a movement towards creating equality for women socially, economically, and politically among many more ways. I would consider myself a feminist. I believe that women should absolutely be held to the same standards as men. In fact, some days I believe women deserve more respect and appreciation than men! Women have to work harder than men in the business world to prove themselves, yet many women make much less than their male competitors. And all the while working full time, they must compensate for the time spent at work and spend more time with their children while tending to household chores as well. I also give many single parents a lot of credit, both men and women. This is where I think we need to give men more credit than we do. I think when we think of single parent, we think of women and give them all of the credit. 

I do believe that feminism is on the rise currently, however I also believe that society is still nowhere near equal. Women still make less money than men do, and women are still primarily responsible for all care taking responsibilities due to the bread winning aspect of things. Women are still viewed as sexual objects, but I might add that many celebrities use that to their advantage. I also am not entirely sure whether or not to consider that a matter of inequality because men are also objectified in society.