FYI I'M A...

F E M I N I S T 

For some reason, when some people hear the word feminist, an abundance of all the negative connotations of feminism seem to come to their minds. Quite frankly, in this day and age, if you weren’t a feminist, I would definitely look at you in a different light. Many have this idea that feminists are bra burning, spiteful women who hate the whole of mankind & that is only a small snippet of the truth. In all honesty, up until a few years ago, I didn’t even know I was a feminist. I had the core believes and values of a feminist, but I just didn’t know that ‘feminist’ was the correct umbrella term for those beliefs.

| DEFINITION: FEMINISM

1. The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic quality to men.

Synonyms: the women’s movement, the feminist movement, women’s liberation, female emancipation, and women’s rights.

| WHAT FEMINISM MEANS TO ME

Feminism, to me is total quality between men and women (after all the only thing that really sets us apart is our lower region) when it comes to issues such as employment, politics and just the ongoing of everyday life. Being a young adult, there are so many issues in which there’s a complete double standard. For example, having multiple casual sexual partners. If you’re a man, it’s seen as though you can sleep with every woman under the sun and you’ll be deemed a ‘lad’, however if you’re a female, you’re perceived to be ‘easy’ and a ‘slag’ or ‘whore’ for sleeping with even a fraction of people. Another example is employment, as much as we would all like to believe that the gender pay gap is at an all time low (in the UK), the fact that there is still a gap to be spoken about is still an issue. Many higher paid positions do not have their salaries advertised and are under the discretion of the employer and employee and due to this, makes it easier and to a certain extent, allows this pay gap to still exist. In my opinion, if someone is eligible for the job and has the relevant experience, the salary shouldn’t be altered just because one person is a woman.

That being said, I’m not one of those so-called feminists who want’s every decision that’s made to be in favour of women. For example, if a man and woman go on a date, I don’t expect the man to take the whole bill – go halves or on one date one person pays and then on the next date, the other person pays. Because, for me feminism is also about being independent and self-sufficient and not relying on men like many women did in the old days when the man went to work and the woman looked after the house and kids.

What does feminism mean to you?

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