CN: Rape, slut-shaming and abuse are some of the topics discussed but not in great detail
feminism
ˈfɛmɪnɪz(ə)m/
noun
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
I may have mentioned it once or twice, but never really gone into much about why I’m a feminist and why it’s important to me. People often tend to see the topic as ‘taboo’ or really misinterpret what feminism is about. It is not something in which women are “man haters” or feel that the female gender is superior to the male. The female gender has been oppressed for as long as history can remember. Of course, not everyone is aware of the history and often tend to base it on “well, I don’t feel oppressed, my life is great,” or ” I treat women with respect, therefore there is equality,” which is rather closed minded. I can straight away admit that growing up in my life, it was a close-knit family and there was indeed a lot of respect for all genders. However, it’s when I began to finally socialise more, make friends out of my small, caucasian-based community that I began to really see the difference. In the last few years, I’ve made friends from pretty much every walk of life. Non-binary genders, LGBTQA+ community, different races, religions, rich, poor, famous, nobodies and you really begin to learn.
Feminism explained (in some cute bar graphs) pic.twitter.com/GK9IVab8Tf
— Feminism Matters™ (@WeNeedFeminlsm) 24 June 2016
Feminism is important to me. Feminism is important to me because there are so many consequences of being a female. Even if up in my life until I finally stepped foot out into the world I felt extremely privileged, you wake up and see reality. Feminism is important to me because when I or my female friends or family go out, we are told “to be careful” and “don’t walk alone” because there is a fear of being raped. Feminism is important to me because we as a society are teaching women to change how we dress instead of teaching men to not rape. Because approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales alone every year, meaning there’s roughly 11 rapes (of adults alone) every hour. These figures include assaults by penetration and attempts. And usually, there is very much a lot of victim blaming.
