Recently there has been a huge incline of feminism as a topic of debate across Youtube. A lot of people arguing that the movement is outdated and others arguing that it is the ignorance of the opposed which is preventing any real change.
One of the videos that stuck out for me was Laci Green's video "WHY I'M A... FEMINIST *gasp*". It provoked a lot of debate within the comment section over what it meant to be a feminist and whether the individual considered themselves to be one.
In her video Laci describes to her viewers why she would consider herself a feminist. She kicks off the video with an over-exaggerated example of the stigma attached to calling oneself a feminist, but she soon crushes any opposition by defining feminism as "A social movement for gender and sex equality" or "A personal commitment to understanding and achieving gender equality in everyday life" whilst the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes." This, in itself, created a lot of controversy in the comments as quite a few people picked up on the fact that Laci didn't mention that it was often spoken out from a female's point of view.
Personally, I would argue that the feminist movement has to come from a woman's point of view as the women were, and still are, the more oppressed of the two genders. When the Suffragists and the Suffragettes started their campaigns to allow women to vote they didn't take into account that the men might have a problem with their own equality because they didn't have any. Or if they did then they certainly didn't have them to the extent that women did. It is still shocking to me that less than one hundred years ago women were not allowed to vote at all. That meant the men that were oppressing them could choose to pick the Prime Ministers that would help them increase their male privilege rather than help to make the country, the world even, a more equal place for the genders to live side-by-side.
Upon scrolling through the comments I found one individual, that will remain anonymous, who put forward an interesting argument to me outlining the reasons that the term "feminism" is outdated.
They write:
"I'm saying that feminsim as a movement is no longer equipped to handle these issues. There are most certainly gender issues that need to be addressed. But the direction that the feminist movement comes at these is no longer effective. Before, the movements main objective was putting in legal measures to help women in society obtain equal footing. At the time there were very serious issues that needed to be handled, now that majority of these issues are dealt with, the movement has moved on to less important (by comparison) issues. However this movement is now old enough to have ideology, an image. It draws into it certain demand for action. All successful movements have this. However since the major issues have been handled, this intensity the movement brings has a strong counter-productive effect. You can see the results of this in the nay sayers of the movement (as in direct opposition to the movement) whose complaints are mostly along the line of "your over reacting". In part there is truth this, because the rhetoric gives that impression. This is what I mean by 'feminism' is degenerating. Because now the movement must reform itself to adapt. This of course causes the age old "hardliners vs new ideas" problem in major organizations. And the more ideological the an organization is, the more difficult that become. Feminism is directly caught in this trap and is slowly eating itself alive."
I thought this argument was very well delivered and gave me a lot to think about, but in the end I decided to disagree with what they were saying in the sense that I think even by changing the name the morals and attitudes would have to remain the same. This means that those who oppose now are still likely to oppose in the future. Another problem with changing the name from "Feminism" to something that sounds more equal is that it puts a kink in the entire argument that women are the more oppressed gender.
I believe that the movement's name reflects what it is fighting for and, although there are sub-groups which promote and conform to the stigma, the overall movement is still fighting to close the wage gap which, unfortunately, still exists. This and many more arguments such as where a lot of people stand on rape culture or being allowed to choose the way you dress and act (I'll save that for another post) all contribute to the very obvious fact, women are still under the upper hand.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my arguments, feel free to comment your own opinion on this controversial issue and ask any questions you may or may not have. I will do my best to answer them all.
Until next time,
Stephanie
Laci Green's video
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