Feminism! The term makes some of you to eye-roll, scare some others and intrigue few others. The irony is, half of the people who react upon it do not even know what it actually is. Social media has made the term sound so scary and cliche. All the presumptions and myths truly camouflaged the sense of feminism and led it astray.

Here are a few aspects and facts you all should know about Feminism. PS: Pay attention to the images!

1. The Definition

By definition, feminism is the theory of social, political and economic equality of sexes. It is a sociopolitical belief that says all the sexes are to be treated equally. Women shouldn’t be treated inferior to men, especially considering the traditional patriarchal beliefs. It never implied or demanded any preferential privilege for women over men. If it ever does, it is absolutely not feminism.

2. Feminists are not man-haters

This is the most common myth. Many people, especially males think that feminists hate men or that women who hate men are feminists. Both are absolutely wrong. Hating men is not their job. Supporting women to help them reach an equal plane as men is their only agenda. This is the only thing they consider. I mean, why would they? They have many males in their life: father, brother, friends, life partner. It’s more silly than not to think so.

On the other hand, there are men who have a serious problem with feminism or feminists. Just the term takes them into a negative light and the results: social media trolls and abuses. Probably, this is the reason why many are choosing not to identify themselves as feminists. The other thing. If a woman hates a man or some men, it’s her personal issue and it can no way be related to feminism.

3. Men are feminists too

Yes. You read it right. Why can’t a man be a feminist if he thinks women should be treated as fair as men. It’s apparent, right? But again, the term freaks few men. They do not find it so ‘manly’ to be related in any way to a ‘feminine’ thing. There are feminists who are men. Few recognize themselves as so, few do not. There are male celebrities, stars, and politicians who support feminist movements. These are the people who realize that supporting the right cause is not taking away their masculinity. More power to them!

4. It is concerned to men as well

There are certain non-biological, society-made standards that people/society expects men and women to portray. According to them, women should be sensitive, submissive and emotionally feeble. And men should be manly, fortified. These qualities are to be upheld by them in order to impersonate their respective genders. There are people who have a problem with women being muscular or dominant or bossy. There are people who find it unmanly for a man to cry in public or be sensitive. These are just a few, there are many such predefined things which out of nowhere are funny or inappropriate siting the gender.

Feminism says that women can be as strong as men and men can be as vulnerable or emotionally weak as women at times. It’s all okay and is up to the individual’s fixture. It basically supports the idea that gender shouldn’t be the determinative factor to one’s actions: male or female. This is the most interesting aspect of feminism.

5. Feminism and Gender equality are homophonic.

If it is about uplifting women to bring them to an equal level of men, it is gender equality, right? It is myopic and funny how people find it cool to support and promote gender equality but are averted to the idea of feminism. LOL. They are one and the same.

There are people, often women too who say that they hate feminists or feminism but are staunch believers of equality. The same people on the other side: She- “He’s a man, he should pay the bill” , He- “He does home chores for his wife. What an asshole!”. Society- ” How dare he hit his wife? he must be jailed”. The same society- “What a shame he serves her like a slave”. Equality? seriously?

6. Yes, it is misused by some women

While the actual feminist movement is striving for equality of sexes in every possible way, there are women who misuse or take advantage of it. The #metoo movement is a classic example of this. And there are many situations as well where men’s innocence or women’s power is taken advantage of. Fake rape cases, assault cases and a lot more. Few women start hating men after their relationship breakups and stuff like that and tag it to notions of feminism. There are also women who talk about natural phenomena like menstruation or perceiving children and relate them to feminism. Kudos to all these ‘feminist af’ women who do not actually know what it is!

Well, you may have a question. Why is it ‘feminism’ not ‘masculinism’ or ‘menism’? :p.  When the term came into appearance ( In Oxford English Dictionary ) in 1895 society was extremely male-dominant. Apparently, the emphasis was on ‘females’ getting equal rights as men, this is it.

Although the current scenario is not half bad. There’s a long way to go. It is high time! There is a necessity to educate people about feminism and strive for gender equality. There is a dire need for women empowerment. Together we can make it possible!

Hope you found this sane.

No offence to anyone!

Love and light <3