What is feminism?

Feminism is a controversial subject today. There’s people who claims it’s a pro-female and anti-male movement and there’s so many misconceptions about the true meaning of it. There’s people who pick and choose what parts of feminism they do and don’t like and then there’s the people who use feminism to cover their sexism.


The original movement was to get women the same voting rights, and general human rights as men in the early 1900’s. Women would go on hunger strikes and put themselves in danger (ie throwing themselves in front of a horse) to get their point across - and they did, because women were granted voting rights in 1928.


But how about nine decades later  - what’s feminism nowadays?


There’s misconceptions that it’s a movement for women to become anti-male and hate on all males - and I know and have seen some women do this, particularly towards men who are cisgender or straight. But that is not feminism.


People think that it’s for women only. A movement to encourage females to speak up about being sexually assaulted but at the time not doing the same for men despite being aware that a major percentage of male sexual assaults go unreported because they don’t have the same support. That is not feminism.


It might be a woman getting angry at a male in the street for cat calling her but refusing to acknowledge the wider, scarier parts of sexism (referring back to the previous paragraph) and only bothering with the parts of the movement that make them look good. That is not feminism.


Feminism is women and men and all genders alike having the same rights and chances as each other. It’s encouraging men to speak up about sexual assault. It’s about encouraging women to go into male-dominated industries without being afraid. It’s about every gender having the same support and the same chances at life, regardless as what they identify as, regardless of what they were born as.


It’s about encouraging people and supporting people, caring for people and seeing somebody for who they are and not what they are.


It’s equality.