Dear Men Who Don't Fully Understand,
What's the first thing you think about when you hear the word "feminist." Get that image in your head, hold it there. Now erase it. A feminist is way more than the stereotype you have in your head. A feminist is me. I am quite the open minded, loud mouth female that men shy away from and I'm okay with that. It seems that when men hear the word feminist they go retreating back to "safety."
What's the first thing you think about when you hear the word "feminist." Get that image in your head, hold it there. Now erase it. A feminist is way more than the stereotype you have in your head. A feminist is me. I am quite the open minded, loud mouth female that men shy away from and I'm okay with that. It seems that when men hear the word feminist they go retreating back to "safety."
To the men who don't quite understand what it's all about, I am here writing this letter to you, to try and educate you on what the feminist movement is. And hopefully you can start to realize how legit this cause is and will stop degrading it with your jokes about women and your ignorance to the wage gap.
Feminism is stated as “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” It’s not about women being superior, but finally being equals with our counterparts instead of being seen as inferior.
When men make jokes that degrade women, that harms our goal. When they don’t even want to learn about this movement, that hurts our goals. It makes it seem that what the feminist movement is about is pointless or not taken seriously. Feminism is important because “a feminist recognizes the worth of females’ equivalent to that of men." When men make these jokes, it makes it seem that feminism itself is a joke and really hurts what us women are fighting for. The jokes or the ignorance gives men “the belief that treating women like animals is acceptable.” When a girl is a feminist, she knows her self-worth. When you so-called meninists, or men in general, make these “harmless jokes,” it hurts all women. But with feminism it boosts the self-esteem and it helps us realize we aren’t worthless, which those jokes tend to do. Maybe guys makes these jokes because they don’t realize the effect these jokes have, and that is what prompted me to want to write this open letter to you. So as I write this letter, I ask again, for you to watch your words because you might not realize the impact they have on others.
Another goal that the feminist movement has is shrinking the blatant wage gap that happens in the professional world. Some people don't know that there even is a wage gap, women however, are more likely to know this.
Below is a visual that clearly shows this problem.
Humor me with this; picture that you’ve gone through schooling, you’ve gotten your degree, and worked your butt off to be the best you can be. You finally land your dream job and are excited to start. Then you learn that your salary is less than your coworkers. It’s not because they are better at their job, it’s the same one you do. It’s because they happened to have a different anatomy than you. For some reason they are “better” than you because they are the gender that is supposedly superior. You could be a better, harder worker than those around you, yet they still make more. How does that make you feel? That’s what most women have to deal with. We feel inferior for no reason other than we don’t have a certain body part between our legs. So I ask again, how would you feel? And I ask you to put away all previous ideas or opinions and really think about what women have to go through.
To put it in another perspective, Shena Lohardjo said how feminism opens up opportunities. Without feminism, opportunities for women can’t rise and “when women are depreciated to less value, than they are given less opportunities and they will be placed in the belief that they do not deserve those opportunities.” Why should women be given less opportunity just because they aren't seen as the superior gender? When “meninists” or others try to degrade or joke about feminism or are ignorant towards the movement, it hurts our cause. Women just want to be given the same opportunity that men have been ascribed since birth. It’s serious for us, it might be harder for you (a male) to understand because these opportunities were given more easily to you, so haven't had to fight. It’s not your fault that that’s how society works. But it is your fault when you start to ruin our chance at evening the playing field.
I do want to go back and talk about the word feminist again. A lot of people, mostly men, are very intimidated by that word. *which might lead to the jokes, and unwillingness to understand* A very open and firm supporter of the feminist movement, is Emma Watson. Earlier this year, she talked at the UN for her HeForShe campaign. A quote she had from that speech that really resonated with me is her definition of the word “feminist.” In her speech she said how “Men think it's a woman's word and it's only for women, but really it just means you stand for equality. If you stand for equality, you are a feminist.” Feminism isn’t just for women like it’s mostly assumed. It’s for everyone. That’s why I write this letter to you. I want to inform you of the cause. I suppose ignorance is bliss, however, but being ignorant on this cause is hurting it. Feminism is not some joke, it’s a real thing. Us females just want equality, equal opportunity, not being seen as inferior. We are not any less than men. We are just like you males. And I hope that this letter can open your eyes at how serious this is and make you realize that maybe you too, are a feminist. It isn’t some scary word and we need to change the connotation associated with it. The quicker we can get support for this cause, from males and female non-supporters, the quicker we can get the equality we so strive for.
Feminism is for everyone. It is not just for women. Even some women don’t support it. And it might be because there is such a hated stigma with that word. Women are afraid of what men will think if they find out they're a “feminist.” I write this not only to you men, but to women who are not supporters. I’m writing this in hopes to gain followers in this very important movement. Feminism stands for equality and women’s rights. Hopefully this open letter will make you rethink what being a feminist is really about. Not about being better than men but just being seen and treated as their equal. Equality for everyone.
Sincerely,
Kelly Morency