As far as I am concerned, it has become a widely spread belief that feminism represents the idea of switching the power structure to make men underrepresented, which is a common misconception.
As I was writing this article, I talked to one of the people that closely follow up feminism activities on condition of anonymity.
“The problem with feminists is that some of them try to drag their ordeal in feminism movement,” he said.
He went on to explain that such cases involve women once abused or assaulted by men prompting them to confuse feminism with a platform that provides ground to bring to public attention the hatred for men. In other words, they falsely proclaim themselves as true feminists.
He shares the same thoughts with other friends of mine who argued that the purpose of feminism movement should not be misinterpreted to avoid stereotypes that might be a barrier to gender equality.
In July 2013, The Women Against Feminism campaign began on Tumblr as a response to the “Who needs feminism” campaign.
The movement is an online community that use social media to brand ‘Feminism’ as a ‘toxic’ movement. The latter has incited many to believe that feminism is a movement fuelling hatred for men.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social equality of sexes.
This includes efforts to establish systems providing females with equal educational and professional opportunities.
In her book dubbed ‘Bad feminist’; Roxanne Gay, an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator said that she learnt to separate feminism from feminists.
Roxanne also wrote: “The problem with movements is that all too often, they are associated only with most visible figures, the people with the biggest platforms and the loudest, most provocative voices. But feminism is not whatever philosophy is being spouted by the popular media feminist flavor of the week, at least not entirely.”
However, this should not condemn the feminist cause because there are many people that properly understand and serve the true purpose of feminism.
These include Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott renowned for “ Seneca Falls convention”, Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B Anthony, Alice stone Blackwell, Emmeline Pankhurst and Abigail Adams, the wife of the 2nd President of the United States of America, to name a few.
Even though some people misinterpret feminism, there are others who got it right.
We need to reach common understanding for movements that represent interests of the society. So, we should represent the true essence of feminism without bias.
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