My Political Rant Book

Feminism: History, Controversies and My Take

Martha Lear writing for the New York Times in 1968 coined the term "first wave feminism" for the United States, that granted women the right to vote. The first wave of feminism was about securing equal rights and legal access, to assert and enshrine basic equality in the law. After major Western countries granted voting rights to women, countries such as India that gained independence in 1947 encoded it into law since right the first day. The Indian Constitution was inspired from various Western sources, and the egalitarian movements that spread because of Western exposure to colonised nations helped popularise female education, the notion of equal rights and abolishing antisocial sexist practices such as infanticide (although such problems still persist, the larger educated class began recognising these things as terrible in this period).

After suffrage, women wanted egalitarian treatment, and sought more than mere enfranchisement. They began fighting for reproductive rights, access to the workplace, family and domestic roles, domestic abuse and women in general having less opportunities to pursue their dreams. This was second-wave feminism, which coincided with 1960's FDA approval of birth control (United States) and transitioning into 1970, a rise in women joining the workforce. This also coincided with civil movements that were protesting racism.

Finally, let's come into third wave feminism. Debatably started towards the rise of the Internet era, third-wave feminism counters sexist biases, traditional gender roles, harmful ideologies such as rape culture and misogyny, and aims to tackle institutional bias. Feminism has also become more diverse and goes hand in hand with Pride marches, Black Lives Matter and various other intersectional identities. Intersectionality is not a new thing, but is definitely more mainstream, in third-wave feminism than in its forerunners.

The thing is- unlike first and second wave feminism, we're actually much closer to equality than that time. Not to mention women out-fare men in some things, such as college degrees, in the Western world (United States- receiving 57% of the bachelor's degrees awarded by U.S. institutions in the 2016-2017 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics). There's still a wage gap, but I suggest checking out Vox's "The Gender Wage Gap, Explained" on Netflix.

See- here's my problem with feminism: it's an echo chamber. Feminist ideals are often amazing, revolutionary and inspiring, but the arguments lack substance, nuance and doesn't permit free thinking. Disagree with any hot button feminist issue? Are you pro-life? Do you find it hard to believe in gender as a spectrum? Congratulations- you're an official bigot!

#BelieveAllWomen, when people know that potential false allegations could rip a man's life apart, Jessica/Jonathan Yaniv, disregarding men's issues as women's issues too, twisting the right's words and arguments, deeming what is acceptable and unacceptable.

And perhaps the most startling, the shunning of black, gay, transgender and female Republicans. You're a "race traitor", "man-whore", "sexuality traitor", "homophobe" to people that literally just walk on the other side of the political aisle. Not to mention pronoun legislation to jail people. The fact that the face of feminism in media and online has become so extreme stands to reason why the public view is skewed, but the fact is nobody calls out this bullshit, the endless "white guilt" policing etc.

Grouping people into intersectional bundles in every context does not help anyone. Dividing people more and more, arbitrarily creating more distinctions does not help anyone. Calling out every failure as a product of the patriarchy, and misrepresenting "toxic masculinity" as something that makes women victims, when in fact it's more about how men are forced to be strong, unemotional leaders which leads them to being brash. 

I don't like shoving the argument, but here we go- 'Facts don't care about your feelings'. Some facts do, some don't, but let's attest to the fact that a lot of leftist culture runs purely on emotion, male guilt and oppression Olympics. I'm not inherently institutionally oppressed, for I have power, and I can do this. As a brown woman of colour, I personally think it's demeaning to always play as "victims of the patriarchy".Shut up! Stop saying that ALL THE DAMN TIME! Stop pretending like your opinions are the only ones that exist and stop being extreme to the point that you drive the other side away! Those people are the ones you have to live with, and they're the ones we seek equality to, but calling them oppressors and bigoted people will always drive them away. Find a middle ground, and don't hit me with "but we've had to put up for so long..." these men don't have to be held accountable for what their ancestors did. It was a suck-ey culture, and men had to go to war and often fight or die, while women were stuck at home with the children. 

Finally- please, bridge the gaps. Reach out and have conversations. Talk about men's issues, how helpline centres often turn them down, stop living in an echo chamber and remember that others exist. And finally, this is all for the extremists- stop dragging our feminism's name in the mud. You're not the only feminist out there. There's us right here, that's open to conversation and willing to sit down and have a chat. There's pro-life feminists waving in the background, and there sits the happy gay couple that happens to be Republican-supporting, or the black woman who voted for Trump. Because if you didn't notice- I'm a feminist too, just not your type of feminist.