Tag: Feminism

  • Is It Time to Bring Down the Patriarchy?

    Since the beginning of civilization in Mesopotamia, lives of women have been controlled by men. Women were denied many of the rights that men had, such as an education, but were expected to serve husbands and fathers.  The voice of oppressed women was not loud enough for men in power to hear until Mary Wollstonecraft started a “revolution in female manners” during the French Revolution, according to the political theorist Eileen Hunt Botting on Bringing Down the Patriarchy.  Although this did not create equality overnight, this was just the start of women coming together to bring down the patriarchy.

    Today, inequality still lives between men and women, which is a big problem. According to Marie Claire, women make 16% less money than a male employee of the same job, and it is worse for women of color.

    Even though we have made progress with reducing the wage gap, there is still a long road ahead of us, including aiming for more representation in government and senior positions for companies or firms, for example.

    The feminist movement is making strides in fighting for rights not just for women, but for fellow minorities in ways like speaking up about gender discrimination. Unity is the medicine for this patriarchal disease.

    I know people who think that there might not be a point in fighting for equality, some of them my friends. They think that equal rights for everyone or the end of discrimination is never going to be possible. But this is where they are wrong.

    By teaching young boys that catcalling women on the side of the street is unacceptable, by teaching young boys about toxic masculinity, by teaching them about how they can contribute their privilege and power to the feminist movement, by teaching women all around that other women will have their back in a sisterhood.

    By coming together, educating people, and having the will to fight for rights is how the patriarchy will one day be broken.

  • Modern Feminism is Overrated

    Okay, so before people start chasing me with pitchforks and sticks of fire, let’s set something straight: I am not an anti-feminist and I don’t hate women; I love women and love being a woman. I am very much for women’s rights. People assume that every woman needs to be a feminist, and that those who aren’t feminists are sexist, but that’s just not true.

     
    Take a look at modern day American feminism. What real difference, as a group have they accomplished? I do thank the original feminists, like Jane Austen, who through her novels expressed that women were more than objects for men to own, that women could do more that what society expected.  They could read, they could be independent, they can say ‘no’ to a man they didn’t want to marry. And Lucille Ball, who was the first true female comedian. She was shown, not as a side character, but as a goofy leading woman (who was also the first woman to wear pants on national television).

     
    However, I don’t see women like that anymore, and nowadays feminism is a joke. I agree that there is still so much to be done for women, but are third-wave feminist really doing the job? First-wave feminism began in the 19th century and focused on women’s suffrage, giving women the right to vote. Well, white women, anyway. It involved women speaking without being spoken to and having their own opinions (how scandalous!).
    Second-wave feminism started up in the mid 60’s until the 80’s and had a main focus on the freedom of sexuality. Women began to dress differently, wore bolder looking makeup, and most memorably fought for and gained abortion rights. Woman forced their way into the workforce on their way to equality and gaining respect as more than just housewives. Inspired by the Black Power Movement, women began women-only meetings. Well, rich, white women anyway. Several accounts at the time from women of color refer to them attempting to join these meetings, only to be turned away due to their race and financial situation.


    So this brings us to today’s third-wave feminism, which is about what? Slut-shaming? Fat-shaming? #freethenipple? It’s so unorganized and so unfocused, I don’t even think feminists know what they’re fighting for. I understand that not all feminists think this way, but a big majority do. I just don’t want to be associated with a group that is so self-centered and hypocritical. At the Women’s March, the one that was supposed to be so revolutionary, a large number of women were not allowed to march. Their entry was denied because they are pro-life.

     
    “Although organizers say anti-abortion women are welcome to attend the Women’s March, their inclusion in what the event represents could become more complicated if the platform laid out by the organizers is a sign of the feminist movement in the Trump era… that feminism is a political term and that the idea that women should be able to choose what they do with their bodies is fundamental to feminism,” stated Elizabeth Velez, professor of Women and Gender Studies at Georgetown University, to The Washington Post.

    So women should have the freedom to say what they believe in, but only if they agree with you? This isn’t feminism, this isn’t equality. Third-wave feminism isn’t the way. We can’t find peace if there isn’t true unity between all women. I agree that America isn’t perfect, but it’s a whole lot better than other countries. While women are fighting and getting killed for the right to read, we’re here, protesting magazines for having skinny models.

    I agree with modern feminism, just not the plan of action, or lack thereof. If we really want equality, peace, and unity, we have to accomplish it together, as a sisterhood, across the nation and the world.

  • Once Upon A Hallmark Christmas

    Once Upon A Hallmark Christmas

    Fate is real. The rich are evil. New York City is the only large city in existence. There is no excuse to hate the holidays. It is wrong to want a good career. Living in a small town is the only way to be happy. Research shows that 50% of the time, engaged women are more likely to meet their true soulmates because their fiancés were actually jerks anyway. Christmas is not about presents, it is about showing your love of family and friends. If a woman is fired from her job or does not get the promotion she wanted, then she will most likely be married within six months. In order to be a complex character, a close relative to you must have died. Congratulations! You just made it through every Hallmark Christmas movie plot in existence!

    I admit that I do like some of these movies (watch Once Upon a Holiday), but I also have to say that most of them make me want to vomit because of the culmination of bad writing, predictable plotlines, and sickeningly sweet dialogue. While researching for this article, I watched ten Hallmark Channel original movies. I also smashed the television with a baseball bat, or at least I wanted to.

    I understand that nobody expects these movies to be nominated for Oscars and that any romantic movie will always have a certain level of cliché in it, but I also know Hallmark can do better. They can create characters that are complex because of their thoughts and interests, not because of the death of a family member or a bad breakup 15 years ago. Also, since none of the movies set in New York have anything to do with the actual city–no ice skating at Rockefeller Center or long walks through Central Park–they could change it up and make a movie set in Cleveland or tell the story of two college kids falling in love at Purdue University. Perhaps Hallmark could make the male lead the one who is desperate to find a partner. The writers can come up with pivotal dramatic scenes that are not caused by a misunderstanding.

    Luckily, it seems like the 2015 movies are not as sexist as the older movies. The plotlines of the old movies usually go like this: a thirty year old woman living in NYC is dumped by her jerk boyfriend, is passed up for promotion by a different jerk guy, gets stranded in a small town, falls in love with a kind man from said small town, realizes that she shouldn’t have a career or live in a big city, and then the two leads kiss and the movie ends with no real answer as to where they are going to live. The 2015 movies I watched were basically the same except the couple moved to where the girl was promoted and ended with a wedding montage. Hopefully this means progress, but I sincerely doubt it.