The "F" word

Feminism is not just a boon for women. Tearing down gender roles and patriarchal institutions benefits everyone. Think about a world where men are taught from a young age that it's alright to have emotions; where they aren't continually repressed. Or, a world where women are taught that it's awesome to have ambitions, to be successful in whatever way they can dream of, and that their voice deserves to be heard.

What is sorely lacking now is education on the current wave of feminism: the 21st-century version. There are many detractors who will say that it's been perverted from its original intentions, and still more who will claim it's no longer needed because everyone is already equal. These people are, of course, entitled to their opinions.Feminism, at its core, is a movement designed to bring equality to the current constructed stereotypes of gender in modern society. In many parts of the world, these stereotypes are centuries old, despite advances in every other social aspect. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be a woman to be a feminist! You may have noticed an increasingly pervasive discussion occurring around gender itself, but before I delve any deeper into that, I want to make clear one thing: gender and sex are not equivalent. Gender is largely a social construct that informs us on what our societal roles are, while sex refers to good ol' anatomy and biological characteristics.

Therefore, someone who was anatomically born female, chromosomes and all, does not necessarily have to subscribe to the gender roles traditionally offered them by society and vice versa. There is an entire spectrum of gender to get out there and explore, including trans and non-binary people.

The only limits to the confines of gender are the ones we have placed upon ourselves societally. These roles can potentially be harmful to men as well; impossible ideals of masculinity lead to a variety of issues for men. Mental health, in particular, can be heavily impacted.Now, back to feminism. It isn't as though we haven't come leaps and bounds ahead of where we've been in the past. It would be foolish to suggest that. However, there is still a major imbalance within most modern societies worldwide between the roles each gender is expected to play.

One glance at the comments section of any social media post will expose how far humanity has to go to close that gap. With each new generation that is being raised, our knowledge is increasing but there are those who will cling to archaic notions of what men and women "should" do.

This has been proven time and again throughout history. There have been periods and societies that revered women far more than they are today. Humanity has a tendency to go in cycles with these things.Have you heard of Boudica? I think it's safe to say she could easily be considered one of the earliest pioneers of feminism, although that may not be what she called it. Boudica was initially best known as the wife of Prasutagus, ruler of an Iceni tribe and independent ally of Rome in the first century AD.

But after his death, his will was completely ignored. It had promised his kingdom jointly to his two daughters and the Roman emperor. His kingdom was annexed, and Boudica suffered a flogging while her daughters were raped.

As for the kingdom itself, the Romans called in loans, which led to an Iceni revolt. What may surprise you though, is that it was Boudica who led the rebellion.In AD 60 or 61 (a lot of this early history is heavily contested), Boudica, with the help of her own Iceni tribe, as well as the Trinovantes and others rose up in revolt and destroyed Camulodunum (modern day Colchester).

She presented herself not as a wealthy woman bemoaning her lost riches, but as an ordinary person, avenging the loss of her freedom, her battered body, and the stolen chastity of her children.

The Romans deemed themselves ill-equipped for defense and evacuated her next target, Londinium (now London). Boudica led combined tribes of 100 000 to burn and destroy Londinium and Verulamium in their absence.So let's look at this logically for a second. As far back as the very first age in recorded history, one woman led thousands of men into battle and succeeded. Although she was eventually defeated and either committed suicide or died of illness (another ill-remembered part of history), she left 70,000-80,000 dead Romans in her wake. So the notion that women cannot lead, or don't have the mindset for battle and war is ludicrous. Boudicrous, you might say.This extends to what I talked about earlier when considering societal gender roles. At what point did it get decided who did what? And why? The answers vary from society to society and time period to time period.

For instance, modern gender reveal parties for infants usually consist of pink for girls and blue for boys. But originally, it was completely the opposite, at least in the US. Boys also traditionally wore dresses until their first haircut, usually around the age of 6.

Gender neutral clothing was a thing long before millennials were born. Check out FDR circa 1884 — flowing locks, dress and all.One problem that persists in modern society is the inequality of wages. Pipe down back there, it does exist. As recently as 2017, compiled data from Statistics Canada has proven that on average, full-time women are still only earning 74.2 cents to the dollar of full-time men.

Don't worry, the fact that men typically work more hours has also been accounted for, and the updated hourly wage average for that is 87.9 cents vs. one dollar. Consider that more women are being educated than ever before (they account for 60% of all university grads in Canada), and the number of women entering the workforce has risen 17% since the 1980s—so then, where are all the women in high-status positions?

CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, even? They exist, but in far fewer numbers.

Those who disagree with the word feminism itself will argue that it should be called egalitarianism or humanism, and should be about equal rights for everyone. Feminism, in its truest form, wants to accomplish just that. However, historically speaking, women have been systematically oppressed.

It's not about tearing men down, it's about building women up and putting everyone on a level playing field. Egalitarianism is a politically-motivated thought process; humanism a branch of philosophy and ethics; feminism? A movement. So while these ideas are related, they don't quite sum up the aims of feminism—correcting those historical wrongs, and paving the way forward without a patriarchal societal structure.

It feels, once again, as though we are on the brink of a revolution. Perhaps not in the way our predecessors attacked social institutions via bra-burnings and the like, but using what technology is now available to us. But in order for feminism to be successful in modern society, there has to be some agreement of what it even is.

Feminism represents different things to different people, and that's okay! Diversity is sorely needed. The current mainstream conversation around feminism largely consists of cisgender white women (yes, I'm aware of the irony of me saying that as I am one myself), and male public figures patting themselves on the back for not being a complete jerk to women.

The standard needs to be set higher and it should be far more inclusive. That means the entire gender spectrum, all sexual orientations, POC — every marginalized human being on this planet gets a say.

But with a population that's only increasing, and people on both sides pushing for society to regress as progress, how can that be achieved? I wish I had the answer, I'm still working on that, myself. What is important, however, is to keep this discussion open and push for policy updates along many avenues. Change won't come unless we change minds.