In a recent rant about Feminism I heard that the movement is too divided to affect any viable change. I also heard that Western Feminism is being used as a form of Imperialism in which western women wander the world over forcing their own cultural values on women in regions of vastly different realities. Similarly, I read this morning that being against abortion equates to being against women. And of course, as we all know, Feminists are all angry and hate men. These things in conjunction with a general misunderstanding of what Feminism actually IS have compelled me to write this post.
Lets first cover some basics.
Feminism IS the movement against Patriarchy. Patriarchy is a system in which the (cis) male population is in control of any nation, state, economy, and/or culture. As a citizen of “The West,” I can say that it is undeniable that we live in such a system. It is easy to see such a system in action. Women make up about 52% of the world’s (and “the west’s”) population, but are not represented in such numbers in ANY government or corporation or general economic statistic. We make, at best, $.85 to every dollar made by a man and much of what we are “allowed” to do is still controlled by the men in our lives, though the latter is changing far more rapidly than the former.
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You may be wondering what the "cis" in parenthesis up there means. Cis-gender people are those who personally identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. For instance, I was born female and identify as a female there for I am a cis-woman. I have many friends, however, who were born either male or female but identify as the other… or none at all… or differently from one day to the next. Hello, my gender-fluid peeps! It is important to make this distinction in the current Western Feminist Movement, because the push for gender equality includes these newly recognized (by some) forms of gender. And while the Feminist movement often envelopes the Gay Rights movement gender identity and sexual preference (Lesbian/Gay/Bi etc.) should not be confused or taken as synonymous because a single person could have any combination of Gender and Preference.
Now, to the meat of the matter.
All Feminists agree that Patriarchy is bad. People who do not believe that Patriarchy is bad (or deny that it exists) simply are not feminists. That is pretty simple. In this respect Feminism is absolutely unified. How Feminists express this belief, however, varies greatly. Why would it not?
People tend to have their own ideas about what is important to them, and obviously that would lead to focusing on different facets of the greater problem. In "the west" we are concerned with inequities such as pay and representation, abolishing rape-culture, and adjusting the meaning of "beauty" to be more inclusive and realistic among other things. In many other parts of the world it would be ludicrous to fight for such things. They're still working on the right to an education, or the right to vote, or the right to control their own bodies in any way at all. In the non-western world there are women who have it MUCH worse than anything we have EVER had to deal with. Point in fact: Female circumcision aka. genital mutilation. So… understandably, those women are not fighting for the same things we are, nor should they be. Perhaps they will get to that down the line… and perhaps not. Not only do they have bigger problems to focus on right now, but the things that we, here in "the west," think are important may never be important to them.
Personally, I’d like to believe that western feminists know and understand this. Unfortunately, there are those that do not and they go around telling feminists of the world (and feminists of different cultures here in “the west”) that their fights are not good/true/worthy of the term “Feminism.” Equally as unfortunate is that these people get a LOT of attention but like any extreme faction represent a tiny minority of the movement as a whole. It is the nature of media, after all, to report the unusual.
Media, like everything else in a capitalist world, is a for-profit industry. In order to make profit, it needs viewers and in order to get viewers it must report what is interesting. People, as it happens, are more interested in the unusual, outrageous and unfortunate than the commonplace and mundane. “If it bleeds, it leads,” right? What about media in non-capitalist nations? Well… usually it’s controlled by the government, so I imagine it depends on what the government wants their people to know. I believe their are a few journalists in prison in Egypt that may have some more to say on the matter… in 7-10 years.
Media is, of course, responsible for the idea that Feminists are all angry man-haters. Certainly, there are those who are but they also represent an extreme minority. In fact, the number of cis-men who call themselves feminists is growing fast. Recognizing that women have a lot of offer society and should be treated with respect as human beings does not require one to BE female, or feminine, in any way. It is perfectly possible to be a masculine, heterosexual, cis-man of any color (even white) and believe that Patriarchy is a shitty system and actively speak out against it. These men, who totally exist in large numbers, ARE feminists. And, shot in the dark here, they probably AREN’T man-haters. Most men, I would think, don’t “hate” men, much like most women likely don’t “hate” women (though there probably are some outliers in both groups).
So what’s up with this idea that women who are pro-life (or pro-fetus/baby) are anti-woman? Harkening back to the above idea that the things that are important to some feminists are not important to others, I would like to point out that one can be against Patriarchy AND abortion at the same time. The idea that some women believe that life begins earlier than some others does not mean that they’re against all other women… or that they are totally team Patriarchy. Hell, it doesn’t even mean that they are against Reproductive Rights! The only thing that being pro-life mean is that they are against abortion. Pro-life women can still fight for the right to have affordable and available birth control, and push the front on decent sexual education… and SHOULD if they really want to lessen the frequency of abortions (legal or not). For that matter, it’s possible to be pro-life and understand that making abortions illegal simply makes the abortions that are bound to happen anyway INCREDIBLY unsafe. (for fuck’s sake, do NOT watch Redemption Road if you don’t want to see how heartbreaking THAT is). Personally, I believe that women should have the CHOICE… and that it’s pretty fucked up that legislatively men have the POWER to choose for us… but that’s MY opinion.
I imagine the media blows the abortion debate out of proportion just as much as it does every other debate. The saddest thing about that is that it leads people to believe that they have to choose a side and all opinions in the spectrum in between are invalid. That simply isn’t true. Humanity as a whole exists on spectrums. The us and them mentality is constructed by those who rule over us and it is our job to shatter those conceptions. Feminists work on Patriarchy, Anarchists work on Government and Bureaucracy, Socialists work on Capitalism and many other social justice movements work on many other fronts. All seek to end oppression and inequality and all are valid. All movements hold a spectrum of beliefs about what is important and how important each facet of their movement may be. People, within and between movements, are not going to agree on how to best affect change. The thing is, that’s totally okay. Social Justice movements all agree on one thing: Things gotta change.
I’m gonna keep fighting patriarchy, capitalism and bureaucracy/government. In the process I’ll probably venture into topics of racism, ableism, ageism, queer rights, and whatever else pisses me off. I hope you all do the same.
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