Is There a Future for Feminism?
“All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.”
Simone de Beauvoir
Through history, feminism has quite often been seen as women “over-reacting”, women being “dramatic over issues that aren’t important” and women “trying to be better than men”, which quite frankly, drives me insane. Feminism is about equality, the fact that the marginalization of women is widespread and terrifyingly common.
Women are constantly targeted in the media, both online and print, to look a certain way, to eat certain things, to act like women “should”. And this pressure is unbearable for some women.
The sad fact is that some give in to whatever mystical powers above, meaning that they buy the make-up, wear the designer clothes, and stay at home with the children, because “that’s what women do” while others just try to find their look and face various stages and types of criticism from men and the society as a whole.
According to Wikipedia, “Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define, establish, and achieve equality in the political, economic, personal, and social parts of life.” The matter of consideration, in this case, is that the concept of feminism was defined as the concern with gender equality and the promotion of equal rights for men and women. But we seem to have diverted from the same!
As bad as it feels to say it out loud, the feminism movement has indeed lost it’s meaning along the way. Men and women are at cross-roads in their lives, where even though men are trying their level best to give women equal space yet women are somehow seen concentrating on the whole rather than the equal.
This is what you call, ‘Pseudo-Feminism‘.
This branched out towards the ugly and aggressive form of ‘radical feminism’ which suggests a type of aggressive action and radical thoughts that aim to eliminate the supremacy of males in the society and replace it with female supremacy.
A type of movement which is based on the basic ideas of feminism but is built on the toxic idea of female superiority over the male counterparts further gave birth to ‘Feminazis’.
According to Wikipedia, “Feminazi is a portmanteau of the nouns feminist and Nazi”. The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang defines the term as “(pejoratively) a committed feminist or a strong-willed woman”
In clear words, these are the women who have been so carried away by the radical perspectives that they have now turned into proper man-haters and their degree of hatred towards men mimics the level of hatred once shown to Jews in Germany!
Ostensibly, they aim to eliminate the male race and their supremacy with extremist measures and rule over them.
It is safe to say at this point that- Feminism, a movement that was designed with the primary motive to bring women and men to the same point and podium of equality is now being misused by women to excel and move above and beyond their gender-counterparts. It is now giving space to female toxicity which has tipped the scales, widely out of balance. It has now turned into a female-support movement that is designed to help women win some non-existent race.
The sad part is that women are willing to act like they need this extra aid. They are willing to keep up a charade of helplessness and weakness for the same.
My question is, why?
Why do we need a female-only compartment in the metro?
Why do we always need to play the ‘female-card’ to get out of situations?
Why do we need extra rights as compared to males?
Why do we need extra privileges when the main aim was to just be equal?
Why do we still need to be the ‘damsels in distress’ waiting for their ‘knights in shining armour’?
According to me, it is just giving space to a world built on male exploitation and female dominance. A world where female rapes bring on movements like #MeToo whereas the rise in male rapes is ignored, dissed, and associated with shame!
The only thing this is doing is, paving way for a toxic future sans equality. A future would now require movements based on masculinism, to bring the scales back to order.
May Read: Strengthening democracy through scientific temper
Yes, there is no doubt that we still need something! In rural India, a female foetus still faces the dark horrors of foeticide, a little girl is still taught that her place is in the kitchen, girls aren’t educated and made familiar with basic healthcare and also, with their rights.
We also need it in the urban part, where women are still subjected to domestic abuse and marital rape, where crime haunts the future of females, where rapes, abduction and trafficking are on a rise and workplaces where women are still not treated equally.
We also need it where men are suppressed and where changing the names of metro stations is considered enough to pay back for the crimes committed against our transsexual population.
But what we need is the honest and liberating wave of equality, the wave that is meant to help and rescue everyone and bring them to the open arms of equality. A wave sans toxicity and misuse, built to help the country grow as a whole and to build a place where together, we can rise towards a better future, out of the shadows of the toxic present and the painful past!
Remember, feminism was a concept that was supposed to bring down the level of patriarchy, to improve the quality of living, and promote independence among women. This is what it still is in the crux of the idea. Don’t let the feminazis or the ‘damsels in distress’ take that away from your mind.
At the end of the day, a society that doesn’t need a different ladies’ compartment in metros and local trains, where women can work the late shifts and get home without worrying themselves or their families over it, where men can cry, where when men don’t have to prove their masculinity and can be open about their feelings, where people can be true to themselves and their religions or sexuality, where crime against all genders are met with equal levels of severity sounds pretty good now, doesn’t it?
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are of the author solely. TheRise.co.in neither endorses nor is responsible for them.
About the author
The sufferings in wars of 20th century brought the idea of peace,humanity and importance of peaceful coexistence across the world. Feminism was the product of industrial revolution.