Facts about Feminism | ✓

26

Guy | Girl

"Feminists get triggered too easily. It gets annoying." 

"Ha. Haven't heard that one before."

"I'm not saying all of them. But there are so many that seem to have a vendetta against guys. There's literally proof."

She crossed his arms, "Let's see it then."

"See what?"

"The proof."

He huffed. His arm went to push his locks back, his bicep bulging against his shirt sleeve. She looked away.

"Here," He caught her attention after a minute of searching. On his phone screen was an instagram account with a bunch of radical posts with a barrage of angry comments, posts 'to all the haters', and a couple of quotes and images.

"This one is my favourite." He pointed at the top of his screen, "To call a man an animal is to flatter him; he's a machine, a walking dildo. Tried and true words by Valerie Solanas." Below the post were a bunch of comment saying preach girl preach and yessss, speak up and who needs men anyways?

She pursed her lips. 

He smirked, smug. "Cat got your tongue? And I'm not even done." Clicking on the glass screen and flipping through a few posts, he turned the phone around again. "This one says that women need to be given their bodies back. How guys have been dictating how women should look or act for too long. And look at the comment section."

She glanced at the hundreds and thousands of comments. He was right. They were all shaming sexist, toxic men when there were barely one or two comments saying otherwise. One guy had commented that he was confused and no one had ever said that women's bodies don't belong to them. He was met with hundreds of comments not bothering to explain anything but resort directly to calling him a sexist piece of sh*t.

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "The comment section is pretty extreme," She conceded. "But the post itself isn't wrong."

He thought about it for a second, dropping his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. "I thought about that actually for a while actually. And you know what I realized?"

Not waiting for her answer, he continued, "Guys don't care half as much about how a girl's body looks as girls themselves. Every girl I have dated has asked me if they were fat when they're all perfectly fine. Girls self-deprecate their own bodies when guys see nothing wrong with them."

"But I've always heard girls calling themselves or other girls fat, or too skinny, or flat, ugly, pudgy, so on. Girls are putting the pressure on themselves. Online, most of the people who are skinny shaming and fat shaming social media influencers, are once again, girls."

"I guess you have a point." She reluctantly admitted. "Girls need to start setting a better example for themselves."

He arched his eyebrow, a picture of surprise etched into his features. "That's not something I hear everyday."

"Hey," She grumbled. "I can admit when I'm wrong. I don't love it. But I don't think anyone does."

"I know." He stretched his arms above his head. "That's something that I admire about you."

"Thanks," She smiled. He had the ability to compliment girls without sounding like he was coming onto them. It was sweet.

"And I'm not saying there aren't guys who obviously disrespect girls and who have caused body image problems by shaming girl's bodies, but girls do it too. To themselves and to guys. Just ask any guy under 5'7 and he'll tell you how 'you're too short' is the most common way they're turned down."

She leaned her head on her hand, nodding into her palm. "Feminism is about equality. I'd rather believe, optimistically, that most girls think like that. Regarding the posts earlier, I feel that many have a skewed perception of feminism because of a small percentage of radical feminists. I won't deny that some feminists are man haters, or too extreme, or too sensitive. But we can't generalize an entire group of people based on a minority."

"If your definition of feminism stands, then feminism needs to go both ways and start applying to men too. Men can be victims of domestic violence, of rape, of harassment and discrimination too."

"I agree." She said. "I know that many guys think now that girls have it easier, that girls have more rights, and in some ways I agree. But feminism for so long was a very close-minded issue. We all need time to understand and learn."

"Then shouldn't that apply to guys as well? Cancel culture is incredibly toxic. Someone will say one thing and they'll be cancelled. It's not fair is it? Especially when people are not trying to be offensive, they've just never been taught otherwise. They're ignorant. Like I was before I met you."

She remembered the day that got them both landed in detention. A punch. A screaming match. And culminated in him twitching his arms, looking awfully eager to punch her back. "I haven't held that against you though, at least not anymore. Now for a long time now." She admitted, thinking about the day when she had realized that he had a valid point, one that couldn't hurt to listen to sometimes. "You've changed."

"Maybe I have," His fingers drummed on the wooden desk."In that case, don't we all deserve second chances? Shouldn't feminists, especially online, aim to educate, instead of shame?"

--- --- ---

first off - haven't updated in a long time and completely butchered my update schedule of 'every day' (I thought! ha. smh over how I was so naive). This book's schedule is very much dependent on an angry and write basis. I get angry; I want to write.

so a few days back I was wasting my life browsing instagram and it just really killed me how some feminists can get super triggered in the comment sections over nothing. There will be one not-even-sexist-just-slightly-questioning comment dwarfed by thousands of comments calling the user out and shaming them for being sexist. this is not the point of feminism. by doing so it's only reenforcing the stereotypes and negativity towards feminists 

also not condoning anything girl or guy says. I don't necessarily agree myself. I just wanted to present two sides of an argument, both very logical opinions.