Being Feminist

I have never called myself a feminist. Sure, I believe that women are equal. I believe that women should have reproductive freedom. I believe that women should be paid the same for doing the same job as men. I don’t believe in free rides for anyone. Basically, I believe in equality. But I am not a feminist!! We are equal. What do we need to fight for anymore? We’ve won the battle. There is no more need for feminism and women’s rights! Or so I thought.

Even in our modern society women on average continue to earn 2/3 of the income of their male counterparts. Women make up the majority of illiterate population, even in the U.S. The porn industry continues to make “legitimate” movies portraying victimizing women and then peddle it as entertainment. So, are we equal? Obviously not! Even though women have proven themselves viable and equal in the workplace, many people continue to promote woman as the subordinate. Women who prefer being single and not having children are looked on as frigid, while men with the same views are bachelors. Women who do not practice monogamy are scorned and labeled a whore, while men are just called players.

When suddenly all this information came crashing down on me, I could no longer deny it! I am a feminist! So having said that, how do I escape the stereotype trap? When I declare myself a feminist, how do I escape the “obvious” conclusion that I am indeed a man-hating, liberal, hairy arm-pitted lesbian hippie? Why does our society feel the need to place labels on everyone? I’m sorry but I don’t fit into to some mold. I’m my own person and as such can still be a feminist without being any of the above. If I really was, I would hope that I would have the guts to declare it and be proud of who I am. We all have to escape these boxes that people try to put us in.

But let’s face it, I’m not. Although I know my mother is just waiting for me to add lesbian to the already shameful list of pierced (nose), vegetarian, feminist and animal rights activist. Or even worse, Democrat! Horrors! So why is feminism viewed as so bad? Even I used the word fem-nazi, one coined by the extreme right-winger Rush Limbaugh, to describe girls I knew. The word for me meant a woman who hated men. Looking back, I realize how wrong I was. I fell into the stereotype trap so easily made for women just like me. I didn’t question it, I just laughed behind my hand at the feminists like everyone else. So, if I’m not any of the stereotypes listed above, who am I and why is feminism so important to me?

Well, it’s very hard to sum yourself up and not bore your audience to death, or worse come off as self-involved, so I will simply give a short and sweet overview of the relevant points. I am a very recent vegetarian and animal rights activist (I gave up meat a little over two years ago). Economically, I am conservative but socially I’m liberal. This means that I think that government should keep their noses out of our personal lives and that they should stop trying to fix society’s ills with subsidized programs that only end up wasting precious tax dollars. I believe that we should (in the words of my Grandfather) “mind our own damn business” when it comes to interference in foreign affairs. Yes I do have my ears pierced. I do shave. (Both not really important but I am trying to do away with all the stereotypes.) Along with that point, I am not a hippie nor am I a yuppie. I love big cities and I am a confessed shopaholic. I am obsessed with beauty products, make-up and anything sparkly. (Hardly hippie behavior!) On the other hand, I also prefer to buy natural and organic food and avoid purchasing any product tested on animals if I can. In the spiritual arena, I am still searching and really who isn’t.

I am a feminist but not because I was abused or treated as a subordinate by the men in my life. I simply want to see a better way. I believe that women have been second long enough. I want my children to live in a world where they can achieve based on their merits not their sex. And most of all, I want to not have to worry about discrimination as I enter the work force. In the end, sometimes I think that I have a desire to fix everything. This may be true, but where would we be without all the people who tried to “fix things”? (Probably back in the Middle Ages!) I hope that wasn’t too long and boring but there it is. Me, condensed into a paragraph and by no means complete.

So who are feminists? We are people who believe that work still needs to be done in the fight for equality between the sexes and finally we do not want to be confined by stereotypes and judgements made by others. We are men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, we belong to all races, religions and backgrounds and we are fed up! For being what we are!