Feminism

This actually was a project for school.

It had to be a 15 min presentation on the topic of my choice.

Feminism first and foremost to me is protecting my sister. By this I mean all women.

I feel like the push against feminism, and our search for equal treatment, has pitted us against each one another.

Bra burning:

Most of us have probably heard about the feminist movement in the 1960’s involving bra burning. What if I told you that never happened?

What did happen was a women’s liberation movement that changed our lives socially economically and politically. But here we are still fighting for equality 50 years later.

Women were denied access to credit cards, certain jobs, mortgages, and entry to college because of their gender. Some women were even fired when they got pregnant.

Life magazine described it as “the revolution that will effect everyone”

The claim is that a miss America pageant fueled a decade of bra burning by feminists as a call to attention for their cause.

This is one of the biggest examples I can ever recall hearing, so it was interesting to find out that the facts were misrepresented.

The 1960’s was the start of a significant movement of radical feminists.

During a miss America pageant feminists staged one of what they called ‘Zap Actions’ this was designed to call attention to their cause. The need for women’s freedom.

Feminists picketed the pageant, crowning a live sheep, and throwing very typical feminine garments in the trash can. Such as girdles, high heels, and of course bras.

One headliner gabbed onto the idea of bras being discarded in trash cans and, in a time of draft card burning, decided to meld the two for a snappy headline.

For a short while it was assumed that a male writer had taken the story and purposefully misrepresented the facts to dismiss the concerns of women.

It turned out that a female writer was attempting to gain credibility for the movement as a whole. This was during the Vietnam war draft, and protesters came out in droves. By linking the feminist movement with the protest over the war the writers intentions backfired and the article did not gain traction.

Black Feminism:

Alongside this well known movement of the 60’s is the black feminist movement. There is considerable reason to separate the two.

During the time of Martin Luther King, a famous civil rights activists, thousands of people from varying backgrounds came out in support of racial equality.

While the speech was advocating for the equal treatment of all members of the human race, black women were denied direct participation in this movement.

Women were expected to, and did, pour their energy behind the scenes into the movement. This was on top of being the primary care givers in their homes. But they were afforded little to no recognition for their efforts.

When they asked about their recognition and participation out right, they were accused of side tracking from the movement.

Because women of color were such a vital force in regards to civil rights, without their involvement the movement as whole would have suffered tremendously.

For men in positions of power and spotlight to our right dismiss their concerns as trivial was an insult to their cause.

The civil rights movement was literally built on the backs of women of color.

White women were commonly know to dismiss the concerns of their fellow feminist, the ones of color, who quite often chose race issues over gender issues.

It seems as if the civil rights movement progressed and men of color were seen as more able bodied than the women of color, so they grabbed on to their chance for power.

Because black men were starting to out class white women, and black women commonly chose race issues over gender issues, white women commonly disregarded the concerns of black women and their class issues.

Black women we’re being squeezed out from both sides.

For a long time black was synonymous with black men, and woman was synonymous with white women, black women became this invisible group who’s needs were being ignored and out right dismissed.

The black men gained more power with the civil rights movement and ignored the crys for equality among the women.

Along with white women who saw the struggle for acceptance being trumped by black men so they couldn’t see how their colored sisters suffered, being left behind in either movement.

Daily acts of misogyny durring meetings of the black Congress included women being told they need to wait for the men to all be served, even though they had all paid for the food.

Wage gap:

While most of us have probably heard that women only make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, what is commonly overlooked in this issue is the fact that this only pertains to white women and white men.

Black women only make 64 cents to every dollar the white man makes.

Latina women only make 55 cents for every dollar the white man makes.

Working outside the home was one of the hallmark causes the feminist movement stood behind. But this is another issue that was only about white women, because black women never had a choice. They often worked harder raising a white families children than their own because of the indentured servitude.

Without the privileges of being white, colored feminists were being pushed into the background.

Reproductive rights:

Women are also commonly told are going against our genders nature to not have kids.

We face huge uphill battles if we would like to get our tubes tied before we have had kids. It can take up to 4 years of waiting and being dismissed by countless doctors. But if a man wants to have a vasectomy it’s not a battle at all.

woman wins 4 year battle to get tubes tied

Think about how often we are called a bitch, or a cunt. About how often we are labeled a slut for the choice of clothes we wear or for our choice to have casual sex. Often even when the sex is a one night stand through no fault of our own, we still get labeled a slut.

Young girls are often told they aren’t allowed a boyfriend until they are twenty. This is a recurring theme in many TV sitcoms and pop culture.

Abortion and birth control:

Rose vs wade was a ground breaking movement that liberated women from the oppression of never ending child rearing.

Roe was a single pregnant woman living in Texas at the time she decided to challenge the laws surrounding abortion.

At the time, in the early 1970’s, it was a crime to perform or attempt an abortion for any other reason than to save the mother’s life.

Roe’s claim to the court was that it was unconstitutional to hinder abortion.

In 2010 it was said that 64 thousand abortions were performed on Canadian women alone. Nearly 1000 of these were performed on women 19 years and younger.

66% of women, on average, who choose to terminate a pregnancy were already mother’s. The most commonly stated reason was to protect the financial stability of the family they already had at home.

Among women considered reproductive age 5% were reported to have an abortion because of rape.

It is estimated that there are 32 thousand pregnancies occur each year as a result of rape in America alone.

41% of the victims received no medical attention what so ever.

I’ve heard a lot of people claim that while they support a woman’s right to choose, it shouldn’t be used a form of birth control.

An estimated two thirds of women seeking abortions were using some form of contraceptive; 35% became pregnant while using condoms.

It is reported that the birth control hormones only work on someone of average weight. This includes pill, patch, and morning after pill. So it is easy to judge, but harder to walk a mile in their shoes.

It is estimated that one quarter of all pregnancies world wide end in abortion.

In the developed world between 2010 and 2014 it dropped from 39% to 28%.

In developing nations it increased from 21% to 24%.

The highest rate for abolitions is 6.5 percent of women in the Caribbean.

South America followed closely at 4.7%.

It is estimated that 3.6% of married women world wide have abortions compared to 27% of 15 million who were unmarried women.

Alarmingly up to 64% of abortions involve some level of coercion. This involves loss of home and, or support from others.

83% of these women said they would have carried the baby to term if they had better support from the fathers.

This is a double edged sword in my opinion. On one hand it would be nice if the other person responsible for creating the situation could step up and take responsibility. But quite often unsupportive partners partners from unplanned pregnancies end badly after only a short while before or after birth.

Husbands and boyfriends have been known to go so far as to threaten violence.

Homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women. This is a great example of how misogyny kills.

Consider for a moment what it takes to be an organ donor. You need to have been registered as such before your death or it is illegal to harvest and use your organs even to save a life.

A lot of the pro life movement revolves around the idea that life begins at conception. While this can be true in a relative sense, this does not tackle the idea of body autonomy.

Body autonomy is the idea that we need to consent to an organ in our body being used to support another human being. Such an a fetus would have to use our uterus (and much more by proxy) to support itself.

Body autonomy is the idea that we deserve at least the same rights as a corpse. That we are the only ones capable of giving consent for the use of our organs.

This also does not take into account the supplements, costs of care, along with many physical hardships it takes to carry a fetus to term.

All we are asking for is the right to choose

Male privilege:

I have had an ex partner accuse me of leading on a friend simply because he was male. This is even after I told that partner at the time I had already made myself perfectly clear at the beginning of the friendship because we met on a dating sight.

Men can travel along at night without worrying about being the target of violence.

Statistically as a man who are less likely to experience intimate partner violence, stalked, or raped.

Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of injury to women. More so than car accidents, muggings and rape combined.

55% (on average) of women who are murdered are the result of the a husband or boyfriend.

As a man, generally you can feel safe leaving your drink unattended at a bar or club.

Mansplaining:

What is mansplaining?

This is when a man explains something to a woman in a manner that comes off as patronising and condescending. Men like to act like they have expert knowledge of almost everything even if who he is talking to is an actual authority on the subject.

Rebecca Solnit is famous for coining the phrase in an essay she wrote in 2008 which later became a book, titled “When Men Explain Things to Me”

She goes on to describe a situation where she was trying to explain to a man, who had asked what books she had written, the title of one of her books. She was rudely interrupted mid sentence and asked if she had heard of a very familiar title.

She listened with patience as the man went on to describe the very book who’s title She was about to describe.

Her friend who was with her, told the man four times “that’s her book” before he finally stopped talking.

Men are easily favored when speaking and while women are judged as being too talkative even when they are speaking less.

A researcher from Australia named Dale Spencer conducted a study using audio and video recording to evaluate who actually talked more in a mixed gender university classroom.

Despite factoring in things like gender ratio and wether the instructor was deliberately trying to encouraged women’s participation. Men always spoke more in both words spoken and the length in terms of minutes.

Men literally have no idea how much they actually talk. When Spencer asked each of the students to evaluate how much each of them participated, men perceived the discussion equal when women only spoke about 15% of the time. And claimed they felt dominated when women only spoke 30% of the time.

Women on the other hand seemed capable of judging how much they had participated in the conversations.

Women are told to swear less and apologize more. Told to act more lady like and reinforce stereotypes about women acting more submissive.

Pop Culture reference:

The other day I was rewatching ice age 4 (I know…) when I heard the father of a families of mammoths say

“You’re coming home with me young lady where I can keep an eye on you”

“You know how I feel about you going to X alone”

The daughter replies, “So when exactly am I allowed to hang out with boys?”

“When I am dead... Plus 3 days. Just to make sure I am dead”

No one talks to their son this way. This is about the cultural norm that we have to shelter our daughters. The problem is no one seems to want to tell their sons how to behave. Just keep their daughters under lock and key. The flip side is how adult men talk about adult women, and quite often underage women. Lets face it, they aren’t talking about her personality.

Meanwhile the son of the sloth family is burning ants with a magnifying… Rock.

Did someone miss the memo on animal cruelty?

“You …keep away from my daughter.”

Turning to the daughter “You. You’re grounded” because she snuck out to hang out with a group of kids her own age of mixed gender.

This show just constantly reinforces the gender stereotype. The female mammoths have to have long enough hair to tie up in a bun on top of their head. They look like they are wearing eye liner and eye shadow. I am so deeply disturbed by this.

The male saber won’t wear the seashell necklace. The female saber keeps calling him a princess and soft and mocking him for joining a herd and leaving his pack.

The fact that the only person the monkey captain is picking on is a female tiger, holding her up by her throat, is fucking disturbing.

I know video game and cinema violence doesn’t equate to violence in real life, but what message are we sending to young kids that it is ok to hold a female up by her neck.

The problem here is that husbands and boyfriends are the leading cause of violence against women.

Men are not assumed to be gay and called derogatory names, like carpet muncher, for simply having a certain haircut.

Women are told we should not take up space. So much of advertising geared towards women is how to get a ‘beach body.’ *gag*

Body image:

Meanwhile men’s strong man competitions feature a lot of men that would easily be considered plus side (and then some) if judged by women’s standards. It’s seen as perfectly logical to be heavy set as a man and still be validated for your ability to perform intense physical tasks. But women who are heavy set are seem as lady over eaters, under achievers, who do nothing but waste tax payers money on health care expenses.

Women are constantly pressured to loose weight in TV and magazines, it has become so deeply ingrained in our culture that it is rarely questioned. Body autonomy also means we have the right to be comfortable in our bodies despite the mass hysteria surrounding weight loss and health culture.

While I believe in everyone’s individual choices, from everything to weight loss, the cloths we wear, make up and similar beauty regimens, as a friend once said “our choices aren’t formed in a vacuum.”

Rape culture:

World wide it is reported that 1 in 3 women experience physical or sexual violence during their life time. Most often from a male partner.

There is a chant for a Canadian university that went as follows.

Y is for your sister

O is for oh so tight

U is for underage

N is for no consent

G is for grab that was

What kind of world are we living in where this is treated as the norm and even allowed to be performed at an opening ceremony until someone complained.

It is bad enough we are constantly harassed and policed about our looks, but this chant that basically glorifies the rape (no consent) of underage girls is a step way way way out of line.

Think about when you were younger. Did you ever hear “oh he is just picking on you because he likes you.” This is a prime example of how we are disarming our daughters right from the start.

How about the existence of “keep calm and rape a lot” t-shirts. No seriously these actually existed.

How about the constant sugar coating of rape in the media.

Rape sympathizers, calling it an unfortunate mistake, a sad end to a promising career, or just plain sex.

A lot of people will tell you they are a humanitarian and advocate for equal rights for all, but until things like that college chant are history, I will always be a feminist first.