Feminism or Feminazism?

Feminism: one of the most controversial topics at hand in the society we live in today. The infamous term often unfortunately paints a picture of rabid man hating, bra burning

women across the imaginations of many.

So why and when exactly did this widespread ideology turn into such a debatable topic? The simple answer to that would be the misconception on the idea of what a feminist is and the movement of feminism itself.

A quick look on the Internet reveals the definition of feminism as “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of sexes”. The keyword here being equality. Women have fought for decades to earn basic human rights, respect and dignity in a society that constantly deems us inferior. Sadly, many people all around the world don’t correlate feminism with equality. This word is usually associated with female world domination where men are considered less worthy and don’t pose any significant use in a dystopian society which would be considered the norm.

In reality, the grounding values that feminism is based upon is the constant strive for equal rights to be given to both sexes without any kind of discrimination in a variety of different fields. From being paid the same salary for the same occupation as our male counterparts to helping male rape victims find a voice and fight for justice instead of being shunned away because of a very problematic mentality that goes along the lines of “men cannot be raped” or “what kind of man doesn’t fight back” that has been cultivated in the minds of millions of people, young and old alike which prevents male rape victims from getting the justice they truly deserve. In other words, feminism has absolutely nothing to do with misandry, which is basically male bashing.

However, using the term “feminism” to justify misandry has become an alarmingly rampant issue worldwide, which keeps feeding into the misconception of feminism equating to hating men and that’s one of the main reasons why many people tend to roll their eyes at the sound of this argument provoking word. Modern day feminists are often criticized as they are stereotyped to be quarrelsome and pushy. This misconceived judgment has stemmed from the constant exposure of misandry and misguided feminist ideologies people are bombarded with on social media. People tend to forget that there is a lot more to feminism than not shaving and the free the nipple movement. As we are finally climbing up the ladder to equality and justice, people have confused the concept of being a feminist into something that is a“trendy and cool” bandwagon where people who desire to be validated jump onto, thereby defeating the purpose it exists right to the bottom.

It isn’t a battle of sexes where women want to claim superiority to men but rather it's about empowering women to be on the same financial, social, political and economical level as men.

Feminism is about women being empowered to the same position as men and not killing

everything masculine.

Feminism is about looking out for fellow men and women and being able to treat each

other with respect.

Feminism is about bringing down every bit of sexism that still exists to date.

Feminism is about trying to bring up women that have always been pushed down the system of hierarchy and not a one up man ship with women making snarky comments on the Internet whilst trying to tear other men down.

Feminism is about letting every woman out there to own the liberty to make decisions for herself and live life on her own terms, ranging from the way she dresses to the people she chooses to interact with.

Feminism is about equality and not man hating.

We need feminism because patriarchy exists in all forms and sizes. It’s a social system, which still exists in our current society that values and deems men as more significant over women and dictates that men are always entitled to dominate over women because we are “inferior”. Here’s the ironic fact about patriarchy: many women believe and support it. And why is that? Usually because their own parents or the people who raised them ingrained internalized misogyny into their once vulnerable young minds. Next time you see a rapist’s parents defending their child’s actions on the news, remember that parents of that kind are the reason why rapists don’t feel any guilt or any remorse for the heinous crime they committed and also the reason why rapists exist and are increasing in number every single day.

As a child raised by liberal parents who gave me a lot of freedom, I never used to consider myself a feminist because I lead a life of privilege and never questioned or compared my abilities, skill set and capabilities to those of boys my age and always thought of myself as an equal. However, as I grew up, the concept of feminism started becoming clearer to me. This was because the knowledge of feminism and its purpose wasn’t instilled properly in the mind of my curious teen self. As I grew older and explored my horizons, I realized the concept of feminism wasn’t what my peers advertised. It truly wasn’t all about posting dismissive comments on the Internet and hating every word that came out of a man’s mouth.

There is no correct way to fight for justice and be the voice for activism just like how there’s no one issue of the greatest importance in this world. Feminism is a movement for gender justice, and it needs to be fought by many different people, in many different ways which will help us achieve what we’ve being striving so hard to attain for centuries: equality.

Mariam Megha and Aditi Kashyap