Random Thought: A little on Feminism

nobody is free, until everybody is free

-Fannie Lou Hamer

Disclaimer:  I’m not an expert on Feminism.  Feminism is a complex topic with nuances, factors, theories, implication and history that I will not cover in this post. The words on this post are my current opinion on this topic. Opinions are NOT facts. Also, I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and have read many of her works, so this post will contain a lot of quotes from her famous TED talk speech.

my backyard

Since words mean things, below are the meaning of the three words that I will be using in this post:

• Feminism: the advocacy of women's right on the basis of the equality of the sexes (Google).
• Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).
• Intersectionality: the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race,class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage (Google).

The feminist movement or feminism in general has been misunderstood. In part due to the words, beliefs and actions of some members of the movement itself. Feminism is different within every culture, class, generation, religion, and region. There is no one feminism culture specific (Medha Kotwal Lele).  Thus,  feminism in the Americas will look different from the one in Asia, although  they may share some similarities. 

The feminist movement has campaigned for such causes as the women's right, abolition of slavery, health care, sexual assault, human trafficking and domestic violence. There are numerous feminist movements, theories, and ideologies that have developed through out the years and shows the varied viewpoints and aims of feminism.

Since mainstream media tends to focus on the West and that's the feminism that most people often criticizes,  I will discuss its history briefly.  Western Feminist movement has been group into 4 waves.  The first wave worked for women's suffrage. Famous women during this era were Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These women also worked for the abolition of slavery. The second wave worked for the legal and social equality for women, such as ending gender discrimination. The third wave focused primarily on individuality and diversity. The 4^th wave and current wave has been working towards combating  Rape Culture, ending sexual harassment and gender base violence. Feminism is culture specific. Feminism in the Americas varies between North and South America; between Europe and Oceania. Feminism is universal (Medha Kotwal Lele). Like everything in God green earth, there is a broad spectrum of feminism and there are many type of feminist out there. From radical feminism to liberal feminism and everything else in between. For example, there are Ecofeminist that believe that men's control of land is responsible for the oppression of women and destruction of natural environment. Also, feminist views on sexuality varies. There are those who advocate for women’s sexual liberation, there are those who hold conservative sexual ideals and there are those who are in between. 

There are many misconceptions in regard to feminism, some of it well deserved.  The rest are base on misunderstanding. To be a feminist, does not mean you hate men or want to be a man. To be a feminist, does not mean that a woman cannot be feminine or soft or delicate or a  housewife. It involves having the choice to be all those things or one of the things or two of those things or none of those things at all. Feminism is about letting women be who they are without shaming them (Najwa Zebian). Feminism is about choice. Feminism is not about promoting women's superiority. Feminist are not out to break the institute of marriage (Medha Kotwal Lele). A woman can be happily marry to an amazing person and be a feminist. A man can be a feminist also. Feminism seeks partnership with men (Medha Kotwal Lele). Men and women are different but equal. 

Men and women are different. We have different sexual organs ad different biological abilities – women can have babies, men cannot. Men have more testosterone and are, in general, physically stronger than  women (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).

There are a lot of things wrong with western feminism as we know today. In the west, some feminist movement do not take into account intersectionality. Some feminists have turned the feminism movement as fight against Men. Some argue that the movement should not be called feminism but equalism. But to call the movement another name because of the negative implication that the name feminism brings, negate the role that gender plays in society. Gender matters everywhere in the world (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie). Both genders have struggles but in certain part of the world, women still face more obstacles than men because of their gender Feminism is, part of human rights...but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).

As I’m writing this (May 31, 2020), stories of the rape and murders of 3 women  in Nigeria made headline in the African news circuit and some people reaction to these murders and rape is to blame the victims for being outside their homes. Apparently, If a woman wants to be safe from abuse and death, she should stay home. No one is entitled to ANYONE’s BODY!! I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own (Audre Lorde). 

Then there is the argument that you cannot be a Christian (Catholic are Christian Also) and a Feminist because women are suppose to be submissive to men (I’m not doing this argument any justice but you get the gist). You can be a feminist and Catholic. Example of Catholic women who were feminist (fyi they did not call themselves feminists) are St. Joan of Arc and St. Katharine Drexel.  I personally think the Holy Mother (for those who are not Catholic, it’s the Virgin Mary) was a feminist. She exercise her free will by saying Thy will be done. She said Yes to God when the Angel Gabriel told her that she was going to have my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Moving on, Pope John Paul II wrote a lot about feminism and the role of women during his time as the head of the Catholic Church.

To reject the temptation of imitating models of ‘male domination,’  in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society and overcome all discrimination, violence, and exploitation.

-Pope John Paull II (Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life)

Let me make myself clear, just because I consider myself a feminist does not mean I hate men. I don’t hate men. I don’t want to be a man nor do i identify as a male. I don’t blame men for all the social ills of the world. However, I do believe that SOME social structures have benefit men at the detriment of women. A feminist is a man or a woman who says, ‘Yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie). Also, Feminism benefit men too because it put them at equal playing field with women in court, in business, in government and at every other aspect of society. For example, if some feminism policies are implemented, when a man and woman are fighting for child custody, both parties will be treated the same. The woman will no longer be given custody  automatically just because she is a woman. Also, women will be given the same treatment  as men when its comes to domestic violence and sexual assault (yes,  a woman can abuse a man too). 

Feminism offers optimism. It gives the opportunity to create change 

-Deborah Cameron

~xoxo

P.S These words are a short version of my opinion aided by quotes by those amazing women listed after each quotes.